Endourology & Laparoscopy

Overview

The Endourology Fellowship at UCSF under the joint direction of Drs. Marshall Stoller and Thomas Chi aims to train innovative, superb clinicians and researchers and provide them with the tools to pursue careers in academic urology and research. The program has trained fellows since 1989 and was accredited with the Endourological Society starting in 2018. The recruitment goal of the training program is to recruit one fellow each year committed to two years of fellowship training. If an appropriate two-year candidate is not available in the candidate pool, the option exists for a one year training program, where the fellow would spend time with primarily Dr. Stoller or Chi for their fellowship year. In the two year track, fellows’ time is divided into one year spent primarily with Dr. Stoller where there is a heavier dedication to clinical skills with 20-30% research incorporated and the other year spent primarily with Dr. Chi where there is a heavier dedication to developing advanced skills in research and grantsmanship with 20-30% clinical time. Overlap in both clinical and research activities exists between Dr. Stoller’s and Dr. Chi’s practices, providing fellows a collaborative environment for training in a dynamic team atmosphere.

Clinical Training Opportunities

Fellows’ clinical training includes exposure to all aspects of medical treatment of urinary stone disease, surgical endourologic techniques, and mastery of laparoscopic and minimally invasive surgery before completing their fellowship. Graduating fellows will be proficient in both fluoroscopic and ultrasound guided percutaneous renal access techniques from both the supine and prone positions. They also will gain proficiency in advanced ureteroscopy and holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) as well as advanced laparoscopy. Typical fellows complete at minimum 200 ureteroscopy, 180 percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), and 50 HoLEP cases in addition to 150 laparoscopy cases. While fellows have the opportunity to participate in robotic cases, robotics is not part of the core training curriculum.

Research Training Opportunities

For the research aspect of fellowship training, fellows are exposed to a broad range of basic, clinical, and translational research work. They have ample opportunity to be productive, publishing manuscripts as well as presenting their findings at national and regional scientific meetings. Their training will include mastering strategies to optimize study design and the basics of grantsmanship.

Multiple federally funded projects are currently ongoing that provide fellows with a vast array of areas on which to focus, whether it be clinical, basic, translational, or device development research. Examples include an ongoing prospective research study funded by the NIH currently establishing a high quality novel registry in urinary stone disease called ReSKU (The Registry for Stones of the Kidney and Ureter) to understand the natural history of kidney stones and their recurrence. This registry has supported clinical research projects focused on advancing our implementation of disposable ureteroscopes, ultrasound guidance for stone surgery, and novel therapeutics. In addition, an open randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial for cystinurics is currently underway. Multiple studies in the novel uses of ultrasound in urinary stone disease treatment and diagnosis are also being undertaken. Current fellows are engaged in data analysis and manuscript preparation related to all of these projects from a clinical research perspective. An active laboratory experience also exists supporting a Drosophila fruit fly model for urinary stone disease as well as innovations in papillary imaging to understand the microscopic architecture of the kidney that contributes to kidney stone formation. In addition, translational work in genomic and microbiomic analysis of kidney stone patients is underway. These projects are performed under the joint mentorship of all key faculty, including basic science as well as clinical faculty. Depending on the fellows’ own area of interest, they will be encouraged to engage in a main project as a framework in which to learn research skills. In this core area, fellows are expected to participate in designing research protocols, learning new laboratory techniques, performing experiments, and/or analyzing data in addition to preparing manuscripts and oral presentations related to their research work. The goal for graduating fellows is to build the foundation of a fundable research program to support their academic careers that they will be able to carry forward leaving fellowship. Fellows are expected to publish in peer-reviewed journals and present their work at regional, national, and international meetings.

This combined approach to fellowship training utilizing both rich clinical and research experiences will provide graduating fellows with the tools to pursue long and productive careers in endourology.
 

Application Process

The endourology and laparoscopy fellowship is open to persons who have completed a residency program in urology, will preferably be a candidate for American Board of Urology, and must be eligible to obtain a California medical license. To determine if you are eligible, please refer to the flowchart here.

Applicants will be selected through the AUA sponsored matching program. Please complete the application found on the Endourological Society website.

Email your completed EndoSociety application, cover letter, curriculum vitae, three letters of reference to:

Marshall Stoller, MD and Tom Chi, MD, MS
Endourology Fellowship Program and Associate Program Directors
c/o Katherine Jung

Please note that while UCSF accepts J1 visa and H1B transfers, it restricts the initial sponsorship of the H1B visa for full time clinical positions per the UCSF ISSO office.

Contact:

Katherine Jung
[email protected]
415.885.7748

To view past clinical/research fellows trained, click here.