Education & Training

Fellows generally pursue one of two tracks, Clinician-Scientist or Physician-Investigator. Fellows in the Clinician-Scientist track usually focus on a cardiovascular subspecialty and receive additional fellowship (e.g., interventional, electrophysiology, advanced heart failure) training; these fellows receive six months of dedicated research time in their third year.

Now offering a new pathway called, “The Cardiovascular Disease and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Competency-based Alternative Training Pathway”, which will reduce training duration by counting the third year of cardiovascular disease (CVD) training as the first year of clinical cardiac electrophysiology (EP) training. Participating fellows will be identified in the Accreditation Data System (ADS) as follows:

In years 1 and 2, fellows are listed as “Active Full Time” in the CVD program.
In year 3, fellows are listed as “Active Part Time” in both CVD and EP programs and noted as participating in AIRE.
In year 4, fellows are updated to “Completed All Accredited Training” in the CVD program and “Active Full Time” in the EP program.

Upon completing the fourth year, fellows will be marked as “Completed All Accreditation Training” in the EP program.

Goals and Objectives Based on ACGME Competencies

The goals and objectives of the fellowship are based on the six Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies for each year of training:

Interpersonal and communication skills
Medical knowledge
Patient care
Practice-based learning and improvement
Professionalism
Systems-based practice

Cardiovascular Medicine Educational Goals

The fellowship is a continuous process of professional and academic growth, with each individual progressing at a somewhat different pace and along a unique path. Nevertheless, the general expectation is that senior fellows will not only master the subject content necessary to care for patients with cardiovascular disease but will also develop a sophistication and maturity of clinical judgment. Appropriate knowledge of leading-edge and experimental treatments that may be utilized for a patient's care is another quality desired of senior fellows. As they obtain this sophistication, judgment and knowledge, fellows play an increasingly prominent leadership role in guiding education and patient care with the house staff and medical students.

The educational goals and objectives of the program are achieved through a combination of the following.

Clinical Rotations

Our clinical curriculum is a milestone, competency-based model that meets the Core Cardiology Training Symposium (COCATS 4) recommendations of the American College of Cardiology. Learn more about clinical rotations.

Journal Club

Fellows conduct biweekly Journal Clubs with faculty mentors to discuss recently published literature. The overall aims are to:

Understand the basic background information behind each article
Describe the methods (e.g. type of study, blinding, randomization)
Reviewbasic statistics (odd ratios, relative risks, number needed to treat/harm, Kaplan Meier, Cox regression)
Analyze the results of the trial, future implications, clinical relevancy

Mentored Research

Throughout the clinical years of training, fellows are encouraged to initiate and develop plans for research years. Learn more about research training.

Procedures

The training program provides a robust volume of procedures available to our fellows.

Graduates typically perform more than:

500 cardiac catheterizations
150 transthoracic echocardiograms (TTE)
100 transesophageal echocardiograms (TEE)

Graduates typical read more than:

600 TTE
100 stress echocardiograms
300 nuclear scans
50 cardiac MRs
200 coronary calcium scores
200 CT coronary angiograms

Simulations

Trainees have 24 hour access to the HeartWorks© Transesophageal echocardiography simulator and the Transthoracic echocardiography simulator.