Schedule & Responsibilities

The pediatric cardiology fellowship program is a three year program. Two years will be devoted to learning and practicing the skills of clinical care and one year to research. During the first year, the fellow develops skills in history taking, physical examination and clinical management in both in-patient and outpatient settings and becomes knowledgeable in electrocardiography, echo-Doppler, nuclear cardiology, exercise stress testing, and cardiac catheterization. Principles of cardiac catheterization are learned, and the fellow performs diagnostic catheterizations.

In the second year the fellow perfects catheterization skills, including those of interventional catheterization and electrophysiology. During electives in the first and beginning of the second year, the fellow explores possible avenues of research and formalizes his/her major research activity.

The end of the second and first half of the third year is devoted primarily to performance and completion of a research project, with enhance ment of clinical skills. This latter is finalized during the last 3-6 months of fellowship, which are spent "electively" in clinical cardiology, catheterization laboratory, and echo-Doppler.

The pediatric cardiology fellow has an excellent opportunity to develop teaching skills. Pediatric residents and third and fourth year medical students regularly rotate through the pediatric cardiology service. They are fully integrated into all patient care and teaching programs. The fellow is expected to participate in the informal teaching. From time to time, fellows will also conduct formal teaching sessions.