Division of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery

Training & Education

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Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery (FPMRS) Fellowship

The FPMRS Fellowship is an ACGME-accredited sub-specialty training program in collaboration with USC’s Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Colorectal Surgery. Throughout the program, fellows spend time in the operating rooms, clinics, and urodynamics and manometry labs located across Keck Hospital of USC, Norris Hospital, Los Angeles General Medical Center, and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. They work directly with full-time faculty on both the private and county hospital services, as well as with residents and interns. They also spend twelve months performing clinical and/or basic science research that culminates with the completion and defense of a thesis. Seven faculty members are involved in mentoring and training fellows. The faculty have wide expertise in female and male voiding dysfunction, female urology, neurourology, lower urinary tract reconstruction, urodynamics, and defecatory and anorectal disorders.

Candidates applying for a fellowship position should have completed an ACGME-accredited residency program in Obstetrics & Gynecology or Urology and be eligible for licensure in California. A three-year commitment for gynecologists and a two-year commitment for urologists is required.

Additional Tips for Applicants:

  • Apply in penultimate year of residency through ERAS (December cycle).
  • ACGME Program Number: 4860548003
  • We require 3 recommendation letters; include one from your residency director or department chairperson.
  • Please submit all application materials by/before January 10th.

Fellowship Director

Larissa V. Rodriguez, MD

Associate Program Director

Tanaz Ferzandi, MD, MBA, MA

Coordinator

Ani Karapetyan

(323) 865-3589

Educational and Research Objectives

The FPMRS Fellowship provides advanced training in the diagnosis and medical and surgical treatment of voiding dysfunction and other pelvic floor conditions. Through the breadth of clinical and surgical cases, as well as through the work performed in their research rotations, fellows learn to become independent physician-scholars. They receive in-depth experience sufficient for the pursuit of an academic career and become equipped to lay the groundwork for new discoveries in FPMRS.

Our educational objectives align with the ACGME core competencies

  1. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement—Providing high standards of education and training related to FPMRS.
  2. Patient Care and Procedural Skills & Interpersonal and Communications Skills—Encouraging the development of academicians as well as clinicians in this subspecialty who are able to provide consultation and comprehensive management of women’s care with complete benign pelvic conditions, lower urinary tract disorders and pelvic floor dysfunction.
  3. Medical Knowledge—Providing basic science and clinical knowledge regarding female pelvic disorders.
  4. Systems-based Practice—Obtaining the understanding of the basic role of a physician in a healthcare organization by improving the organization, distribution, and cost-effectiveness of patient care.
  5. Professionalism—Establishing collaboration between urologists, gynecologists, colorectal surgeons, and other healthcare specialists, including cross-dissemination of clinical experience, research, and teaching.

The research component aims are

  1. Providing basic science and clinical and translational knowledge and understanding regarding female pelvic disorders.
  2. Understanding the research agendas of national and international organizations as they relate to issues of women’s health and pelvic disorders (NIH and its institutes, AUGS, AUA, ABOG, ICS, IUGA, SUFU, etc.).
  3. Learning how to develop a hypothesis.
  4. Learning how to distinguish the types, strengths and benefits of different study designs and how to choose the appropriate design to address a particular hypothesis.
  5. Understanding the basics of statistical analysis and how they apply to particular data sets.
  6. Learning how to determine power calculations and select study populations.
  7. To understand the basics of research and how in vitro and animal studies help us develop and test hypotheses that cannot be adequately tested in patient populations.
  8. Understanding the basics of laboratory management of resources and personnel.
  9. Understanding and critiquing published research studies.
  10. Understanding the basics of grant writing and funding.

Faculty

Kyle Cologne, MD
Assistant Professor of Colorectal Surgery, Division of Colorectal Surgery

Christina Dancz, MD
Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics
Gynecology; Director, Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program

David Ginsberg, MD
Associate Professor of Clinical Urology
Chief of Urology, Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center

Evgeniy Kreydin, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Urology

Tanaz Ferzandi, MD, MBA, MA
Associate Fellowship Director, FPMRS
Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology
Director, Urogynecology and Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery

 Aldene Zeno, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology

Rong Zhang, PhD
Assistant Professor of Research
Director of FPMRS Research Laboratory

Dr. Unwanaobong Nseyo, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Urology

Evgeniy Kreydin, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical of Urology

Christine Hsieh, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery-Colorectal

Sonia Taneja, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine-GI

Edy Soffer, MD
Professor of Clinical Medicine-GI