Division of Endocrinology

Division Director: Becker, Kenneth L, MD
Fellowship Director: Becker, Kenneth L, MD

The training program in the Division of Endocrinology offers a broad clinical experience in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the endocrine system and body metabolism. House officers develop a solid understanding of the pathophysiology of endocrine disease and the clinical skills to manage patients confidently and competently.

Patient Care Services

The clinical services include inpatient attending and consulting services, as well as a large outpatient clinic that serves patients with a wide variety of endocrinologic disorders. The Diabetes Center treats a considerable number of patients with type I diabetes, type II diabetes, and pregnant patients with diabetes. Physicians, diabetes educators, dieticians and a podiatrist offer a multidisciplinary approach to the care of these patients.

Teaching Program

Endocrinology faculty from The George Washington University Hospital, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Washington Hospital Center participate in an integrated teaching program involving medical students, predoctoral physiology students, medical residents, and endocrine fellows. Educational activities include frequent bedside rounds, case presentations, formal lectures, teaching conferences, journal club, and endocrine, diabetes, and lipid clinics.

Fellowship Training and Research Activities

The fellowship training program offers two years of training in endocrinology, metabolism, and diabetes and prepares physicians for Endocrine Board eligibility. Elective training is provided in pediatric endocrinology and fertility-sterility. The program is designed to train fellows in both clinical and academic endocrinology. All fellows are encouraged to pursue a research topic of their choice, under the guidance of one or more faculty members; these projects have a strong clinical orientation.

The research interests of divisional members include calcium and phosphate metabolism, adrenal pathophysiology, thyroid hormone physiology, pituitary function and growth hormone physiology, as well as disorders of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, reproductive endocrinology and the endocrinology of cancer. The division actively cooperates with other clinical and basic disciplines within the medical center, including the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Endocrine Fertility and Sterility Program, the Lipid Research facilities, the Department of Urology, the Department of Physiology and the Department of Pediatric Endocrinology.

Endocrine Faculty

Kenneth L. Becker, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine and of Physiology; Director, Division of Endocrinology
Fields of Interest: Pulmonary Endocrinology, Calcium and Phosphate Disorders, Medullary Thyroid Cancer
Dr. Becker obtained his MD from New York Medical College, his endocrinology training at the Mayo Clinic, and his PhD at the University of Minnesota. He is also Chief of Endocrinology at the VA Medical Center. His areas of research include calciotropic hormones, polypeptide hormones of the normal diffuse neuroendocrine system as well as those produced by cancer, the role of the lung as an endocrine organ, and the endocrinology of sepsis.

Joshua Cohen, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine; Director, Diabetes Center; Director, Thyroid Center
Fields of Interest: Thyroid Diseases, Diabetes, Autoimmune Endocrinopathies, Impotence, Adrenal and Reproductive Disorders

Eric Nylen, MD
Professor of Medicine
Fields of Interest: Growth Hormone Disorders, Growth Factors, Experimental Carcinogenesis

Vishal Datta, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Fields of Interest: Diabetes, Thyroid Disorders

Podiatry Faculty

Zung Q. Le, DPM

Nilufar Medhane, DPM

Michael S. Stempel, DPM, FACFAS
Assistant Professor of Medicine and of Surgery; Chief, Division of Podiatry, Director of Podiatry Center

Last Updated: October 30, 2006