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Established in 1999, the UNC Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease includes eight adult GI and five pediatric GI faculty specializing in IBD, three colorectal surgeons, a nutritionist and a psychologist, making it among the largest and most highly regarded IBD programs in the nation. We perform cutting-edge basic, translational, and clinical research, and provide state-of-the-art, multi-disciplinary care.

UNC has had a long-standing advanced IBD fellowship program with years of successful placement of fellows as faculty at academic institutions upon completion of the program. Our graduates are prepared to be “IBD-ologists” right out of training, including strong research productivity, obtaining grant funding, and helping to lead clinical IBD centers.

The curriculum includes a diverse array of clinical experiences including inpatient and outpatient management of IBD, surgical management, pediatric to adult transitioning and nutrition. UNC is the largest multidisciplinary IBD center in the southeast and has an extensive referral base, seeing well over 2000 IBD patients per year. There are opportunities to personalize the curriculum based on a fellow’s individual interests including: 1) a clinical research focus with ample opportunities and resources to complete clinical research projects, 2) experience with industry and investigator-initiated clinical trials and 3) advanced IBD clinical care including endoscopic procedures specific to IBD and a GI/surgery lead pouch clinic. Fellows can expect to gain experience in:

  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease outpatient clinic
  • Inpatient IBD consultation service
  • Pouch clinic
  • GI/IBD surgery clinic
  • GI procedures: IBD blocked time (including chromoendoscopy, stricture dilations, pouchoscopy)
  • Pediatric IBD transition clinic
  • GI radiology review
  • GI pathology review
  • IBD clinical research project
  • IBD clinical trials instruction

In addition to core IBD clinical experiences, IBD fellows have close contact with IBD faculty.  This includes ~weekly 1:1 teaching sessions, and an IBD mentorship team to build the fellows research, clinical and professional skills. Fellows are supported to attend national IBD and gastroenterology conferences. Interested fellows have the opportunity to engage in substantial clinical research under supervision of leading researchers. Past fellows have successfully conducted and published pilot research in preparation for obtaining independent grants & career development awards.

Requirements for eligibility include completion of a 3-year general GI fellowship prior to the start of IBD fellowship and board eligibility.

For further information regarding the program, application process or eligibility, please contact Animesh Jain, MD, Advanced IBD Fellowship Program Director, or Jarrett Grimm-Vavlitis, Education Program Manager. Please note that at this time, due to restricted funding, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship. Applicants must demonstrate US citizenship or the equivalent (naturalized citizen, employment authorization document [EAD], green card). Applications are taken on a rolling basis.