Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Curriculum
The Fellowship curriculum has been designed so that fellows develop expertise in all areas of general clinical cardiology. Fellows will spend time in rotations gaining clinical experience and developing expertise, skills, knowledge, and attitudes leading to high level proficiency and competency in general clinical cardiology.
In addition, through selected Elective Rotations, fellows are able to expand their training in areas of specific interest such as Peripheral Vascular Disease, Advanced Imaging, Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Pulmonary Hypertension or Advanced Heart Failure.
Our Clinical Training curriculum follows the recommendations of the consensus statement emanating from the Core Cardiology Training Symposium (COCATS) sponsored by the American College of Cardiology.
Learn more about Rotations
Clinical Procedures Heading link
During their clinical training fellows will develop and demonstrate competence in the performance of many cardiovascular procedures as required by the ACGME.
Some of the procedures to expect
- Direct current cardioversion (perform a minimum 10)
- Echocardiography (perform a minimum of 150 and interpret a minimum of 300 Transthoracic studies and perform and interpret 100 TEEs. Typically, fellows perform close to 150 TEEs and interpret 600-800 TTEs and 100 stress echocardiograms)
- Exercise stress testing (supervise a minimum of 50 stress ECG tests)
- Right and left heart catheterization, including coronary arteriography (participate in a minimum of 300 catheterizations fellows typically perform 400-600 angiograms)
- Conscious sedation
Procedures continued
- Placement and management of temporary pacemakers, including transvenous and transcutaneous
- Programming and follow-up surveillance of permanent pacemakers and ICDs
- Demonstrate competence in the interpretation of ambulatory ECG recordings (Holter monitoring and event monitoring) and electrocardiograms (interpret a minimum of 3500 electrocardiograms)
- Nuclear cardiology (interpret a minimum of 100 radionuclide studies to include SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging and ventriculograms)
- Chest x-rays
Conferences Heading link
A wide variety of conferences are offered to promote effective learning. Faculty members knowledgeable of the topic are present to provide expert opinions and discussion. On occasion faculty from other institutions will provide presentations at our conferences. The slides and recordings for each lecture will be made available to fellows who are unable to attend particular presentations.
Transition of Care-Morning Report
Held every weekday morning, this conference gives an opportunity for the fellow on call to discuss the patients from overnight in the presence of all the teaching service attending cardiologists.
Cardiology Core Conference
Topics of this conference will focus on the fundamental aspects of cardiology and include basic science, risk factors in cardiovascular disease, and management of entities such as coronary heart disease, valvular heart disease and more.
Noninvasive Conference
Various cases and topics on both transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, cardiac computerized tomography, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging are presented and discussed.
Cardiac Electrophysiology Conference
During these conferences, interesting ECGs and cardiac EP cases will be presented and discussed. Formal lectures on various ECG and EP topics will also be presented.
Cardiac Catheterization Conference
Specific cases preselected by the fellows and interventional faculty will be presented. Extensive literature review on unique cases will also be presented.
Quality Improvement and Safety Conferences
Various formats like morbidity and mortality, research, and quality improvement conference.
Internal Medicine Grand Rounds
On Wednesdays from 8:00 to 9:00 am, in the Jump Training Simulation and Education Center. Cardiology fellows are encouraged to attend Grand Rounds given by their faculty.