The fellowship requires a minimum of 12 months for CMR/CT, 12 months for echocardiography and 12 months for nuclear cardiology, and can be tailored to each trainee’s career objectives. Documented completion of level II training in any of these areas during prior training, such as an ACGME-accredited program in cardiovascular medicine, may be counted toward these requirements. The trainee will be expected to interact with patients directly with appropriate supervision, including eliciting clinical histories, applying physical examination skills and reviewing existing data relevant to each procedure throughout the period of training. In addition to gaining the relevant knowledge of physics and instrumentation for each modality, fellows will learn to independently perform examinations and interpret the results.

All fellows will participate in at least one research project during their fellowship and will be expected to complete the necessary educational sessions prior to the onset of human subjects or animal research. Such sessions are offered through the OSU Office of Responsible Research Practices throughout the year. Additional coursework in research including biostatistics and clinical trial design are also available, in addition to weekly and quarterly didactics. Fellows will be expected to prepare grant applications, submit abstracts for presentation at national and international meetings and compose manuscripts for submission to referred journals.

Didactics are held at least once a month and include the following topics: physics, instrumentation, safety, acquisition protocols, postprocessing, indications, contraindications, coding and compliance. Fellows will attend on-site educational seminars relevant to the areas of training, such as the annual CMR/CT CME Update. Fellows will also conduct conferences to demonstrate their understanding of new skills and knowledge and assist in the training of general cardiovascular medicine fellows. They will also attend core conferences in cardiovascular medicine.

Quarterly conferences are held with the general cardiovascular medicine fellows and consist of case presentations, as well as didactic material. Over the course of one year, cases presented at this and other interdisciplinary conferences will be selected to represent all forms of cardiovascular diseases including ischemic heart disease, coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, congenital heart disease, arrhythmias, cardiomyopathies and pericardial disease.

All applicants will be required to have successfully completed an ACGME-certified postdoctoral training program. Level II competency in at least one area of cardiovascular imaging is required. As such, any physician who is board-certified or board-eligible in cardiovascular medicine is eligible. Trainees without level II competency in at least one area will be required to complete two years of subspecialty fellowship to insure adequate training. Licensure to practice medicine in the state of Ohio is also required. All applications will be reviewed by a committee composed of faculty involved in cardiovascular imaging and selected by faculty from the core program. Fellows will be selected based upon their academic credentials, past performance and potential for academic careers.

Currently, there is no ACGME accreditation for cardiovascular imaging, although ACC/AHA clinical competence statements have been published for each area of training. These statements form the core of the curriculum, insuring completion at standards for training that will likely be included in future accreditation requirements.

MD: University of Perugia, Italy
General Cardiology Fellowship: St. George's University of London
Andrea.Cardona@osumc.edu

MD: University of Juba College of Medicne
Residency: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
General Cardiology Fellowship: University of Toledo
Mohamed.Elamin@osumc.edu