Mission and Overview

The Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center (WSU/DMC) Endocrinology Fellowship Program


Mission

To provide outstanding endocrinology care to the Detroit Metropolitan patient population while training competent and ethical endocrinologists who are dedicated to community care, academic research and medical education. To provide education to fellows in all areas of clinical endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism and bone and mineral disease, so that graduate trainees will be able to provide excellent quality care in the subspecialty of endocrinology in the outpatient and inpatient clinical settings as well as passing the ABIM board examination in endocrinology.

Overview

The Endocrinology Fellowship at Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center (WSU/DMC) was established in 1987 and has been rated in the top fifty endocrinology programs in the country by U.S. News and World Reports. The two-year program provides advanced training to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and experience as defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in endocrinology. The program maintains a complement between seven to eight fellows. Our program has trained many excellent clinicians, clinician-educations and investigators in the field of endocrinology who practice throughout the United States as well as abroad, with a large number of graduates actively practicing in the state of Michigan.

We serve a unique patient population with endocrinology disorders, which often present in advanced and uncontrolled states which in part is due to an overall deficit in health literacy. We see this challenge as a unique opportunity to care for, educate and make a lasting impact on the lives of our patients. Our program aspires to providing excellent training in clinical endocrinology, diabetes and metabolic bone diseases. We aim to motivate and inspire, innovative clinical and basic research in endocrinology, diabetes and bone biology. Our goal is to prepare trainees to become academic physicians/scientists and future leaders of endocrine research, education and practice.

Program Aims

Our fellows provide outstanding, evidenced-based, compassionate management in the treatment of inpatient and outpatient endocrinology, diabetes and bone and mineral metabolism to the Detroit Metropolitan patient population. In doing so, trainees employ a shared decision-making approach with individualized treatment strategies that take into account our patient's unique social determinants of health. Trainees receive hands-on procedural training through a dedicated thyroid biopsy curriculum. Fellow education is greatly enriched through robust didactics, by inviting nationally-recognized endocrinology experts to lecture on best practices and cutting-edge research in the field and structured journal club sessions to train fellows in critical appraisal.

We aim to graduate ABIM board certified endocrinologists who exemplify the spirit of academic medicine and are committed to the growth and development of resident physicians and medical students. We seek to empower a new generation of endocrinologists who will contribute to the knowledge of the field through clinical and basic research.

Training information for main clinical sites

Our fellows enjoy a unique training experience while providing inpatient and outpatient care to a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse patient population, throughout the Detroit Metropolitan area, at several clinical sites. Our fellows rotate at five hospitals within the Detroit Medical Center main campus including, Harper University Hospital, Hutzel Women's Hospital, Detroit Receiving Hospital, DMC Heart Hospital, and Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan. DMC is a leading academically integrated system in Metropolitan Detroit and the largest healthcare provider in southeast Michigan, with more than 2,000 licensed beds and 3,000 affiliated physicians. In addition, fellows also have the opportunity to serve our nation's Veteran's while training at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center that services nearly 350,000 Veterans in Michigan. We also provide consultation services to the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, the largest cancer research and provider network in Michigan that cares for approximately 13,000 new patients annually and conducts more than 800 cancer-specific scientific investigation programs and clinical trials. Fellows gain expertise in a variety of electronic health record systems during their training, preparing them for independent practice. This diversity of pathology, patient population, clinical exposure and sites provides our fellows with a unique educational experience, while serving the needs of a mostly medically underserved and vulnerable patient population.

Detroit Receiving Hospital and University Health Center

Detroit Receiving Hospital (DRH) and University Health Center (UHC) are affiliates of the Detroit Medical Center (DMC) main campus located in central Detroit. It is an urban medical center where a diverse ethnic and socioeconomic population receives healthcare. Trainees care for patients with a wide variety of endocrinology conditions with varied presentations and management obstacles, in the inpatient setting. There are typically 3-5 new inpatient consults daily for patients with complex medical conditions.

Five full time faculty members provide teaching at both Harper-Hutzel Hospital and DRH. Dr. Lockette is a full time dedicated faculty researcher, who provides guidance and mentoring for fellows interested in endocrinology research.

Outpatient clinics, in additional to general endocrinology clinic, include a weekly thyroid biopsy clinic and rotations in thyroid cancer, pediatrics, and infertility clinics.

Harper-Hutzel Hospital and Harper Professional Building

Harper-Hutzel Hospital (HUH) is a main campus affiliate of the DMC. Fellows rotate simultaneously at HUH and DRH. Trainees provide care for wide variety of endocrinologic diseases of all ethnicities and socio-economic groups in the busy inpatient service and outpatient clinic sites.

John D. Dingell Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Detroit)

Veterans and their spouses of all ages, ethnicity and socio-economic-status, are referred from the entire Lower Peninsula with most patients originating from southeastern Michigan. A high proportion present with significant comorbidities with an extensive array of simple and complex endocrinologic diseases. Every clinical encounter by a fellow is reviewed with faculty and afforded appropriate guidance.

Locations:
Clinic phone: 877-929-6342;  Fax for patients/ pharmacies/ physcians: 833-645-0117

The Division of Endocrinology academic offices are housed in the heart of the Detroit Medical Center (DMC) at Detroit Receiving Hospital (DRH), in the University Health Center (UHC) -  4201 St. Antoine, Suite 4H, Detroit, MI 48201. Outpatient clinics are Monday through Friday from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. Consultation and support is provided to inpatients and outpatients upon a request from their referring physician.

Research laboratories for the faculty of the Division of Endocrinology are housed at Scott Hall, and other facilities of Wayne State University School of Medicine.