fellowship (medicine) fellowship (medicine) a fellowship is the period of medical training, in the united states and canada, that a physician, dentist, or veterinarian 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 an attending physician or a consultant physician in the specialist 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. united states in the us, the majority of fellowships are accredited by the accreditation council for graduate medical education ("acgme"). there are a few programs that are not accredited, yet are actually well received, given the importance of being a board certified physician in a primary specialty, where a fellowship is often more based on research productivity. acgme fellowships the following are organized based on specialty required for the fellowship. internal medicine or pediatrics adolescent medicine allergy/immunology cardiology child abuse (pediatrics only) critical care medicine emergency medicine endocrinology gastroenterology hematology infectious diseases neonatology (pediatrics only) nephrology oncology pulmonology rheumatology general surgery complex general surgical oncology hand surgery pediatric surgery trauma, burns, and surgical critical care vascular surgery colon and rectal surgery thoracic surgery hospice and palliative medicine plastic and reconstructive surgery non-acgme accredited fellowships: abdominal transplant surgery hepatopancreatobiliary surgery advanced gastrointestinal, minimally invasive, foregut, and bariatric surgery breast surgery endocrine surgery neurology vascular neurology endovascular surgical neuroradiology (interventional neurology, or neurointerventional radiology ) neurocritical care clinical neurophysiology neuroimmunology neuro-oncology neuro-ophthalmology geriatric neurology headache medicine sleep medicine epilepsy neurohospitalist neurorehabilitation sports neurology obgyn gynecologic oncology maternal fetal medicine female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery reproductive endocrinology minimally invasive gynecologic surgery1 pediatric and adolescent gynecology1 1 not officially recognized as a subspecialty by the american board of obstetrics/gynecology or the american college of obstetrics/gynecologists. ophthalmology cornea glaucoma medical retina neuro-ophthalmology oculoplastic and reconstructive surgery oncology pathology pediatric refractive uveitis vitreoretinal surgery psychiatry addiction medicine addiction psychiatry brain injury medicine child and adolescent psychiatry consultation-liaison psychiatry forensic psychiatry geriatric psychiatry headache medicine hospice and palliative medicine sleep medicine urology pediatric female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery urologic oncology endourology orthopaedic hand sports medicine pediatrics spine foot and ankle joint replacement trauma oncology other female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery hematopathology cytopathology traumatologist clinical informatics (multiple specialties) geriatrics hospice and palliative medicine interventional radiology sleep medicine (multiple specialties) sports medicine (multiple specialties) transplant hepatology requirements in general, acgme accredited programs require completion of acgme-accredited, rcpsc-accredited or cfpc- accredited residency program, however, exceptions for an acgme-international- accredited residency programs and non-acgme-accredited residency programs are possible. international medical graduates must be ecfmg certified. some fellowship specialties require participation in special matching programs like specialties matching service® (sms®) or sf match. combined fellowships there are a number of programs offering a combined fellowship, training in two or more sub-specialties as part of a single program. pulmonary/critical care: this type of program is more common than pulmonary disease (non-combination) programs. as of 2007, there were 130 acgme-accredited combined pulmonary/critical care programs while only 25 programs for pulmonary disease alone. hematology/oncology: as of 2005, there were 125 acgme-accredited programs for hematology-oncology, while only 12 programs for hematology alone and 18 for oncology alone. geriatrics/oncology: the american board of internal medicine approved a 3-year combined fellowship training program in medical oncology and geriatrics. the john a. hartford foundation initially funded 10 institutions for this type of training.