The Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at UAB offers a one-year intensive clinical Transplant Hepatology fellowship training program, providing outstanding clinical training preparing physicians for a career in academic medicine and/or clinical practice.

Fellowship Experience

Our program is home to Alabama's only liver transplant program, which has performed over 3,000 procedures since its inception in 1983, distinguishing itself as one of the nation's most experienced programs with outcomes consistently ranking among the best in the United States.

Our program provides superior gastroenterology and hepatology training in a collaborative environment. We have specialty clinics across our medical campus, which is anchored by our 1,200 bed inpatient center UAB Hospital—the eighth largest public hospital in the nation. The hospital is in close proximity to the Birmingham VA Medical Center, UAB Hospital Highlands campus, The Kirklin Clinic, and Children's Hospital of Alabama where fellows also train.

People come from all over the state to take advantage of our life-changing care, offering a complex patient population and breadth of clinical learning opportunities. We approach medicine in a multi-disciplinary modality across a broad variety of diverse gastroenterology and hepatology-related conditions from pancreatitis to Crohn's disease and irritable bowel disease (IBD) to hepatic encephalopathy and liver disease, through mandatory and elective rotations. We accept applications through the Electronic Residency Application Service.

Clinical Rotations

The fellowship is offered electives in various subspecialty clinics to enhance their clinical exposure, including dedicated time with pathology, interventional radiology, transplant surgery, medical and radiation oncology, and transplant infectious disease faculty. The curriculum integrates multiple subspecialty clinics that can be tailored to the fellow's interests and career aspirations. This structured approach, working closely with faculty from different subspecialties, builds a solid foundation and confidence in managing patients across the inpatient Hepatology ward, consult service, and Transplant Surgery service.

On the outpatient side, the fellow will have an independent clinic in addition to seeing patients in the viral hepatitis (ABC) clinic, MASLD clinic, autoimmune clinic, liver tumor clinic, cirrhosis clinic, post-operative transplant hepatology clinic, and transplant surgery clinic.

Teaching Conferences

Our training program is designed to provide our fellows with significant opportunities for teaching. Fellows are expected to teach our medical students and residents. Multidisciplinary conferences include the Tumor Conference, Liver Pathology Conference, Liver Transplant Selection Conference, Portal Hypertension Conference, and Radiology Conference, in addition to weekly didactic sessions focused on transplant topics. The fellow will also attend the annual Liver Meeting.

Research Training

Research is also an essential part of our training program. The fellows meet with research mentors in the first month of training to identify a research mentor and participate in a research project based on interest. Research may be a clinical or transitional project depending on interest.  Fellows are expected to participate in Quality Improvement or Research projects during their one-year training. Quality Improvement is an opportunity for the fellow to help improve patient care in various transplant hepatology-related areas. Presentation of their research findings at regional or national scientific meetings is strongly encouraged.

The Transplant Hepatology Fellowship is an ACGME-accredited fellowship training program designed to comply with ACGME requirements and to provide training that meets ABIM requirements for Board Eligibility for certification in Transplant Hepatology.

This program is designed to prepare physicians in the evaluation and treatment of general hepatology conditions and pre- and post-liver transplant patients. This one-year intensive clinical program is available to current third-year fellows enrolled in the GI/Hepatology Fellowship Program at UAB, and is also available through the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) Match to Board Eligible Gastroenterology physicians who have completed an ACGME-accredited GI/Hepatology Fellowship program at UAB or another institution (PGY-7).

Requirements

• Completion of an ACGME-accredited residency: Internal Medicine residency and Gastroenterology fellowship programs

• Board Eligible or Board Certified in completed specialty

• U.S. citizenship or permanent residency/green card or H1B visa (the program can sponsor H1B visa)

• Alabama State medical license, which must be obtained in advance of the start date of the Transplant Hepatology Fellowship

Fellowship Application

Applications must be submitted through the AASLD website along with a list of required application materials.

Frequently Asked Questions