Educational Program

The Fellowship currently has six positions. All acute care takes place at the Pacific Campus of California Pacific Medical Center. Fellows participate, additionally, in the Cardiology Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital. The core faculty works closely with the cardiac fellows in all aspects of their training. In turn, the Fellows take an active role in teaching the House Staff members of the large Residency Training Program.

The fellowship spans three years, during which all fellows rotate monthly through the following major areas.

Ambulatory Cardiology  |  Adult Congenital Heart Disease  |  Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory  |  Cardiac Rehabilitation  |  Cardiac Surgery  |  Coronary Care Unit  |  Echocardiography Laboratory  |  Electrophysiology  |  Non-Invasive Laboratory & Nuclear Cardiology  |  Transplant Cardiology  |  Research  |  Elective

Ambulatory Cardiology

An innovative program providing continuity of care and broad-based patient contact is conducted with a one-to-one relationship with a cardiology preceptor in the private practice setting.

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Adult Congenital Heart Disease

Continuing participation in the care of adult patients with congenital heart disease takes place in multiple rotations. A series of didactic lectures in the field and literature with pediatric cardiologists and pediatric cardiac surgeons are included in this program.

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Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory

The CCL rotation provides the Fellow with an important opportunity to develop and refine procedural skills, and observe correlations between the clinical history and physical exam, and the anatomical and hemodynamic findings at cardiac catheterization. In addition to procedural skills, the CCL Fellow will learn and absorb a tremendous volume of material fundamental to cardiology.

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Cardiac Rehabilitation

The cardiac rehab rotation is designed to provide an introduction to inpatient and outpatient cardiac rehabilitation, working with patients with a variety of cardiac problems. Practical experience and didactic lectures in exercise physiology are part of this program.

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Cardiac Surgery

This rotation will provide familiarity for the cardiologist with cardiac surgery, cardiac anesthesia, extracorporeal perfusion, ventricular assist devices, intraoperative transesophageal echo, and the operating room environment.

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Coronary Care Unit

The CCU rotation is designed to give the Fellow experience in acute cardiac care, and to familiarize him or her with all aspects of acute coronary artery disease and other cardiac emergencies. The Fellow will participate in the diagnosis and treatment of coronary disease, heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, valvular disease, and acute aortic disease. The Fellow will become skilled in hemodynamic monitoring, temporary pacemaker placement, and intra-aortic balloon pump management.

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Echocardiography Laboratory

The Echo rotation will familiarize the Fellow with all aspects of echocardiography, including underlying physiologic and hemodynamic principles, and provide him or her with experience in the performance and interpretation of transthoracic, transesophageal, intracardiac, and contrast echocardiograms.

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Electrophysiology

Fellows are exposed to electrophysiology throughout their clinical experience, participating in the evaluation and treatment of patients with a variety of arrhythmias, sudden death, and pacemakers. However, the EP rotation provides a more intensive introduction to electrophysiology and catheter-based therapeutic interventions, including ablation, EP studies, AICD, and pacemaker implantation.

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Non-Invasive Laboratory & Nuclear Cardiology

The NIL rotation is designed to give the Fellow experience in all areas of non-invasive cardiology other than echocardiography. The NIL Fellow will become proficient in the performance and interpretation of EKGs, Holter monitoring and dynamic event recording, treadmill stress testing, signal-averaged EKGs, trans-telephonic pacemaker recordings, pacemaker interrogations, tilt-table tests, nuclear cardiologic studies and new modalities of non-invasive imaging.

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Transplant Cardiology

This rotation provides an introduction to inpatient and outpatient care of cardiac transplant patients and candidates for cardiac transplantation with end-stage heart disease.

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Research

It is expected that the Fellows will begin and continue research projects throughout the year. The research rotation is a recurring block of time used to consolidate research activities and findings.

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Elective

An elective period is available in the third year to provide the Fellow with an opportunity to explore an area of interest in greater depth, or to provide exposure to an area or technique not available at California Pacific.

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