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Cardiology Fellowship Program

Educational Program

The Fellowship currently has 10 positions. Acute care takes place at the Pacific Campus of California Pacific Medical Center as well as St. Luke's Medical Center. 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

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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Advanced Cardiac Imaging

The Advanced Cardiac Imaging rotation provides the opportunity for the fellow to advance his or her skills in Cardiac CT, MR, and Nuclear Cardiology. Fellows commonly achieve level 2 certification in Cardiac CT and Nuclear Cardiology by the end of their training.

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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 Surgery

This rotation will provide familiarity for the cardiologiy fellow 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, PA line placement, temporary pacemaker placement, and intra-aortic balloon pump management.

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Heart Failure and Transplantation

This rotation provides an introduction to inpatient and outpatient care of cardiac transplant patients and candidates for cardiac transplantation with end-stage heart disease. The HF/Transplant rotation instructs fellows in the care of end stage cardiomyopathy as well as peri and post heart transplant care. Fellows will gain familiarity in the management of rejection, immunosuppresive medication regimens, and common post heart transplant complications.

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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

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, new modalities of non-invasive imaging.

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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 as well as to finalize manuscripts. Funding and the assistance of a statistician are readily available. Biweekly research meetings throughout the year with a research mentor from UCSF are scheduled.

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Elective

Several elective rotations are available in the third year to provide the Fellow with an opportunity to explore an area of interest in greater depth.

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