Program Curriculum

Our Division has a strong mission to train clinically expert academic cardiologists, trained and inspired to become future leaders in the world of Cardiology and our society at large. We emphasize five core values of our mission:

Outstanding Clinical Expertise: We are committed to training fellows who will become outstanding cardiologists with a deep fund of knowledge and superior decision-making skills. From our cardiac care unit to consultation services and extending to the ambulatory setting, our fellows manage a wide range of cardiac pathologies. This foundational knowledge grows through hands-on procedural training and exposure to advanced cardiac sub-specialties. Our faculty is clinically expert and dedicated to teaching our fellows. Clinical training is complemented by an outstanding didactic program with dynamic speakers, from within our institution to across the world, and are provided daily throughout the year.

Academic Capability and Achievement: As a leading academic Cardiology Department, we foster excellence in research and academic pursuits to position our fellows for future full-time academic careers. Each fellow in our program is required to do research and develop a mentored relationship with one or more of our full-time faculty. The academic expertise within our Division assures that our cardiology fellows have a wide selection of research opportunities available. Year after year, our fellows are productive and successful, supported by the key components of strong faculty mentorship and Institutional support of the Mount Sinai Health System.

Leadership: We seek to recruit fellows who desire to become future leaders in the world of Medicine. To support this drive, we train our fellows in leadership skills and provide them with structured opportunities to practice and express clinical, academic, and/or administrative leadership in the second and third years of fellowship training.

Character and Compassion: There are three virtues that we hold dear: strong “people skills”, being a team player, and a giving attitude. We want fellows who personify these characteristics and can serve as role models of integrity, professionalism, and compassion for our residents and students. Our fellows balance poise and grace with grit and perseverance. We train our fellows to appreciate the patient as a whole, learning from both an academic and emotional standpoint from each patient interaction.

Camaraderie: People function best in a positive, nurturing environment, inspired by positive role models. Since the advent of our fellowship decades ago, we have focused on our fellows becoming lifelong friends with each other. We see alumni thriving both here in New York City and across the globe following graduation from our training program. We relish the reputation that our program has developed for its outstanding camaraderie and sense of esprit-de-core.

Your Training

Academic Track

(by month)

First Year

Second Year

Third Year

Clinical Rotations

Our cardiology training program provides fellows with a comprehensive clinical experience along with powerful research opportunities. Academic endeavors such as leadership roles in various societies, organizations or journals is also emphasized. Clinical rotations are scheduled to ensure fellows meet ACGME standards for general cardiology fellowship as well as COCATS requirements for board certification in Echocardiography and Nuclear Medicine. The majority of the third year is elective, allowing fellows to round out their clinical experience according to personal goals: fellows may choose to concentrate on research developed in the first two years of training, seek additional expertise in sub-specialty areas of cardiology, or a hybrid of clinical and investigative work.

Echocardiography

Nuclear Cardiology

Cardiac Computed Tomography

Cardiac MRI

Interventional Cardiology

Electrophysiology

Heart Failure

Cardiac Intensive Care

Clinic Experience

A central component of our Cardiology fellows’ experience is their weekly cardiology clinic, taking place one afternoon per week. Each fellow manages approximately 8 new and returning patients each clinic session, under the supervision of our skilled clinical faculty Fellows follow their patients continuously throughout their three-year fellowship. The goal of this experience is to teach our fellows how to develop and apply the full range of their growing fund of medical knowledge and experience to clinical problems. The faculty will guide the fellows in developing reasonable and appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic skills. Through their clinic experience, it is anticipated that all fellows will come to:

On-Call Experience

On-call training is a crucial component of cardiology fellowship. Our call structure provides invaluable exposure to all levels of acute cardiology to sharpen decision-making and management skills by the fellows. Common on-call issues include the handling of myocardial infarction, unstable angina, hypotension and cardiogenic shock, aortic dissection, atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, heart block requiring pacemaker, mechanical complications of myocardial infarction such as papillary muscle or free wall rupture, suspected cardiac tamponade, and hypertensive emergencies. During the night call experience, our fellows perform or assist in a significant number of emergent cardiac procedures such as transthoracic or transesophageal echocardiography or temporary pacemaker insertions. A designated cardiology fellow is on-call to cover Mount Sinai Morningside from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. on weekdays and from 8:00 a.m. to the following day 8:00 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The fellow on weekend call is also responsible to make rounds with the CICU team on call. The post-call day is scheduled to keep the overnight fellows free of responsibility from their respective service and covered by the “post call” block fellow. A back-up fellow is always designated for potential coverage or assistance throughout the year, to field questions of junior fellows and/or be available in the case of multiple unexpected emergencies.

Weekly Cardiology Conferences

Daily conferences are a highlight of our program. Our lecture schedule begins each year with the core curriculum which is comprised of high yield topics such as management of acute coronary syndrome and atrial fibrillation. Later in the year, we incorporate case-based conferences and topic-driven journal clubs. A particularly special aspect of daily conferences is our weekly Grand Rounds where we invite leading clinical experts and nationally and internationally acclaimed academicians from across the globe to provide our faculty, fellows and housestaff with exposure to the latest research and clinical developments in Cardiology. In addition, we often make arrangements for visiting faculty to stay for an additional lecture, thus allowing our fellows and faculty to interact at a more intimate level with leading experts.