Fellowship Information

Thank you for your interest in Vanderbilt’s Abdominal Transplant Surgery Fellowship! Below you will find more information about our program.

• History
• Fellowship Goals & Structure
• Clinical Responsibilities
• Education
• Research
• Life in Nashville

History

The first transplant was done at Vanderbilt in 1962 and almost 10,000 liver and kidney transplants have been performed here since. The fellowship was established in 2019 and continues to build on the successful legacy of the transplant programs. Vanderbilt has trained over 15 transplant fellowship-bound residents over the last 25 years, among whom number department chairs, a UNOS President, and program directors.  

Fellowship Goals & Structure

The Vanderbilt ASTS Abdominal Transplant Fellowship aims to provide the highest caliber of clinical education so that graduating fellows are competitive for any post-fellowship faculty position they desire. Our fellows are exposed to a wide breadth and depth of pathophysiology in preparation for independent practice after fellowship. More information about fellowship goals can be found here: Fellowship Goals PDF

One fellow is accepted each year for a two-year position. The two-year program will be equally divided between the kidney and liver services, with an option for additional special electives based on career desires. The fellow will also participate in deceased donor procurements for one week per month, with the goal to be independent in procurements by the end of the first year.

Clinical Responsibilities

Vanderbilt is a high-volume transplant center and our fellows easily exceed the ASTS minimum case requirements.

The kidney/pancreas and liver/hepatobiliary inpatient services are separate at Vanderbilt, and one fellow will be assigned to a service at any given time. The fellow is expected to manage the inpatient service (with faculty support), participate in elective cases and transplants, and attend outpatient clinic. Faculty are committed to graduated operative autonomy with the goal of independence by graduation. Our transplant teams are supported by advanced practice providers for both liver (outpatient) and kidney (inpatient & outpatient) groups.

The fellow is expected to supplement the education of general surgery residents and medical students both in and out of the operating room. General surgery residents rotate through the transplant services during PGY1 through PGY4 years. The fellow’s teaching and guidance is integral for residents’ learning and success on the transplant services. 

In addition to standard liver and kidney transplants, clinical training will include the following areas:

• Complex deceased donor kidney transplantation (re-operative exposures, intra-peritoneal implants, complex donor anatomy/reconstruction)
• Living donor kidney transplantation
• Living donor nephrectomies (laparoscopic and robotic)
• Complex deceased donor liver transplantation (re-operative exposures, intra-operative veno-venous bypass, complex vascular reconstructions)
• Living donor liver transplantation
• Living donor hepatectomies
• Pancreas transplantation (simultaneous pancreas-kidney and pancreas-after-kidney)
• Pediatric liver and kidney transplantation
• Dual organ transplantation (heart-liver, heart-kidney, liver-kidney, lung-kidney)
• Deceased donor organ procurements (including DCD liver and kidneys)
• Elective hepatobiliary surgery (hepatectomies, bile duct reconstructions)
• Vascular access creation and revision (peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis access)
• General surgery in cirrhotic patients
• Outpatient pre-transplant evaluations and post-transplant care

Education

The fellow participates in formal didactic training through the ASTS online curriculum. The fellow has free access to numerous transplant, hepatobiliary, and vascular textbooks through the Vanderbilt library. In addition, the fellow has access to all educational resources through the Office of Graduate Medical Education at VUMC. The fellow will be expected to prepare presentations (patient-based, journal club, research) occasionally during fellowship.

There are several weekly scheduled educational conferences the fellows participate in:

• Organ-specific transplant selection committee
• Department of Surgery morbidity, mortality, and improvement conference
• Surgical grand rounds
• Transplant resident teaching conference (Organized by the transplant fellows. Sessions incorporate ASTS transplant modules with a transplant faculty member to moderate and answer questions.)