Urogynecology & Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery (URPS) Fellowship

The fellow is appointed as a PGY trainee and will have appropriate responsibilities to help staff cases at Keck Hospital of USC, Los Angeles General Medical Center and Rancho Los Amigos. The fellow is also expected to contribute academically through participation in teaching rounds and through involvement in a variety of clinical research projects that are available.

Candidates for this fellowship should be eligible for licensure in California and should have completed a minimum of 2 years in an ACGME accredited training program.

Tips for Applicants:

  • Candidates apply in their penultimate year of residency through ERAS (December cycle)
  • ACGME Program Number: 4860548003
  • We require 3 letters of recommendation, and one must come from your residency Program Director or Chair
  • Complete applications should be submitted by March 31st of the current interview season.

Research Educational Objectives of the URPS Program

The overall educational goal of the USC Urogynecology & Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery (URPS) program at the University of Southern California (USC) Medical Center is to improve the health care of women. As stated in the program’s objectives, we aim at improving the recruitment of qualified physicians to this subspecialty and developing academicians ready to lead the future direction of URPS as a specialty and help discover new diagnostic, preventive and treatment strategies to better serve and improve the overall health care of women with pelvic floor disorders. As part of that overarching goal, we aim at training clinical and translational scientists who will, after completion of this fellowship, equipped to lay the ground to new discoveries. As such, the fellows will be required to complete 12 months of research training and complete a research thesis. The thesis will be evaluated and graded by a group of investigators as previously described. Thus the objectives of the research year include:

  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. Learn how to develop a hypothesis;
  4. Learn how to distinguished the types, strengths and benefits of different study designs and how to choose the appropriate design to address a particular hypothesis;
  5. Understand the basic statistical analysis and how they apply to particular data sets;
  6. To learn how to determine power calculations and select study populations;
  7. To understand the basics of basic research and how in vitro and animal studies help us develop and tests hypotheses that cannot be adequately tested in patient populations;
  8. To understand the basics of laboratory management of resources and personnel, i) to critically understand published research studies;
  9. To understand the basics of grant writing and funding.

Faculty

As a Urogynecology & Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery Fellow, you will have the opportunity to choose a mentor from the following URPS faculty that best fits your research interests. Research interests cover a wide range of female pelvic clinical problems.

David Ginsberg, MD

Professor of Clinical Urology
Program Director, Urogynecology & Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery Fellowship Program
Director, Neuro-urology and Female Urology, USC, Keck School of Medicine
Chief of Urology, Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center

Tanaz Ferzandi, MD, MBA, MA

Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Associate Program Director, Urogynecology & Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery Fellowship Program
Director, Division of Urogynecology

Kyle Cologne, MD

Associate Professor of Colorectal Surgery
Division of Colorectal Surgery

Christina Dancz, MD

Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology
Director, Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program

Elodi Dielubanza, MD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Urology

Mitchell Goldenberg, MD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Urology

Christine Hsieh, MD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery-Colorectal

Eileen Johnson, PT, DPT, WCS

Assistant Professor of Clinical Physical Therapy

Evgeniy Kreydin, MD

Assistant Professor of Clinical of Urology

Sonia Taneja, MD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine-GI

Contact

Program Director

David A. Ginsberg, MD

Associate Program Director

Tanaz R. Ferzandi, MD, MBA, MA

Fellowship Coordinator

Alissa Diaz, MEd