Duke Department of Medicine is honored to recognize March as Women’s History Month, celebrating the many women who have made significant contributions to move medicine forward.
“To know I had a hand in training amazing young endoscopists gives me great pride and I enjoy hearing about their career growth,” said Rebecca Burbridge, MD, associate professor of Medicine in the Duke Division of Gastroenterology. She is the director of the Duke Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship Training Program. “I tell my fellows that you need to have a balanced life. Work hard and perfect your craft but have time for the things in life that also make you happy.”
Dr. Burbridge performs and trains fellows on complex procedures such as EUS and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), which are used to diagnose and treat conditions that affect the liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, and pancreatic systems. Both are therapeutic interventions that can be utilized instead of surgery.
“The ability to treat a traditionally surgically managed procedure via an endoscopic route is very gratifying and allows the patient faster recovery,” Dr. Burbridge said. Therapeutic EUS can be used for gallbladder drainage, pseudocyst/abscess drainage and palliative gastrointestinal bypass procedures.
“By far, the most rewarding aspect of my job has been the ability to provide care to patients that improves their quality of life,” Dr. Burbridge said. She treats patients at the Duke Gastroenterology Clinic-2J and the Duke Endoscopy Clinic-2H. “I love performing highly specialized endoscopic procedures that not all gastroenterologists can do,” she continued.
Her passion for medicine was first sparked in college. While playing basketball, her teammate experienced a knee injury. “I was fascinated by the entire process from diagnosis to treatment to recovery. It was exciting to see my teammate get better after receiving medical care,” Dr. Burbridge said. She is the first person in her family to go into the medical field and become a physician.
Dr. Burbridge graduated from West Virginia University School of Medicine and knew she wanted to go into a specialty that was procedurally oriented. “I love the gratification of having a problem and being able to fix it. I chose gastroenterology because of the breadth of procedures that are offered to patients as well as the complexity of the procedures,” said Dr. Burbridge.
She also discovered that the skills required for gastroenterology and furthermore endoscopy paralleled her other hobbies. “As funny as it sounds, I grew up loving video games. The hand-eye coordination involved in playing video games translates nicely to the hand-eye coordination involved in endoscopy,” Dr. Burbridge said. “Each procedure is unique which makes every individual case a different challenge, and that keeps me engaged and on my toes.”
Dr. Burbridge joined Duke faculty in 2011 and has been director of the fellowship program since 2020. She remains connected to many of those she taught. Dr. Burbridge recently served on the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy’s committee to establish training guidelines for endoscopy fellowship programs since most aren’t accredited.
“We devised a minimum number of advanced endoscopy procedures that should be performed by the end of the advanced endoscopy training year,” said Dr. Burbridge. “There are serious risks associated with them, but these guidelines will improve trainee competency, and hopefully improve patient outcomes.”
As a physician dedicated to closing gaps in care, Dr. Burbridge is a founding member of Rainbows in Gastro, a non-profit organization that provides precision digestive care for sexual and gender diverse patients.
“In today's political climate, maintaining initiatives to advance the care of marginalized groups is very important. Through our organization, we hope to maintain and promote diversity in health care and engage with our community in meaningful ways,” Dr. Burbridge said.