Training & Education

There are two different clinical rotations that each fellow undergoes several times throughout the course of the fellowship: REI Clinic at the Los Angeles General Medical Center and the IVF Program at USC-HRC Fertility (the private office of the reproductive endocrine faculty). Approximately 50% of the fellowship is spent doing research, with the whole of the second year dedicated to protected research time and an additional 6 months allocated to research/elective. During the latter rotations, fellows complete research projects and participate on a part-time basis in Medical Endocrinology, Pediatric Endocrinology, and Embryology. Each year is divided into 4 blocks, each of which is about 3 months long. The program is designed so that the fellows spend 50% of the fellowship on clinical rotations and 50% on research:

• Protected Research: 12 months (4 blocks)
• Research/Elective: 6 months (2 blocks)
• REI Clinic at the Los Angeles General Medical Center: 6-9 months (2-3 blocks)
• IVF Program: 9-12 months (3-4 blocks)
• We expect to increase the fellowship complement to a total of 6, with 2 fellows in each year. When this occurs, the clinical experience will be 6 months in the REI clinic at Los Angeles General Medical Center and 12 months on IVF.

The REI clinic at Los Angeles General Medical Center is the referral clinic for multiple outpatient clinics within the network of the Los Angeles County Clinics, and therefore complicated endocrine patients as well as infertility patients are seen and evaluated here. The REI fellow is the primary surgeon for all infertility-related surgeries, with faculty supervision and mentorship. The service has a dedicated OR day per week. Since there is no IVF available to patients at the clinics in the county system, fertility treatment consists of workup, ovulation induction, and IUI.

The 2nd year of the fellowship is devoted to protected research time. The fellow is assigned to one of the research labs (e.g., the Stem Cell institute, USC-HRC Reproductive Sciences Laboratory, etc.), which focus on translational and basic science research. Fellows are also able to work on clinical projects. The fellow completes the IRB process, executes the study, analyzes the data and submits the abstract to one of the national meetings.

The 3rd year of the fellowship is spent either rotating at USC Fertility for their ART rotation or on a research rotation. The clinical experience focuses on advanced infertility treatments and ART, in addition to solidifying the basic concepts of reproductive endocrinology and infertility. The fellows participate by performing many of the monitoring ultrasounds and other diagnostic evaluations, and by assisting with oocyte retrievals and embryo transfer procedures. During the ART rotation, fellows have time in the afternoon most days to continue to work on research projects. On their research rotation in the second half of the fellowship, their focus turns towards analysis of data, preparation of manuscripts for publication and completing requirements for their thesis.