Goal
To enhance the student's knowledge of gastrointestinal pathophysiology and hepatic pathophysiology and ability to diagnose and treat common gastroenterological disorders.

Objectives
To enable the student to provide to colleagues an understanding of:

1. The causes of gastrointestinal bleeding, the differential diagnosis of upper and lower GI bleeding, and a related treatment plan.
2. The causes of obstructive jaundice, the differential diagnosis, and a related treatment plan.
3. The causes of hepatitis, the differential diagnosis, and a related treatment plan.
4. The causes of odynophagia, the differential diagnosis, and a related treatment plan.
5. To enable the student to recognize common endoscopic findings such as esophagitis, esophageal varices, gastric and duodenal ulcers, and colitis.

Length: 4 weeks
Credits: 1

Students will be assigned to a service and be supervised by attending staff members and their house staff. Clerks will be exposed to all gastroenterological procedures. The clerkship emphasizes the pathophysiology of acid-peptic disorders, viral hepatitis, chronic active hepatitis, biliary disease, and hepatic transplantation and focuses on the application to commonly encountered clinical problems.

Clerks will be encouraged to concentrate on the organization and extraction of clinically-relevant information by looking up patients and reading about their problems. Clerks are expected to attend conferences, make rounds with the staff, and attend the GI outpatient clinic at the VA Lakeside hospital. Students will be assigned to see new consultations and are expected to obtain a complete history, perform a physical examination, and formulate an impression with a working diagnosis and a complete differential.

External Applicant Requirements

1. A completed externship application form, which may be obtained from Feinberg School of Medicine Student Affairs Office, Morton 1-673, 303 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago IL, 60611-3008, telephone (312) 503-4070.
2. A medical school transcript.
3. A curriculum vitae (resume).
4. One letter of recommendation from someone with whom the applicant has worked clinically.