Cardiovascular Disease Clinical Experience
Across the three-year program, fellows receive training in all disciplines of cardiology. Typical schedule:
First Year
- Invasive Cardiology, four months
- Clinical services, four months
- Non-invasive Cardiology, four months
- Electrophysiology, two months
Second Year
- Heart Failure Rotation, one month
- Subspecialty clinics*, one month
- Invasive Cardiology, three months
- Non-invasive Cardiology, three months
- Electrophysiology, one month
- CCU, two months
- Elective, one month
Third Year
- Nuclear Medicine, four months
- Non-invasive Cardiology / CCU, three months
- Invasive Cardiology, two months
- Cardiovascular Imaging, two months
- Elective, one month
The *subspecialty clinic rotation includes exposure to vascular surgery, adult congenital cardiology clinic, cardio-thoracic surgery, and cardiac rehabilitation.
On average fellows take call every sixth night through the first two and a half years of their fellowship. Fellows are not required to take call in the hospital.
Fellows in our program are trained to
- Provide compassionate, expert care to patients across the entire spectrum of cardiovascular diseases.
- Develop competence in current diagnostic and therapeutic techniques of cardiovascular medicine.
- Understand and participate in cardiovascular research.
- Effectively communicate with patients, family members, and medical personnel.
- Evaluate and improve their patient care.
- See their practice in the context of larger health care and societal structures.
- Mature individually with the highest of ethical and humanistic behavior.
Clinical activities occur at the UAMS Medical Center, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, and Arkansas Children’s Hospital. All fellows receive extensive clinical experience coupled with progressive responsibility, a program of clinical conferences and didactic lectures, and exposure to research.
Education
The curriculum is designed around training recommendations set forth by the American College of Cardiology COCATS4 guidelines. Using principles from adult learning theory, much of the education is self-directed. A wide variety of clinical conferences assists our fellows in acquiring and integrating the knowledge required of a well-trained specialist in cardiovascular medicine. Conferences include:
Core Curriculum
These conferences, taught by our cardiology faculty, recur annually and cover fundamental topics required for the practice of cardiology They average about once a week but occur more frequently during the beginning of the academic year. Content from these conferences is filed for review by the fellows at any time. Clinical Conference These conference run the gamut of topics, alternating between areas such as general cardiology, echo, cath, CT, MR, ECG, electrophysiology, and nuclear. These conferences are usually conducted by the fellows who prepare presentations from their clinical experience.
Cardiology Grand Rounds
This popular Wednesday conference presents state-of-the-art information to cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons important to their practice. Topics are presented by fellows, faculty and visiting professors.
Quality Conference This monthly conference address issues of quality improvement in the cardiovascular care at UAMS and VA. The conference moves beyond the discussion of morbidity and mortality to more broadly look for ways to improve patient care.
Journal Club Monthly
A fellow discusses published journal articles in an effort to better understand the construct and potential weaknesses of research studies. Internal Medicine Subspecialty Conference A monthly conference with fellows from other internal medicine sub-specialties considering topics of mutual interest. This meeting deals with issues such as teaching and communication skills, legal concerns, death-and-dying, epidemiology, statistics, ethics, etc.
Research
During their training, each fellow gains exposure to several different research experiences. Fellows have an opportunity to participate in ongoing clinical investigation as directed by members of the Cardiology Division. This clinically based research provides for superior patient care and education in an academic environment. The Division also has extensive basic research (cellular, small animal, and molecular biology) laboratories. The trainees are encouraged to spend time in clinical or fundamental research. Depending on interest and availability of funds, a significant amount of protected time may be spent in research laboratories at the discretion of the Division Director.