Rolling admission · Istanbul · Delivered in English
Follow how endosonographers read real-time ultrasound images from within the stomach and duodenum, characterise pancreatic and wall lesions and decide when tissue is needed — observing diagnostic EUS on the days the unit lists it within your placement.
What you see depends on the department's clinical calendar during your placement; the list below describes the department's usual scope, not a guaranteed programme.
EUS earns its place when it answers a question that CT or MRI cannot. In a suspected pancreatic tumour, it can detect small lesions, define contact with the portal–superior mesenteric venous axis and the arteries, and provide tissue. Tissue is essential before neoadjuvant or palliative chemotherapy, whereas a clearly resectable lesion may proceed to surgery without it, depending on the multidisciplinary team's view. For a patient with an intermediate probability of bile duct stones, EUS can confirm or exclude them and spare an unnecessary ERCP. Observers hear the referring question stated before each examination, which frames everything that follows.
Pancreatic cysts and subepithelial lesions illustrate a second kind of decision: whether to sample, survey or refer for resection. For cysts, morphology, mural nodules, duct communication and, where aspirated, fluid analysis are weighed against guideline-defined worrisome features and the patient's fitness for surgery. For subepithelial lesions, the wall layer of origin and echo pattern narrow the differential, and sampling is considered when a gastrointestinal stromal tumour is suspected. These are judgement calls rather than protocols, and the discussion around them is often as instructive as the images themselves.
The team around a diagnostic EUS list differs from an ERCP room. There is usually no fluoroscopy; the endosonographer interprets a moving ultrasound image that the observer gradually learns to orientate, endoscopy nurses prepare needles and handle specimens, and the sedation team manages the airway. Where the unit works with on-site cytological assessment, a pathologist or cytotechnician judges adequacy in the room; otherwise the specimen travels to pathology and the answer returns days later, often at the multidisciplinary meeting. Interventional EUS often adds fluoroscopy and a larger team.
Where the ERCP page is about therapy under fluoroscopy — clearing ducts, sampling strictures and placing stents — this page is about seeing and characterising: endosonographic imaging, staging and tissue diagnosis. The parent gastroenterology page covers the department as a whole, and mediastinal nodal staging for lung cancer sits more naturally with the interventional pulmonology and EBUS focus.
Graduate physicians and gastroenterology or internal medicine trainees who want to understand how EUS findings are read and acted on; prior familiarity with cross-sectional abdominal imaging makes the sessions far easier to follow.
Gastroenterologists with a specialist qualification who name endosonography as their interest; the attachment remains a gastroenterology one, the department sets the allocation, and EUS lists are combined with clinics and the multidisciplinary meeting.
Both routes are strictly observational: observers attend theatre and clinic without patient contact, do not scrub or assist, and are not assessed on any procedure.
| Clinical Observership | Clinical Fellowship | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 1, 2 or 4 weeks (extension possible on request) | 12 to 24 months, agreed with the host department |
| Who it is for | Medical students in clinical years and graduate physicians from outside Turkey | Recognised specialists and family physicians seeking advanced exposure beyond standard specialty training |
| Format | Full-time, strictly observational — outpatient clinics, operating theatre, ward rounds, case discussions | Extended observational attachment to one department: daily practice, service structure and specific techniques |
| Certificate | Certificate of attendance issued by the host hospital and signed by its Medical Director | Certificate on completion issued under the accreditation of the affiliated university school of medicine |
| Start | Rotations typically begin on a Monday; dates are agreed individually | Start date planned around the date you request and the department's capacity |
One online application for both routes. State Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS) as your focus in your objectives; ATDERA reviews the file and prepares it for the Gastroenterology department, then replies with next steps, typically within two working days.
Already started? The application page picks up where you left off.
ATDERA Global Limited (Companies House No. 17173428, registered in England and Wales) coordinates this programme for a university teaching hospital in Istanbul. ATDERA is not a hospital and does not provide clinical care; admission decisions and certificates are the host hospital's.
One online application covers both routes and all twenty-one specialties — details, programme choice and documents in five short steps. ATDERA reviews the file and replies with next steps, typically within two working days.
