The Cardiovascular Disease Program at Hartford Hospital/UConn Health is a three-year program specifically designed to prepare cardiovascular fellows for the practice of cardiology. The fellowship program is based at Hartford Hospital. It is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The program follows the Guidelines for Training in Adult Cardiovascular Medicine Core Cardiology Training Symposium (COCATS 4) published by the AHA and ACC. These guidelines are available at www.acc.org.
While in the three-year program, fellows receive training in basic cardiovascular diseases, clinical cardiology, and subspecialty practices. This is accomplished by clinical experiences that provide exposure to cardiovascular-related diseases and problems, didactic sessions covering basic mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases, dedicated research months, and subspecialty rotations.
During the core clinical rotations, the fellow interviews, examines, and formulates basic evaluations of patients with cardiovascular-related illnesses and carries out diagnostic and therapeutic plans in conjunction with an attending cardiologist. During subspecialty rotations, fellows are exposed to the practices of cardiac catheterization, preventive cardiology, arrhythmias, nuclear cardiology, echocardiography, vascular medicine, pacemaker and ICD management, and interventional electrophysiology. During the third year, the cardiovascular disease fellow chooses either an invasive or non-invasive track for additional training in those areas.
The research experience in the cardiovascular disease program is designed to allow fellows ample exposure to the process of designing a project, performing data analysis, and preparing the manuscript of a research project. Research is begun in the first year specifically to allow the opportunity to gain skill and knowledge in the performance of cardiovascular disease research and time for completion of a research project. Fellows engaged in research are expected to prepare results for abstract presentation at national meetings and manuscript submission. Local hospital funding is available for support of projects, and several attending physicians have national support for studies.
More information about the Hartford Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute.
Advanced fellowships available at Hartford Hospital through the UConn School of Medicine include: