Rome Foundation Fellowship in
Functional GI and Motility Disorders

Background: Functional gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome and gastrointestinal motility disorders such as chronic constipation affect 15-25% of U.S. adults and account for at least 25% of consultations to adult and pediatric gastroenterologists. There is a large unmet need for training in functional GI and motility disorders. The Rome Foundation proposes to address this large unmet need by providing three fellowships each year for clinical and research training in Functional GI and Motility Disorders.

Goals: The overall goal is to encourage physicians in gastroenterology fellowship training to make commitments to careers in research and clinical teaching in this area.

Mechanism: The fellowship program will be administered by the Rome Foundation. Fellowships will include salary support for 75% protected time for one year with a maximum of $75,000 salary support including indirect costs (social security, health insurance, malpractice insurance, and $2,000 per year allocated for attendance at Digestive Disease Week and one other conference - either Neurogastroenterology or ACG).

Eligibility: Applications were accepted from individuals who were already accepted into a clinical fellowship training program. Acceptable areas for research training and research proposals are limited to clinical and translational research using human subjects or human tissue, epidemiological research, or outcomes research that addresses functional gastrointestinal or motility disorders.


The 2009 Rome Foundation Fellows are: Aldona Dlugosz, MD
Punit Jhaveri, MD
Emidio Scarpellini, MD


Aldona Dlugosz, MD

Postgraduate Fellow
Centre for Medical and Surgical Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Karolinska University Hospital
Huddinge, Sweden



Dr. Dlugosz graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Pomeranian Medical Academy (PAM), Szczecin, Poland in 1987. She began working in the Department Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine PAM in 1988 and was qualified as Specialist in Internal Medicine 1997 and in Gastroenterology in 2004. In 1997, she defended her MD thesis "Immunocytochemical Evaluation of Gastric Mucosal Cathepsin D in Peptic Ulcer". In 2001, Dr. Dlugosz moved to Sweden and started to work at the Centre for Medical and Surgical Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm. In 2006 she joined the Motility Team and started postgraduate training/PhD program in gastrointestinal motility.



Punit Jhaveri, MD

Fellow, Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition
Johns Hopkins Children's Center
Baltimore, MD, USA




Dr. Jhaveri first became interested in functional disorders while working with Dr. Darbari at the Johns Hopkins and Kennedy Krieger Institute pediatric GI Motility Center. As a first year postdoctoral fellow, Punit attended the ANMS meeting in Atlanta, which further solidified his interest in the field of dysmotility. As a second year, Punit was awarded the NASPGHAN travel grant to attend the Gut Microbiome course. Thereafter, he was awarded the ANMS Visiting Scholar Grant, where he completed his rotation at the Nationwide Childrens' Hospital in Columbus, Ohio under Dr. Di Lorenzo and Dr. Mousa. He plans to study functional abdominal pain and orthostatic intolerance in adolescents.



Emidio Scarpellini, MD

Internal Medicine Resident
Department of Internal Medicine
Gemelli Hospital, Rome, Italy




Dr. Scarpellini received his M.D. degree at the Gemelli Hospital School of Medicine in 2004 where he is currently a Internal Medicine resident. He has been Neurogastroenterological fellow at Gasthuisberg University Hospital, Leuven, in the last year, under the guide of Prof J. Tack.






The Rome Foundation gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc. and Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. who made these Fellowships possible.