About the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Program

The Interventional Cardiology Fellowship program is designed to train fellows in the use of percutaneous interventional techniques in the management of coronary, peripheral vascular and valvular heart disease. The one-year program is comprehensive, structured and supervised by a board-certified staff totaling more than 100 years of interventional experience. Fellows train at both the VCU Medical Center and the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center.

The training includes didactic conferences, weekly case conferences, and individual fellow and faculty clinical patient reviews (pre- and post-procedure) to discuss risk, benefit, results, treatment strategies and complications. Fellow experience is very individualized with one-on-one faculty interactions for each procedure. Trainees also assist in teaching diagnostic fellows, medicine residents and other student groups, such as biomedical and undergraduate.

Program emphasis is placed on giving fellows ample opportunity to learn appropriate technical skills for safe coronary and peripheral intervention using multiple devices (including rotational atherectomy, balloons, stents, filter devices), and to advance and refine diagnostic cath skills.

Facilities

The VCU Medical Center has four cath labs. All are digital and linked with a mass storage archival device for easy retrieval of prior comparative studies. All have "deep throats" for peripheral runoffs. The Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center has two labs with digital acquisition and an archival storage system. Both institutions have on-site cardiac surgery as well as cardiac transplant programs, including the availability of destination LVADS and the Total Artificial Heart

Accreditation

We are fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for a one-year ABIM Board eligible Interventional training program for three fellows per year. Board pass rates have been excellent.