Program Goals
The primary goal of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship is to provide comprehensive training in the diagnosis, care and catheter-based treatment of patients with coronary and structural heart disease. Fellows graduating from the University of Chicago-NorthShore Interventional Fellowship Program will be poised to assume positions of leadership in the field of Interventional Cardiology.
Program objective
The objectives of the University of Chicago (NorthShore) Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Program are to provide an academically and clinically rigorous training program, to provide the trainee with the procedural and cognitive skills necessary to excel in the field and to provide the foundation for the trainee to become a leader in their future hospital practice. During this one-year interventional training,the fellow is expected to master the techniques involved in coronary and structural valve intervention while developing perspective on procedural risk and benefit in cardiovascular patient care.
Curriculum
Our interventional cardiology program adheres to the doctrines outlined in the ACC COCATS guidelines document and the AHA statement on clinical competency in interventional cardiology. Here fellows obtain the detailed, extensive exposure to the essential components of adult invasive diagnostic and therapeutic cardiovascular procedures. By the end of the training, the interventional cardiology fellow will have acquired the knowledge base, judgment and technical skills to become an independent operator in interventional cardiology.
The program’s core curriculum, includes a series of lectures covering pertinent topics in interventional cardiology. Fellows are required to participate by presenting several topics throughout the year and are expected to complete a compendium of suggested readings provided to them.
By the end of the fellow’s training, the fellow will demonstrate mastery of competence in the following:
- Advanced trans-femoral and trans-radial arterial access
- Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty
- Coronary stent implantation
- Coronary atherectomy (rotational, orbital, laser)
- Mechanical thrombectomy
- Intracoronary imaging (ultrasound, optical coherence tomography)
- Intracoronary physiologic testing (fractional flow reserve)
- Complex, high risk coronary intervention
- Chronic total occlusion (CTO) coronary intervention
- Percutaneous ventricular support device insertion and management (intra-aortic balloon bump, axial flow pump e.g. Impella)
- Percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty
- Transcatheter aortic valve replacement
- Transcatheter mitral valve repair (MitraClip)
- Transcatheter closure of intracardiac communications (ASD, PFO)
- Alcohol septal ablation for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy
- Large bore arterial and venous sheath insertion and management