The Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Training Program at Children’s National involves 36 months of clinical, research and academic training. An approximate breakdown of the fellowship schedule is shown below.
| | Number of Training Weeks |
|---|
| Year One | Year Two | Year Three |
|---|
| Research | 6 | 23 | 22 |
|---|
| CICU | 4 | 6 | 4 |
|---|
| Inpatient* | 4-5 | 4 | 3 |
|---|
| Consults* | 4-5 |
|---|
| Imaging | 8 | 4 | 6 |
|---|
| EP | 6 | 2 | 4 |
|---|
| Cath | 8 | 4 | 4 |
|---|
| Subspecialty | 2 | 2 | 2 |
|---|
| Nights | 4 | 4 | 4 |
|---|
| Vacation | 4 | 4 | 4 |
|---|
* During the second and third years of training, inpatient and consults are performed together.
* Variations in the calendar may result in weeks not equaling 52.
Clinical Training
Clinical rotations include the Cardiology Inpatient Service (HKU), the Inpatient Consultation Service, the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU), the Echocardiography Laboratory, the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, the Electrophysiology Service and the Adult Congenital Service. Fellows participate in the outpatient continuity clinic for one half day per week during their first year and for one full day every other week during their second and third years. Training during the third year can allow for flexibility for elective experience and to tailor the year to meet individual training goals.
On-call responsibilities for the cardiology fellowship are performed predominantly through a night float system, which allows for continuity of care without sacrificing time from clinical and research duties. Monday night through Saturday night coverage is provided by an in-house cardiology fellow. Saturday day shift and Sundays are covered by an additional fellow, allowing for continuity of care over the weekend. Sunday overnight call may be performed at home if the clinical service allows. Call responsibilities include coverage of cardiology service and consult patients, new consults throughout the hospital and in the Emergency Department, answering parent phone calls and assisting in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit as needed. On-call fellows may also spend time performing echocardiograms and participating in cardiac catheterizations and electrophysiology procedures as they arise. Fellows are on call for approximately four weeks of night float and four weekends per year.
Cardiac Intensive Care Unit call is also through a night float system, separate from cardiology call. CICU call is shared by cardiology and critical care medicine fellows. CICU night float is embedded within the CICU rotation schedule. Each fellow also performs a limited number of additional cross-cover CICU calls per year. CICU call responsibilities include the primary care of all Cardiac Intensive Care Unit patients.
The cardiology fellowship program is supportive of and compliant with all ACGME duty hour standards.
Academic Curriculum
The fellowship training program prides itself on a robust schedule of protected time for fellow lectures and conferences, including formal fellow conferences, cardiology division conferences and hospital-wide conferences.
Division conferences include our weekly combined Cardiology - Cardiovascular Surgery management conference, catheterization conference and performance improvement conference. Fellow conferences incorporate a wide variety of both topics and learning modalities and are relevant to both a robust education in pediatric cardiology as well as the pediatric cardiology board examination. Regular fellow conferences include sessions on echocardiography, electrophysiology, cardiac critical care, core book review, surgical techniques and perspectives, pathology, embryology and principles of outpatient management.
Fellows are also encouraged to attend Pediatric Grand Rounds, Pediatric Professorial Rounds, hospital basic science research lectures and Washington Hospital Center cardiology conferences.