Cardiac fellowship (Stanford? Chicago?...)

[BDylan]

I'm interested in doing a cardiac fellowship and was wondering if anyone here had some comments on any of these programs/locations/facilities:

Stanford
Northwestern (or other programs around Chicago)
Columbia (or other programs around New York)

For me, part of the appeal to doing a fellowship is living in a cool city for a year. So, even though Texas Heart Institute has a great program, do I really want to live in Houston for a year?

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[sevo85288]

Stanford has low volume but a great name. Experience with TEE needs more Cardiologist interaction. You want a program where you are spends a couple of months with cards doing/reading echos. Northwestern has that and tons of volume. I don't know much about Columbia.

 

[BDylan]

Stanford has low volume but a great name. Experience with TEE needs more Cardiologist interaction. You want a program where you are spends a couple of months with cards doing/reading echos. Northwestern has that and tons of volume. I don't know much about Columbia.

I didn't realize reading TEEs with cardiologists was a sort of benchmark for a program's quality. That's good to know.

I wonder if something about the volume and diversity of cases can be gleaned from the amount of fellows each program takes every year. It stands to reason that a program that has tons of cases is able to offer more spots. Certainly, this logic isn't 100%, I'm sure there are a handful of programs that offer 1 or 2 spots that can hang with the big names.

These are the accredited programs that offer the most spots, according to the SCA website:

Cleveland clinic - 16
Texas hearts - 10
Duke - 9
Columbia - 6
Emory - 6
Mass General - 5
Mount Sinai - 5

I've heard great things about experiences at Emory, Cleveland, and Texas hearts directly from people recently graduated. Of the three, Emory made the biggest impression on me based on that grad's TEE skills and their knowledge of the freshest practice-changing ideas in CV anesthesia.

Anybody else looking to do a cardiac fellowship care to share what they know or have heard about other programs?

 

[proman]

What do you want from a fellowship? The higher volume ones tend to be light on academics. Programs that have the fellows doing their own cases will have more fellows. Places with dominating cardiology departments will be control the intraoperative TEE. Time with cards is useful because of their fund of knowledge but shouldn't be a part of the actual intraop echo experience.

Duke and Columbia are probably the two major academic programs on your list. Fellows do their own cases. I doubt any other program matches the echo experience of either place. You should also be wary of a program where one famous name makes it (and the loss of that person would affect the education).

 

[smgilles]

I didn't realize reading TEEs with cardiologists was a sort of benchmark for a program's quality. That's good to know.

I wonder if something about the volume and diversity of cases can be gleaned from the amount of fellows each program takes every year. It stands to reason that a program that has tons of cases is able to offer more spots. Certainly, this logic isn't 100%, I'm sure there are a handful of programs that offer 1 or 2 spots that can hang with the big names.

These are the accredited programs that offer the most spots, according to the SCA website:

Cleveland clinic - 16
Texas hearts - 10
Duke - 9
Columbia - 6
Emory - 6
Mass General - 5
Mount Sinai - 5

I've heard great things about experiences at Emory, Cleveland, and Texas hearts directly from people recently graduated. Of the three, Emory made the biggest impression on me based on that grad's TEE skills and their knowledge of the freshest practice-changing ideas in CV anesthesia.

Anybody else looking to do a cardiac fellowship care to share what they know or have heard about other programs?

You will do a total of 6 months ECHO (both TTE and TEE) at Mayo. 3 months is intra-op and 3 months is outpatient. Supervise 2 rooms when in the OR's. They take a total of 3 fellows/year.

 

[Soon2BENT]

I'm interested in doing a cardiac fellowship and was wondering if anyone here had some comments on any of these programs/locations/facilities:

Stanford
Northwestern (or other programs around Chicago)
Columbia (or other programs around New York)

For me, part of the appeal to doing a fellowship is living in a cool city for a year. So, even though Texas Heart Institute has a great program, do I really want to live in Houston for a year?

NYU
6 months in OR
-learn echo with attendings but there is a cardiologist that comes to OR to provide reads (he's awesome and teaches ALOT)
-i'd say volume is about average and we have a good amount of pediatrics (no peds fellowship at NYU, so the peds hearts are ours, whether that's your cup of tea or not)
5 months elective (your choice)
1 month vacation

-if you PM me, i'll tell you something nice that very few other programs offer🙂

 

[narcusprince]

Hows Hopkins Cardiac program???

 

[BDylan]

Do most of these programs offer experience with transcatheter/percutaneous aortic valve replacement ("cardiac surgery in the cath lab") and other minimally invasive (ie, robotic) cardiac surgery?

Most of the programs' websites aren't much help. I'm particularly interested in whether or not this experience exists at Northwestern.

 

[ProRealDoc]

Do most of these programs offer experience with transcatheter/percutaneous aortic valve replacement ("cardiac surgery in the cath lab") and other minimally invasive (ie, robotic) cardiac surgery?

Most of the programs' websites aren't much help. I'm particularly interested in whether or not this experience exists at Northwestern.

Why are you interested in those procedures?

 

[citixen]

what is SCA website?

 

[BDylan]

Why are you interested in those procedures?

If a program involves its fellows in those types of procedures, its probably a good gauge as to the diversity of cases in general. Until recently, I assumed all programs would have plentiful amounts of VADs and transplants, but apparently that's not the case. The thinking is, if a program is doing "cutting edge" type procedures, the other stuff is probably covered pretty well.

Also just curious.

 

[proman]

I haven't done a perc AVR but have done a perc mitral valve repair. Imagine 2 blindfolded cardiologists trying to catch a greased bat with chopsticks. My contribution was running 1/2 MAC of des. No thanks.

 

[tucker27705]

you also asked for comments on locales.

In my mind, nothing beats Stanford. Loved Palo Alto. Very friendly folks in anesthesia. Don't really know anything about the cardiac program there.

Someone mentioned Emory. Atlanta is a very nice place to spend a year, but its not northern California. Work with several Emory trained cardiac guys, all very good. Heard from others its a great program. MUCH cheaper than Palo Alto. Direct flights to everywhere.

Chicago and NY? Too fricken cold.



Tuck

 

[ucsfgaspain]

you also asked for comments on locales.

In my mind, nothing beats Stanford. Loved Palo Alto. Very friendly folks in anesthesia. Don't really know anything about the cardiac program there.

Someone mentioned Emory. Atlanta is a very nice place to spend a year, but its not northern California. Work with several Emory trained cardiac guys, all very good. Heard from others its a great program. MUCH cheaper than Palo Alto. Direct flights to everywhere.

Chicago and NY? Too fricken cold.



Tuck

I have to agree with the above quote. That's why I live literally a 1/2 mile from Stanford Campus. It also helps that I went their undergrad and grew up in Palo Alto. Palo Alto however is not San Francisco. You are about 60 minutes away from SF. Palo Alto is suburbia so you have to understand that dynamic.

That being said. If you are an outdoorsy athletic person, you will have a hard time beating the location. I roll out of bed and have world class cycling right outside my house. I can swim at the campus pool and be in the next lane to former and current olympic caliber swimmers. I run by ..albeit very slowly natonal caliber collegiate distance runners every weekend in the foothills. You have tahoe 3 hours away...Salt lake city an hour flight away. I have a season pass to heavenly/northstar and snowboard there probably 20 - 30 days a season, and head out to SLC for a week a year.

The most amazing thing to me though is that at Stanford, you are surrounded by excellence in all aspects...what I mean is that it's a powerhouse in academic medicine...but also has an entrepreneurial spirit that you can tie into if you are interested in getting into VC or industry...more importantly you are in the middle of silicon valley and thus can escape the health care centric vibe of fellowship and residency. I;ve attended talks on campus when the Dali Lama has been in town. I've gotten to chat with broadway playwrights who have been artists in residence on campus.

Now also understand that being here also entails, eating a little humble pie. Believe me when I say that being in medicine makes you very middle class in this area...(maybe even lower middle class). This keeps the egos somewhat in check. My wife jokes with me how I was the poorest guy she ever dated and she was not kidding (internet millionaires are a dime a dozen here). PM me if you want to ask more specific questions. I definitely can give you the lowdown of palo alto. One of my colleagues is a recent Stanford CV fellowship grad, hit me up if you want to chat with her.