Marking its 50th anniversary, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre announces recruitment for its Adult Transplant Hepatology Fellowship — a 1-year Riyadh-based programme covering the full spectrum of liver disease, not just transplant: 300+ liver transplants annually with a predominantly living-donor model, dedicated clinics for Wilson disease, sickle cell hepatopathy and MASLD, and integrated multidisciplinary training in pre- and post-transplant care.
King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh — home of the Adult Transplant Hepatology Fellowship programme.
King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSH&RC) in Riyadh has opened recruitment for its Adult Transplant Hepatology Fellowship — a one-year training programme positioned at one of the highest-volume liver transplant centres globally. The announcement comes as the hospital marks its 50th anniversary, a milestone that has coincided with a deliberate expansion of subspecialty training in advanced hepatology.
The programme sits inside a service that performs more than 300 liver transplants annually, predominantly through a mature living-donor liver transplant model — a case-mix that few centres in the region can offer at scale. Fellows train alongside a world-class surgical team and rotate through a structured curriculum designed to build competency across the full transplant journey: candidate evaluation, waitlist management, living-donor workup, peri-operative care, immunosuppression, and long-term post-transplant surveillance.
Train at a high-volume, tertiary referral transplant centre with comprehensive exposure to complex hepatology and liver transplantation.
A distinguishing feature of the fellowship is its integration with KFSH&RC's dedicated Genetic and Rare Liver Disease Clinics. Trainees gain hands-on exposure to Wilson disease, metabolic and steatotic liver disease, and the broader spectrum of inherited hepatobiliary disorders that are increasingly recognised as a driver of end-stage liver disease in the Saudi and GCC population. The programme's Metabolic and Steatotic Liver Disease Programme complements this by grounding fellows in the diagnostic and therapeutic workflows now considered essential for a modern transplant hepatologist.
While liver transplantation remains a central and highly specialised component of the work, KFSH&RC's clinical and academic activities extend well beyond transplant medicine — a point the programme leadership is keen to make to prospective fellows whose interest sits in general hepatology rather than transplant alone. The team is actively engaged in managing the full spectrum of liver disease, including pre- and post-transplant care, non-cirrhotic liver conditions, and a wide range of complex and rare hepatologic disorders. In addition, the centre has developed several highly specialised clinics — including services dedicated to Wilson disease, sickle cell hepatopathy, and metabolic dysfunction–associated fatty liver disease (MASLD) — reflecting a commitment to comprehensive, multidisciplinary hepatology care that spans both advanced and general aspects of the field.
Comprehensive training covers both pre- and post-transplant care, delivered through an integrated multidisciplinary model that brings together transplant hepatology, hepatobiliary surgery, radiology, interventional radiology, pathology, infectious diseases, and clinical nutrition in shared decision-making. The one-year duration is designed to produce a subspecialist ready for a senior clinical role in a tertiary transplant centre — with the caseload, breadth, and mentorship that only a high-volume programme can provide.
Programme Director Dr. Abdullah Alfhaid, MBBS, leads the fellowship. Applications and enquiries are directed to LSBHC@kfshrc.edu.sa. The Saudi Gastroenterology Association welcomes the initiative as a strategic addition to the national training landscape and encourages qualified consultants and senior GI trainees interested in transplant hepatology to apply.
The fellowship complements SGA's broader hepatology training portfolio and reinforces a national goal — set out in Saudi Vision 2030's specialised healthcare priorities — of retaining advanced subspecialty training inside the Kingdom, delivered at centres whose caseload and outcomes match the world's established transplant programmes.