The Interventional Cardiology Fellowship curriculum focuses on a balanced experience, including clinical rotations, teaching experience, conference presentations and dedicated clinical research. The program offers advanced educational opportunities in numerous subspecialties, including structural heart disease, mechanical cardiopulmonary support, advanced vascular and advanced invasive imaging therapies.
Primary Procedural Sites
Fellows will spend 12 months assigned to the cardiac catheterization lab at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin. During this period, they will also perform interventional coronary and peripheral vascular procedures at Dell Seton Medical Center. Fellows will have opportunities for elective clinical experiences at Ascension Seton Hays to enhance their exposure to multiple operators and catheterization laboratory environments.
Fellows will see and examine patients, explain procedures, obtain informed consent, review cases and discuss pertinent issues with attending faculty before procedures commence. Fellows will progressively perform more of the procedures in a primary role as they develop their skills, with advancement of responsibility at the discretion of the attending faculty. Additionally, fellows will review hemodynamic, angiographic, imaging and clinical data, and complete procedural reports and post-procedural orders. During call weekends, fellows will assist the on-call interventional attending physician with rounds on the inpatient interventional service.
Outpatient Clinic
Fellows will rotate in the outpatient clinics of the interventional cardiology physicians one half-day per week over the course of their training. Patients will be seen in pre-procedural evaluation as well as in follow-up evaluation following interventional procedures for coronary, structural or peripheral interventions. Under the supervision of their preceptors, fellows will evaluate patients and order therapies and diagnostic tests. Fellows will also participate in the consultative experience with their preceptor in an outpatient setting and discuss patients’ indications and appropriateness for revascularization, as well as structural and vascular procedures.
Teaching Experience
The fellowship program integrates fellows into the exciting learning environment of Dell Medical School, where they will have the opportunity to participate in training medical students as well as residents from various graduate medical education programs. Fellows will also have opportunities to lead training programs with community first responders who participate in the care of patients presenting acute coronary syndrome.
Research
The research experience is an integral component of the fellowship program. The Interventional Cardiology Fellowship participates in dynamic clinical trials at Ascension Texas Cardiovascular and Dell Medical School. Fellows will have constant exposure to novel technologies used for clinical trial performance and will be included in monthly clinical research meetings with the entire cardiovascular division that highlight private and public sponsors of clinical research. Fellows will also be expected to serve as investigators on clinical trials and perform independent, investigator-initiated clinical research on both local and Ascension national cardiovascular service line projects.
Conferences
Interventional cardiology fellows will prepare for and present at regular cardiology conferences. These conferences will include the presentation of patients, including strategy for procedural performance and review of interventional outcomes. Presentations are to be supported by pertinent literature. Conferences include the following:
- Monthly interventional cardiology case review
- Monthly vascular meeting
- Weekly “heart team” meeting
- Quarterly noninvasive vascular imaging conference
- Quarterly cardiovascular morbidity and mortality
- Quarterly cardiac surgical morbidity and mortality
- Monthly cardiovascular research committee
- Cardiac cauterization laboratory didactic lecture series
- “Lab meeting” journal club focused on novel clinical trials science
About the Faculty
The program’s faculty features physicians with expertise in interventional coronary therapies, structural heart therapies and vascular disease therapies, and includes leaders in clinical research performance and national cardiovascular service lines.