Curriculum

Focus & Content of Training

Focus Of Training:

All interventional cardiologists, independent of eventual career choice, must have extensive training and experience in the care of patients in both the outpatient and inpatient settings, and must demonstrate competency in dealing with health concerns and problems arising from interventional approaches. Beyond this basic core of educational content which is required of all interventional cardiologists, and qualifies one to take the American Board of Internal Medicine Certifying Examination in Interventional Cardiology, the curriculum for an individual resident depends on the resident'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 practice plans.

Content Of Training:

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 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.

Training Experiences

Training experiences are rotated on a monthly basis, except for the Continuity Clinic schedule that is ongoing throughout the entire training period. Rotations are of the following types.

General Laboratory Rotation

Preceptor model with 1 or 2 Fellows assigned to a supervising interventional cardiologist. Focused training experience in all aspects of cardiac catheterization and coronary intervention. Fellows are expected to complete 600 coronary interventions during this rotation.

Cardiac & Peripheral Vascular Interventional Rotation

Preceptor model with 1 or 2 Fellows assigned to a supervising interventional cardiologist. Focused training experience in all aspects of peripheral vascular imaging and intervention. Fellows are expected to complete 80 total interventions during this rotation.

Longitudinal Outpatient Clinic

Preceptor model, with fellows assigned to a full- or part-time teaching faculty, seeing scheduled new and return patients, and urgent care patients, in Continuity Clinic.

Research

An ongoing supervised curriculum on basic research with a self-directed program to establish, carry out, and report the results of an individual or group investigation. All fellows will be expected to submit an abstract to a national meeting and prepare a manuscript for publication.