Curriculum

All cardiac electrophysiologists, independent of eventual career choice, must have extensive training and experience in the care of patients with cardiac arrhythmias in both the outpatient and inpatient settings, and must demonstrate competency in dealing with health concerns and problems of these patients and their families. This basic core of educational content is required of all cardiac electrophysiologists, and is in accordance with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requirements, and qualifies one to take the American Board of Internal Medicine Certifying Examination in Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology. The curriculum for an individual trainee will contain the above requisites, but may be modified for the trainee’s specific career goals.
Flexibility in rotational scheduling is emphasized for all trainees so as to permit optimal tailoring of an individual curriculum to the specifics of a trainee’s eventual career.

In order to accomplish the above, training is a process of patient care in a variety of settings, in and out of the hospital and with a variety of encounters from the brief and superficial to the long and in depth, with a variety of patients with different backgrounds, ages and problems. The educational basis of these patient encounters follows a philosophy of “crawl-walk-run,” and consists of a gradual increase in independence (and decrease in supervision), a system of evaluations, feedback and encouragements to adhere to the above knowledge, skills, attitudes and habits, and the provision of role models worthy of emulation. These activities are then supplemented by a curriculum of clinical and case-oriented conferences and a core reading program throughout the training period.