To Improve the Lives of People with Functional GI Disorders

Rome Foundation International Program for Visiting Professorships and Lectureships

Education Program » Visiting Professorships and Lectureships


The Rome Foundation is seeking to enhance educational exposure in the area of Functional GI and Motility Disorders to clinicians and trainees.


Addressing Critical Needs in Functional GI and Motility Disorders (FGIDs)

  • Over the last 10-15 years, the FGIDs have become a major research area within Gastroenterology due to technological advances and growing knowledge related to mucosal immune dysfunction, bacterial flora, brain-gut interactions and newer treatments.
  • The FGIDs are the most common GI disorders seen by gastroenterologists and primary care physicians, yet medical school curricula and post graduate training are unable to keep up with advancing knowledge in their diagnosis and treatment.
  • Educators possessing the knowledge needed to teach the research and clinical care are limited to a small number of clinical experts who are concentrated at major medical centers
  • The numbers of visiting professorships are diminishing due to increasingly rigorous guidelines that limit industry from supporting such activities. As a result current educational programs may be restricted to local or regional speakers who may not be as up to date on newer content areas.

Rationale

  • As an academic organization that develops educational materials (e.g., Rome III book, slide sets, research questionnaires, video training, workshops) for the FGIDs, the Rome Foundation is in an ideal position to take responsibility for programs to teach clinicians and trainees.
  • The members of the Rome Foundation are selected for their expert knowledge and are the key opinion leaders in research and clinical care of the FGIDs.
  • Because the Rome Foundation members develop the research agenda and the clinical guidelines for these disorders, they are highly capable of developing a curriculum for learners that include the most up to date knowledge as well as current and soon to be developed recommendations for patient care.
  • As an international non-profit academic organization with high credibility in the field, Rome Foundation sponsored visiting professorships will fill the gap in knowledge of functional GI disorders in the academic and practice community.
  • The proposed multi-sponsored programs will not be subject to the restrictions on content imposed upon promotional talks. As such, these programs will provide a true state of the art update by the world's leading experts on FGIDs.
  • Due to its international structure, the Rome Foundation will provide visiting professorships and other educational programs on a global level.

Proposal

We will develop a series of visiting professorships and lectures following two models

  1. THE ROME FOUNDATION VISITING PROFESSORSHIP
    Top tier investigators and clinicians within the Foundation will visit an academic medical center for a period of 1-3 days to provide a variety of activities: a) Medical and/or Gastroenterology Grand Rounds, b) Clinical case conferences with trainees, c) Individual advisory meetings with young aspiring faculty and trainees seeking to develop a career in the FGIDs, d) Workshops or other more intense training programs in their area of expertise if requested. The Foundation would advertise and then solicit applications from medical centers. We will then identify the best speaker that will meet their specific educational needs.
  2. THE ROME FOUNDATION VISITING LECTURESHIP
    This will usually be a one day visit either to an academic program or large clinical practice program, gut club or community oriented educational venue. The speaker might give a grand rounds to an academic program, a round table or lecture to a community educational venue or gut club. It may be possible to link presentations (e.g. a GI grand rounds in daytime and community gut club in evening) over a 24 hour period.

Following the grant review process, a Rome Foundation Project Manager will notify all applying organizations of their final status.


Awarded Institutions will work with the Project Manager who will:

  • Coordinate the dates for the speakers and visiting professors
  • Communicate with the departmental or GI division administrator regarding their agenda items for the presentations
  • Disburse funds to the awarded institution for the grant


The Awarded Institution will be responsible to:

  • Coordinate travel and pickup arrangements as well as housing and meals
  • Take care of on-site expenses
  • Provide honoraria and reimbursements to the speakers
  • Report back to Rome Foundation and Focus Medical Education giving feedback and recommendations (feedback form)
  • Provide budget reconciliation at conclusion of grant
  • Acknowledge Rome Foundation as the sole sponsor for the Professorship or Lectureship.

The awarded institution may not have any other sponsors for these events and are prohibited to have pharmaceutical booths or exhibits during the event.


To Apply:

To submit an application for a Visiting Professor at your institution, please complete the Application.