Why Become a Medical Scribe?
Medical scribing is a unique opportunity for prospective healthcare students to observe and participate directly in patient care. Stanford’s Medical Scribe Fellowship, also known as Clinical Observation and Medical Transcription (COMET), is a one-year post-baccalaureate program designed for highly motivated students interested in pursuing a career in the health professions. Fellows are trained in medical terminology and clinical documentation. They work side-by-side with faculty physicians and other clinicians as experienced medical scribes, seeing patients together at Stanford Healthcare clinics and affiliated clinics in the community.
We are looking for candidates who are academically strong, with excellent interpersonal and leadership skills, who desire an intensive direct patient care experience before applying to medical school, physician assistant school, nursing school, or other graduate school in the healthcare field. Scribing is an unparalleled way to build clinical experience and be immersed in medicine. The COMET Fellowship provides fellows the ability to connect with faculty and develop a mentoring relationship, as well as the opportunity to engage in research or other scholarly pursuits.
One of the goals of the COMET Fellowship is to support our fellows' professional growth. COMET fellows may choose to pursue external part-time employment opportunities or academic classes in addition to their regular COMET scribing duties. At the end of the fellowship year and based on performance, fellows are eligible to apply for a one year leadership role as a COMET Chief Scribe overseeing teams of our scribes.
Prospective fellows can apply to be a medical scribe in 17 different specialties: family medicine, internal medicine, senior care, palliative care, endocrinology, cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, infectious disease, radiation oncology, express care, gynecology, pelvic health, clinical pharmacy, nephrology, orthopedic surgery, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and strive to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) with scholarship opportunities. To learn more about DEI in our fellowship, please click here.
Click here to read testimonials from our COMET Alumni!
Interested in becoming a COMET Fellow?
COMET Alumni: Where are they now?
Here is a short list of our alumni and where they are now after the program.
Alexis Kofoed
Stanford PA School
Cat Carragee
University of Dublin Medical School
Michelle Tay
UC Davis NP School
Jimmy Yao
Case Western Medical School
Kevin Lee
Drexel PA School
Eugenia Jernick
Rocky Vista Medical School
Andrew Yoon
Duke PA School
Jamie Yang
UCLA Medical School
Laurel Sharpless
Yale MPH School
Sheel Vaniawala
Nova Southeastern DO School
Click here for COMET Alumni's bios!
Updated: Nov. 2022
Stanford and Cleveland Clinic Scribe Collaboration
Stanford and Cleveland Clinic have signed a collaboration agreement. Stanford’s medical scribe fellowship is happy to partner with Dr. Sandra Hong of Cleveland Clinic, who has successfully launched their scribe fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year. We are currently working together to develop a scribe training curriculum. We’re excited to expand both programs with joint-initiatives and cross-institutional scholarship opportunities.
Burnout among physicians a pervasive problem that can lead to major medical errors More
" When Dr. Cori Poffenberger curls up on her couch after a long day at work, there's no relaxing. She is an emergency room physician, and at night spends hours filling in patient charts and reviewing test results." Full Story
Video features Anu Tirupasur, one of our 2018-19 COMET fellows.
Improving domestic violence screening: A Q&A More
"As part of the Clinical Observation and Medical Transcription fellowship at Stanford, Laurel Sharpless wanted to pursue a project that was personally important to her: intimate partner violence." Full Story
A Unique Scribing Model: The COMET Fellowship for College Graduates More
" Like many of her recent college graduate peers, Cat Caragee was unsure how to get from here to there. There was likely a job in the health professions, perhaps as a doctor, but here wasn’t where she needed to be.
Here was working as a scribe in the emergency department at O’Connor Hospital, where the pay was minimum wage and she needed odd jobs to make ends meet. While she was getting some exposure to clinical medicine (“as a scribe you’re there to help the doctors, and any clinical learning is just a sideline,” she says), she also wanted research experience to strengthen an application to medical school. But jobs as a clinical research assistant require years of experience plus work done in the field.
Then COMET fell into her lap, and her life took a turn for the better." Full Story
Click here for more COMET News.
Program Benefits
- An unparalleled, immersive clinical experience with outstanding faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine
- Become an experienced medical scribe and an expert in medical terminology and clinical documentation
- Optional research experience
- Opportunity to obtain detailed letters of recommendation from provider mentors
- Increase chances of admission into medical school, physician assistant school, nursing school, or other graduate school in the healthcare field
- Fellowship schedule allows the pursuit of external part-time job opportunities or academic classes in addition to regular COMET scribing duties
- Become eligible to apply for a one-year leadership role as a COMET Chief Scribe
- Opportunity for diversity, equity, and inclusion scholarship for eligible applicants