General Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship
As a fellow in the ACGME-accredited General Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship, you will receive training to develop outstanding clinical cardiology and cardiovascular research skills, setting you up for a career as a leader in clinical cardiology and cardiovascular research. Our fellowship is designed to give you basic and clinical knowledge, procedural skills, clinical judgment, professionalism, and interpersonal skills required as a specialist in cardiovascular diseases.
The general cardiology fellowship training program includes at least three years of training.
- The first two years are focused on core clinical training with rotations in many aspects of cardiology care.
- The third year of your fellowship is an individualized program designed by you, your mentor, and program leadership to design an individualized program tailored to their clinical and academic goals.
Additional years of training may be available depending on your area of interest and performance.
Clinical Rotations
As a cardiology fellow, you will rotate through major clinical care areas in both inpatient and outpatient settings. You will complete clinical training at Yale New Haven Hospital, a 1,541-bed facility over two sites in New Haven, the York Street Campus, and the Saint Raphael Campus, and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven. The patients from these institutions represent a wide variety of both common and rare cardiovascular disorders and provide excellent exposure to all areas of cardiovascular medicine in a demographically diverse population.
You will work under the direct supervision of a cardiology faculty member. During each rotation, you will have the opportunity to provide the initial evaluation of patients and form treatment recommendations under the supervision of an attending physician. Medical residents and students may also attend these rotations, allowing you to refine your teaching skills.
Inpatient Care
Consultative care —
You will rotate on inpatient consultive cardiology services, seeing patients in a variety of settings, including the emergency room, cardiology floors and intensive care units (ICUs), general and subspeciality medical floors and ICUs, general and subspecialty surgical floors, and ICUs. You will be responsible for evaluating patients, determining and implementing therapeutic plans, following patients through their illnesses, and teaching residents and students.
Cardiac intensive care unit —
You will manage critically ill cardiac patients, including those with acute myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, arrhythmias, decompensated heart failure, and cardiogenic shock. You will develop skills in bedside invasive procedures, hemodynamic monitoring, mechanical circulatory support, and ventilator management.
Congestive heart failure —
You will rotate on the inpatient Heart Failure, Transplant and Mechanical Support service, managing ICU-based patients and floor consults. Your training will include managing patients with advanced heart failure, including:
- Managing patients who require invasive hemodynamic monitoring and intravenous inotropic/pressor agents.
- Assessing candidacy for advanced therapies
- Evaluating the need for mechanical circulatory support using both short-term and long-term platforms and the management of patients on LVADs
- Managing patients pre- and post-heart transplantation and those with long-term transplant-related complications
Laboratory-Based Experiences —
You will receive clinical training in:
- Cardiac catheterization
- Electrophysiology
- Imaging, including echocardiography, nuclear cardiology (SPECT and PET), magnetic resonance imaging, and cardiac computerized tomography.
- Other skills acquired during these rotations include exercise stress testing, ECG interpretation, cardio-pulmonary testing, and ambulatory electrocardiography interpretation
Electives
During the 3rd year, fellows can participate in many elective opportunities, including:- Ambulatory sub-specialty week
- ACHD
- Cardio-Obstetrics
- Cardio-Oncology
- CTICU/ECMO
- CICU/critical care
- EP lab (adult and/or pediatrics)
- Pulmonary hypertension
- RPVI/Vascular ultrasound
- PV Interventions
Ambulatory Clinical Experience
You will follow and manage patients in an outpatient setting throughout your fellowship at two different sites: The Yale Cardiology Fellows and Faculty Ambulatory Practice at Sherman Avenue and the West Haven Veterans Affairs Hospital Cardiology Clinic. These longitudinal clinics will allow you to develop meaningful relationships with patients and mentors over three years. You will see a diverse patient population with various reasons for referral. You will manage common heart problems, evaluate patients before and after surgeries and procedures, and follow up on recently discharged patients, among other clinical duties.
At the Yale Clinic, fellows are assigned to a faculty and fellow peer pod for continuity, cross-coverage, and mentoring. You will also rotate in one of many subspecialty clinics, including congestive heart failure, infiltrative cardiomyopathy, cardio-obstetrics, mechanical circulatory support (VAD), electrophysiology, prevention, cardio-oncology, structural heart disease, cardiac genetics.
Evaluation Process
Faculty and fellows at a mentoring meeting at the VAMOS teaching lab
Back row (l-r) Carmen Pajarillo, Fabrizio Darby, Abhinav Aggarwal, MD, Carlos Mena-Hurtado, MD, Kim Smolderen, PhD, Gaëlle Romain PhD, Juan Batlle MD, Santiago Callegari MD; Front row (l-r): Mamadou Jallow, Francky Jacque MD, Jacob Cleman MD, Adriana C. Mares
You will receive verbal and written feedback at the end of each rotation, and twice a year you will meet with the program director and associate program director(s) to provide a comprehensive assessment of your performance based on ACGME Core Competencies. Our cardiology faculty will observe, assess, and document your clinical and technical competence, with a formal Clinical Competency Committee evaluation process occurring twice per year.
Consistent with and in addition to the ACGME Core Competencies, we will evaluate:
- Knowledge base in cardiovascular diseases
- History taking and physical examination skills
- Clinical judgment
- Clinical management and consultation
- Technical proficiency with specialized cardiac procedures
- Communication skills
- Teaching skills
- Professionalism commitment to scholarship
Research Experience
Fellows, students, and postdocs meet with John Hwa, MD, PhD to discuss ongoing research. (L-R)Timur Yarovinsky, MD, PhD,Sean Gu, MD, PhD, Kanika Jain, PhD, Tarun Tyagi, PhD, ARS
As a cardiology fellow at Yale, you must complete original research or substantial scholarly work related to cardiology. Our faculty will provide guidance and supervision as you design and complete your research.
Research training is available in all clinical sub-specialties, clinical epidemiology and health sciences research, and several areas of basic and translational cardiovascular research.
Faculty Participation
The 150+ full-time faculty members in the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine are involved in every aspect of the fellowship training, including your clinical evaluation, procedural skills, research, and academic work. The faculty provides didactic teaching, clinical supervision, and professional mentoring for trainees aspiring to careers in cardiovascular disease.
Formal Instruction
We are committed to providing a rigorous and supportive environment for didactic education. As a fellow, you will have a weekly 3-hour “education block” where you are relieved from your clinical duties to allow dedicated time for education and learning. Lectures include didactic sessions on core cardiology topics, ECG conferences, journal clubs, clinical reasoning conferences, board reviews, and case conferences.
How do I apply?
You must apply to Yale’s General Cardiovascular Fellowship through the ERAS system. The application cycle opens in the spring of each year. We recommend you complete the ERAS application and secure all letters of recommendation early because interview slots are assigned based on when we receive your application.
If you are interested in combined clinical and research training, please note this interest in your personal statement.
Application Requirements
To be considered for the program, you must have completed a three-year ACGME-accredited internal medicine residency by the start of the fellowship.
Along with the application, we require:
- Three letters of recommendation, including one letter from your residency program director
- A personal statement
- USMLE or COMPLEX transcript
We sponsor J-1 and H1B visas for applicants.
Interviews are by invitation only and usually occur in September through early October.
Diversity is essential in academic institutions, and we are fully committed to recruiting and developing underrepresented minorities in medicine for careers in cardiology.
All applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.