Ultrasound Fellowship
UF Emergency Medicine


Overview of Program

Our Department offers a one-year fellowship, accredited by the Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship Accreditation (EUFAC), in Emergency Ultrasound with a focus on mastering the advanced use of bedside ultrasound and its instruction, as well as administration of an Emergency Ultrasound Program, including Quality Assurance and equipment/software maintenance.

This fellowship is open to residency trained emergency physicians, who are ABEM or AOBEM certified or board eligible. The fellowship requirements are based on the EUFAC Guidelines for Emergency Ultrasound Fellowships. In addition to emergency department scanning, the fellow will rotate with anesthesia, sports medicine, SICU, CICU, free standing ED sonographer, echo lab and PICU monthly.  There is also an abundance of lectures and workshops that the fellow will be involved in and will be able to use to enhance their education. Currently, we have fourteen EM residents per year in our three-year residency program.  Funding is available for two Ultrasound Fellows per year.

The emergency ultrasound mission is strongly supported by emergency department leadership.  Ultrasound is fully integrated into our clinical practice and all of our credentialed faculty use it for clinical decision-making.  We currently bill for ultrasound services used in clinical decision making. We have 6 ultrasound machines dedicated to patient care in the adult ED, 1 machine at the pediatric ED and 1 machine each at the 2 freestanding EDs.  We also have 3 US machines dedicated for educational purposes at the medical school SIM lab. Bedside ultrasound is increasing in emergency medicine, as well as in other specialties that closely work with our department – including internal medicine, surgery, critical care and OBGYN.  The ultrasound faculty teach frequent courses to clinical staff from the entire hospital including emergency medicine residents, PAs, critical care residents and fellows, obstetricians, as well as RNs. In addition, we are expanding into undergraduate medical education and are coordinating the ultrasound curriculum for first and second year medical students in the University of Florida College of Medicine.

Teaching EMS from Alachua County Fire Rescue (ACFR) in Gainesville, Florida

Dr. Christy Robinson (2021-22 Ultrasound Fellow)
Dr. Tierra Smith (2020-21 Ultrasound Fellow – now Core Program Faculty)

Eligibility

This program accepts two fellows each academic year. Residency training in Emergency Medicine must be from an ACGME accredited program (ABEM and/or AOBEM) and completed by the time of matriculation. Applicants must be board-eligible or board certified. This program does not accept J-1 Visa applicants at this time. Once a letter of offer is extended, employment will be contingent on a positive result from a criminal background screening, procurement/maintenance of a Florida Medical License and ability to meet requirements for appointment as a Faculty member.


Clinical Responsibility

The fellows in this program are appointed as post doctorate clinical associates in the Department of Emergency Medicine. They have a core clinical commitment of 768 hours working as Attending Physicians in one of the four UF Health Gainesville Emergency Departments over the course of their fellowship year. Options for additional hours with extra pay available.


Salary and Benefits

2023-2024 Ultrasound Fellowship Housestaff Annual Stipend

PGY 4 – $101,571.62*

PGY 5 – $104,427.26*

PGY 6 – $107,383.60*

PGY 7+ – $110,162.92*

*Salary commensurate with expected clinical hours as faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

Benefits

Generous stipend for academic enhancement and conference attendance/presentations, as well as international medical trips.

GatorBites meal program.

15 days of paid vacation. 10 days of paid sick leave.

Fellows are employed by the University of Florida College of Medicine and are considered to be PGY4-7+ housestaff for salary and benefit purposes. Please see the Housestaff Benefits webpage for more information on insurance, retirement plan, leave policy, malpractice insurance, and additional services included.

Ample moonlighting opportunities within the UF Health system at the Main ED, Pediatric ED and two freestanding EDs (Springhill and Kanapaha) for additional income, all covered by malpractice insurance and sovereign immunity.


Application Process

This fellowship program participates in the NRMP Match. Applications should be submitted using the Society of Clinical Ultrasound Fellowship’s (SCUF) central website. Applications should include three letters of recommendation (one from the resident program director if currently a resident), the applicant’s CV and a personal statement (not to exceed one page). Any questions regarding applying should be directed to our fellowship program coordinator below.

Applications may only be submitted between August 1, 2023, and October 20, 2023; and Match Day will happen on November 8, 2023.


Program Faculty and Staff

Program Director

Giuliano De Portu

Giuliano De Portu M.D., FACEP

Assistant Dean For Health Care Excellence, Community And Belonging; Director Emergency Medicine Ultrasound; Director Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship;​ Clinical Associate Professor

Core Program Faculty

Marco F Elegante

Marco F Elegante M.D., MNeuroSci

Clinical Assistant Professor
Gabriel N Gomez

Gabriel N Gomez D.O.

Clinical Assistant Professor
L. Connor Nickels

L. Connor Nickels M.D., RDMS, FACEP

Clinical Associate Professor
Tierra Smith

Tierra Smith M.D.

Clinical Assistant Professor

Critical Care Adjunct Faculty

Torben K Becker

Torben K Becker MD, PhD, MBA, RDMS, FAWM, FAEMS, FCCM

Associate Professor; Executive Director – Emergency Medicine | UF Health Critical Care Organization; Chief – Division Of Critical Care Medicine & Director – Section Of Global Health | Department Of Emergency Medicine
Rohit P Patel

Rohit P Patel M.D.

Clinical Associate Professor; Associate Chief, Division Of Critical Care Medicine; Co-Director, Emergency Medicine Critical Care Fellowship; Co-Director, Surgical Intensive Care Unit; Director, Critical Care Ultrasound, Surgical ICU

Fellowship Program Coordinator

William C Mitchell

William C Mitchell

Fellowship Program Coordinator, I
Phone: (352) 265-5911

Graduated and Current Fellows

  • 2012-2013
    Giuliano De Portu, MD (now: University of Florida U/S Program Director)
  • 2014-2015
    Michael Boniface, MD (now: Mayo Clinic Florida)
    Jonathan Holloway, MD (now: Providence St. Joseph Hospital)
  • 2016-2017
    Diana Mora Montero, MD (now: North Florida Regional Medical Center)
  • 2017-2018
    Dakota Lane, MD (now: North Florida Regional Medical Center)
  • 2018-2019
    Ideen Zeinali, MD (now: Dallas Baylor University Medical Center)
  • 2020-2021
    Tierra Smith, MD (now: University of Florida U/S Core Faculty)
  • 2021-2022
    Christy Robinson, MD (now: EPNO)
    Jonathan Snyderman, DO, MSc (now: Georgia Emergency Department Services)
  • 2022-2023
    Gabriel Gomez, DO (now: University of Florida U/S Core Faculty)
    Andrea Segarra-Salcedo, MD (now: University of Florida Jacksonville)
  • 2023-2024
Aisha E Droz-Lopez

Aisha E Droz-Lopez M.D.

Ultrasound EM Fellow 2023-24
Randy B Leung

Randy B Leung D.O.

Ultrasound EM Fellow 2023-24

IT solutions: The Emergency Ultrasound program is strongly supported by the IT and Radiology departments, leading to state of the art EMR ordering of ultrasound studies, as well as wireless order transmission and uploading of ultrasound images to the Qpath QA system, as well as to the PACS system for review by other services and long-term storage of clinical studies.

Quality Assurance: Utilizing the QPath program we perform QA with our fellows, residents and medical students to maintain the high standard set forth for Emergency Ultrasound studies at UF and to enhance their understanding of emergency ultrasound factual knowledge and administrative skills. Images, interpretations and medical decision making are reviewed and rated. The PDF report thus generated is sent back to the resident and faculty performing the study so as to provide realtime feedback and enhance their understanding of emergency ultrasound.

Critical Care Ultrasound

Critical Care Ultrasonography is a new discipline with real time adaptation to the critically ill patient. Speed of decision making is very important in the acutely decompensating critically ill patient and the ability to perform serial bedside limited ultrasound examinations to answer specific emergent conditions can be life-saving. The critical care physician must be able to acquire the images, interpret the images, make the bedside clinical decision, and use it in real-time to implement changes in management. Our goal is by the end of the fellowship, the critical care fellow will feel comfortable in acquiring and interpreting bedside critical care ultrasound exams.