Early-career gastroenterologists are frequently asked: “What’s your niche?” — often implying they must immediately declare themselves the IBD specialist, the liver expert, or the advanced endoscopist.
In this commentary, Alicia H. Muratore, MD, MBA (UNC) challenges that assumption.As a trainee, she pursued obesity medicine, nutrition, informatics, and workflow redesign — interests that didn’t fit neatly into any classic sub-subspecialty. With support from program leadership, she recognized that a “niche” can emerge not from a title, but from a unique way of seeing problems and building solutions.