Fellow (medicine)

A fellowship is the period of medical training in the United States and Canada that a physician or dentist may undertake after completing a specialty training program (residency). During this time (usually more than one year), the physician is known as a fellow. Fellows are capable of acting as attending physician or consultant physician in the generalist field in which they were trained, such as internal medicine or pediatrics. After completing a fellowship in the relevant sub-specialty, the physician is permitted to practice without direct supervision by other physicians in that sub-specialty, such as cardiology or oncology.

In the USA, the majority of fellowships are accredited by the ACGME Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. There are a few programs that are not accredited as well, and are actually well received given that it is more important to be board certified for the primary specialty as a physician, and fellowship quality is often more based on research productivity.

The following are organized based on specialty required for the fellowship.

Over recent years, there has been an increasing number of integrated programs, allowing for faster completion of long residencies (eg thoracic surgery integrated lasts 6 years instead of the 8 it would otherwise take).

There are a number of programs offering a combined fellowship, training in two or more sub-specialties as part of a single program.

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