Advanced GI/MIS Fellowship (non-ACGME) | Department of Surgery

About the fellowship

The Advanced GI/MIS Fellowship program has been active at Oregon Health & Science University since 1998 as a fellowship in advanced Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) and has graduated more than 40 fellows, half of whom are currently in academic practice. Our fellowship experience currently focuses on advanced GI/MIS and open surgery for complex problems in UGI and HPB surgery. Application to the fellowship is available to any candidate who has completed an ACGME-accredited general surgery residency program. Candidates completing a general surgical residency must be eligible to take the Qualifying Exam of the American Board of Surgery, and provide letters of recommendation regarding their performance and good standing in their residency program.

The Advanced GI/MIS Fellowship focuses on attainment of proficiency in all areas of UGI surgery beyond the scope of a general surgery residency, as defined by the SCORE curriculum of the American Board of Surgery (ABS). These areas include complex esophagogastric, bariatric and HPB surgery, whether performed with minimally invasive or maximally invasive (open) access, with training offered in robotic-assisted surgery. Examples of procedures emphasized include liver resection, bile duct reconstruction, pancreaticoduodenectomy, minimally invasive esophagectomy and gastrectomy for malignant and benign conditions of the stomach and esophagus as well as laparoscopic repair of complex paraesophageal hernia. Our group also has considerable expertise in multiple laparoscopic approaches for both groin and ventral hernia repair. We are also extremely fortunate to have a strong collaboration with our complex abdominal wall reconstruction surgeons. In addition, fellows have the opportunity to perform endoscopic suture repair procedures using Apollo Endosurgery's OverStitch endoscopic suturing platform.

The GI/MIS fellow is required to attend clinic according to faculty schedules and will assume primary responsibility for diagnostic work-up and treatment plans.

The GI/MIS fellow will be part of the surgical team and thus will interact with general surgery residents and medical students. The fellow will be expected to participate in teaching opportunities related to the daily care of surgical patients.

Conferences include weekly Grand Rounds, Morbidity & Mortality Conference and GI/Oncology Conference, as well as biweekly Periampullary and Pancreatic Oncology Conference. The foregut service also sponsors a bi-weekly Esophageal Care Conference and a monthly High-Risk Bariatric Conference.

Applications to the fellowship program are only accepted through The Fellowship Council website

Salary is based upon PGY level coming into the program.

There are no outside rotations or research year in this program.

Contact us

Division of General Surgery
3181 SW Sam Jackson Park
Mailcode: L223A
Portland, OR 97239

Phone: (503) 494-1502

Fax: (503) 494-8800

Email us

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Program director

Alia Qureshi

Alia Qureshi, M.Sc., M.D., is an associate professor of general surgery and a leading expert in foregut disease and its surgical management. She is the interim division head of bariatric surgery and program director for the Minimally Invasive Surgery fellowship. Dr. Qureshi received her medical degree and completed her surgical residency at the University of Toronto. She then completed a fellowship in MIS Foregut Oncology at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. Prior to joining the OHSU Department of Surgery, Dr. Qureshi was an attending surgeon at Harvard's Beth Israel Lahey hospital.

Dr. Qureshi is also an active educator and researcher, involved with resident education as well as minimally invasive surgery research. Her strong science background in molecular biology has informed her study of the fundamental biology of foregut, Barrett's esophagus and gastric cancer.

Associate program director

Erin Gilbert, M.D., Department of Surgery

Erin Gilbert, M.D., M.C.R., associate professor of surgery, is the advanced GI/MIS fellowship associate program director. Dr. Gilbert specializes in minimally invasive solid organ surgery with a particular focus on the surgical management of pancreatic disease including cancer. She is an active collaborator in the Brendan-Colson Center for Pancreatic Health and has received funding to investigate the use of Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI in both pancreatic cancer screening and the assessment of response to treatment of pancreatic cancer following systemic therapy. She is also a specialist in cytoreductive surgery and heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for the management of intraperitoneal carcinomatosis in certain types of cancer like appendiceal mucinous carcinoma or isolated colorectal cancer. Additionally, she has a strong interest in surgical outcomes research and the integration of the electronic health record seamlessly into clinical research.