CHF / echo / Nuclear cardiology fellowships

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MnDrA

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Hi every one. I'm new in this forum and not quite sure if this topic was discussed before. I'm currently a hospitalist and would like to switch my career to cardiology. I know the competition is hard and I would like to improve my CV. Currently I'm looking for CHF / echo or nuclear cardiolgoy fellowships. Do you guys know if any of the above fellowships will help in finding cardiology fellowship. If you did one of those fellowship or have any info about them, please post your experience. Thanks :)
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I have a similar unrelated question...

what can a chf fellow do once he/she has completed their training???

what types of niches are out there?
 
MnDrA: good luck on your career switch. I am not familiar with any programs where you have to declare, up front, your desire to do nucs/echo and CHF fellowships are done after the general is done. I'd recommend applying to programs broadly and asking about their opportunities for advanced fellowships when you are on interviews.

nomer24: All depends on what you want to do. I would say that most people doing HF advanced fellowship are planning on being faculty at a transplant center, but certainly not all and I am biased coming from a transplant center myself.
 
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There are cardiac imaging and HF fellowships that can be done independent of general cards fellowship. The few people I've met who has done these has done them to help get into cards fellowship, though. I don't know what you are qualified to do in practice if completing one of these fellowships, i.e. not sure if you are qualified to read studies independently, practice HF/Tx cardiology and so forth.
 
Thank you all for your responses.
drdavemd. I already contacted multiple cardiology programs and there are some programs will take internist for CHF and echo fellowships without cardiology training and in the process of interviewing with some of those programs. I'm looking for some poeple who went through the same experience and wondering if doing those fellowships will really help in getting in cardio.
dadr, I'm trying to do those fellowships to help in getting into cardio fellowship. From your post it seems that you know some fellows who did those fellowship. Can you pls post your input.
 
nomer24 said:
I have a similar unrelated question...

what can a chf fellow do once he/she has completed their training???

what types of niches are out there?
Click to expand...

Do you mean completing a CHF fellowship but without cards? Not much. A CHF fellowship is useless unless you are a cardiologist. Although an internist with "CHF fellowship" in their CV can perhaps show their value to a group as saying they are experienced in the management of CHF patients (just like an internist doing palliative care or geriatrics)

But a CHF cardiologist will likely want to be employed in an academic setting, with the ability to refer patients for transplantation. In the private practice setting, I'm not sure CHF fellowship means anything as all.

I know of at least 2 people that did CHF first and then became general cardiology fellows.
 
This question is posted mostly for cardiology program directors (PD)or fellows with similar circumstances who have successfully obtained a cardiology fellowship:

I am a US medical graduate with descent step 1 and step 2 scores and did residency at a fairly strong academic institution. However, in my pursuit of cardiology, I made some big mistakes during my residency and failed to make friends in the department of medicine. With exception of third year, my in-training exam scores were not something to be proud of either and....in short, my IM PD is not supportive of my application to cardiology. When I applied for the first and last time, if it were not for my IM PD, I would have had the position at my institution. They know and like me there. While I am trying to talk my self out of cardiology, I miss it terribly, and am ready to work for free for a while to get into a fellowship. Does anyone have an idea how to overcome such obstacle. How about echo and CHF fellowships?
I would greatly appreciate any help.
 
Between nuclear/echo/heart failure, is one better than the other for matching into general cardiology.
 
- programs that offer an echo fellowship for plain IM grads are MGH, UAB, UCSF and may be UVirginia (I cd be wrong). Check out U Chicago as well.
- there are a few HF fellowships- I think Mayo, UAB and a few more places might offer them. U Dub started its HF fellowship last year.

I think of the above programs Mayo and UAB have a relatively stronger track record of taking internal fellows doing accessory subspecialty cardiology fellowships in to their main program.
 
I think either Minnesota or Wisconsin used to have one of those CHF fellowships too (that you could get into if not in regular cardiology fellowship). I agree that it ends up being not very useful if you can't get into general cards fellowship later. It's used mainly for networking. If you do one, you're gambling that it will help you get into cards later. Still, at least it's a job and at most you've wasted one year (or not, if you just enjoy it anyway). It's not a guarantee that you'll get a fellowship, and I doubt there are any stats about what %age of people end up getting in somewhere. If you could get a publication(s) along the way, that might be helpful. I guess if I were interviewing for these I'd try and see how much of a track record they have for getting people published, plus see if any recently have gone on to fellowship @that institution or elsewhere.
 
IMHO nobody should do one of these echo or CHF fellowships thinking it is a guarantee, or near-guarantee, of getting a cardiology fellowship. I think you have to be realistic, and take the risk only if you are willing to recognize that it IS a risk. It looks like the 1st review, of the echo fellowship, is written by a FMG trying to get into cards fellowship. I think that any job/position that gets you cardiology experience and allows you any time off to go on interviews, is a good thing if you are applying to cardiology. However, whether this is enough to get you into fellowship will likely depend on other things (USMLE scores, LOR's (how strong and who they are from), FMG/IMG status or not, publications, perceived strength of the residency you came from, and perhaps also your med school).

As far as the general cards fellowship, it looks like the call in the program is rather front-loaded (i.e. 1st years taking a lot of the first-hit call). Some people like this (fellowship gets cushier as you move along, more time for research and some personal time) but would make your 1st year more stressful.
 
I am about to complete a one year echocardiogram fellowship in June. I believe it helped me get into cardiology (I have matched to start in July), for I used it as a talking point on my interviews and the program director where I matched called me after the match and asked me to focus on certain things during the year. The fellowship also gave me an amazing opportunity to do research and I published in JACC this year and should have about four publications for the year. This is not important for me to match, but I want to pursue a career in academics.

Of the four people who completed the echo fellowship (counting prior years), three have matched into general cardiology fellowships and one was unsuccessful. All three that got in were American graduates and the one not successful was a foreign medical graduate.
 
So what kind of job, if any, can one get with an echo fellowship after IM residency?
 
I think an echo fellowship with no cards fellowship is basically useless, except as a stepping stone to try to get cards fellowship. It isn't a "real" fellowship.
 
I dont mean to sound pesimisstic.. but an Indian long distance learning fellowship will not get any one a cardiology spot in US, and may actually harm one's application. Besides I have my doubts about educational quality control in such long distance programs for a specialty like cardiology.
 
MnDrA said:
Hi every one. I'm new in this forum and not quite sure if this topic was discussed before. I'm currently a hospitalist and would like to switch my career to cardiology. I know the competition is hard and I would like to improve my CV. Currently I'm looking for CHF / echo or nuclear cardiolgoy fellowships. Do you guys know if any of the above fellowships will help in finding cardiology fellowship. If you did one of those fellowship or have any info about them, please post your experience. Thanks :)
Click to expand...

Echo is still offered without cards and you can take ASCeXAM in Echo ( for recent chnages check at NBE)

CHF is now became a speacilaty within ABIM( click here)

It's before many programs were offering CHF to internal medicine graduates, but recently many programs are asking completion of Cards fellowship.

Nuclear was also same, they stopped people taking from board exam without cardiology. But recently they changed their policy back to original. Just with Internal medicine + Nuclear Cards training you can take board exam, however your certification will will be awarded after completion of Cards fellowship.

Any of the above fellowship strengthens your application. But neither of them guarantee a spot in cards fellowship.

Call Echo board, ask them if you can take ASCeXAM after completion of one year Echo fellowship. That deffinately helps.

Keep in mind, if you start your fellowship in Jul 2011, your application for 2014 cards will be strengthened . (JUL 2011 - JUN 2012 fellowship, [JUL 2012 for Echo, NOV 2012 for Nuclear Exam], will be attending interviews in early 2013, fellowship starts in 2014, fellowship ends in 2017)

If you take Nuclear Exam in Nov 2012 you may not have your results for your interview time in 2013.

For Echo Fellowship you can try with Dr. Navin Nanda at UAB.

I found one CHF ad. on this site http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=787363
 
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but most importantly can you make money reading echos and stress tests. how many echos can you read in an afternoon and how much each
 
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