About the Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship Program

The Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship Program aims to provide our fellows with a world class training experience that will enable them to pursue a successful career in cardiac electrophysiology, either in academic medicine or private practice. Trainees spend time at both Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. We have 9 full-time faculty members. Fellows gain extensive experience at each site in a wide variety of procedures, including ablation of supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias, and gain extraordinary competence in ablation for any arrhythmia. Radiofrequency energy and cryothermal energy are routinely used at our institutions and fellows gain in depth understanding of the biophysics of ablation in both modalities. Fellows will gain enormous experience in ablation of AF and VT including novel mapping technologies as well as ablation technologies like ethanol ablation of ligament of Marshall. All graduating fellows are competent in performing and interpreting intracardiac echocardiographic (ICE) studies. Fellows will be thoroughly exposed to left atrial occlusion procedures as well.

Graduating fellows are competent in managing complex issues pertaining to implantable devices. They will gain experience in laser and mechanical extraction of leads with various tools, including femoral approach employing a variety of snares including needle’s eye, goose neck and trifoil snares. They will be proficient at implanting His bundle pacemakers, left bundle branch pacemakers, lead less pacemakers, biventricular pacemakers and defibrillators, and subcutaneous ICDs, as well as performing venoplasty, troubleshooting device malfunction and providing leadership and managing complex cases referred by electrophysiologists in the community.

Fellows also get an outstanding experience with both endocardial and epicardial approaches to ablation of ventricular arrhythmias. They participate in surgical mapping of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with percutaneously inaccessible VTs. The training program includes the opportunity to evaluate and perform procedures in children with arrhythmias (as young as age 5). Fellows will also have the ability to evaluate patients with autonomic disorders.

Pericardiology and appendology are unique strong suits of our program. Electrophysiology fellows from VCU/MCV are well versed in accessing the pericardial space and the EP service is routinely asked to access pericardial effusions that are deemed too high a surgical risk or too posterior for surgical access.

Fellows are always exposed to novel therapeutics, such as bedside non-fluorosopic stellate ganglion blockade for refractory ventricular arrhythmias and left atrial appendage closure with WATCHMAN or LARIAT suture device.

There are basic science research facilities and collaborative activities at Virginia Commonwealth University with faculty members in the departments of Physiology and Pharmacology and Toxicology, as well as opportunities to do clinical research in most aspects of diagnosis and treatment of clinical arrhythmias with ablation and device therapy. There are opportunities to interact with both faculty and graduate students in the Biomedical Engineering school, and members in the departments of Pathology and Radiology.

The fellows in this program have a remarkable record of scholarly activity.  Below is a sample of recent publications within the last three years.  This list does not include poster presentations or oral presentations as national and international professional society meetings.

Call Schedule
Attendings and Fellows share week day calls. It is extraordinarily rare that Fellows are called into the hospital outside of working hours(once or twice a year).

Weekend calls
Fellows do on an average 1/3 weekends on call and they will always be rounding with the Attending on call for the weekend. Fellows are never on call without Attendings.

GME Resident & Fellow Well-Being
Graduate Medical Education training is not easy. With the GME Physician Well-being program, we first and foremost assert our commitment to your well-being, resilience and all aspects of a healthy lifestyle. VCU and VCU Health are dedicated to ensuring that you have the tools you need to be your best. (Learn more)

All About VCU, VCU Health, and RVA
First things first. We fondly refer to Richmond as RVA.  People love this city because it’s awesome. And Virginia Commonwealth University is in the middle of it all.  Learn more about VCU, VCU Health, and RVA!

VCU Faculty

• Kenneth Ellenbogen, MD
• Gautham Kalahasty, MD - Fellowship Program Director, Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program
• Jayanthi N. Koneru, MD - Fellowship Program Director, CCEP Fellowship Program
• Jordana Kron, MD
• Pranav Mankad, MD
• Santosh Padala, MD
• Ajay Pillai, MD
• Richard K. Shepard, MD
• Alexandre Raymond-Paquin, MD - instructor

VAMC Faculty

• Jose Huizar, MD - Director, Arrhythmia and Device Clinic
• Karoly Kaszala, MD - Co-Director, CCEP Fellowship Program
• Alex Tan, MD

Class of 2025

Yuxuan Mao, MD, MS
Medical School:   University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
Residency:  East Carolina University 
Fellowship:  VCU Health System 

Kara Stout, DO, MPH
Medical School:  AT Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona
Residency:  HCA Healthcare/University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine: Largo Medical Center 
Fellowship:  University of Nebraska Medical Center

Eligibility Requirements

A major aim of the Electrophysiology fellowship is to offer comprehensive training that will prepare fellows for careers in either academic medicine or clinical practice.

We offer one to two EP fellowship positions alternating each year.

1. Fellows must have U.S. citizenship or a permanent or J1 Visa. YOU MUST POSSESS YOUR PERMANENT OR J-1 VISA AT THE TIME OF YOUR FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION. H-1 Visa will NOT be considered.
2. Graduates of foreign (not U.S. or Canadian) medical schools should have three years of residency in internal medicine in the primary hospital of a university medical school in the U.S. or Canada and be on track to complete an ACGME accredited Cardiology Fellowship.
3. Personal statements should provide background information about you. We are interested in knowing why you have chosen Electrophysiology and what you plan to do after fellowship.

How to Apply

All applications to the Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship Program should go through ERAS. The timeline for application for medical subspecialty fellowships has been modified. This will leave very little time for completion of applications, review of applications, and selection of applicants for interviews.

Any interested applicants are urged to start their application process early. Requests for USMLE reports, reference letters, and other supporting documentation should be ready for submission on June 7 when you receive your applicant number from ERAS. We would recommend to applicants that they have all of the information required for the ERAS application form ready for submission on June 7. When reference letters are requested, we recommend that faculty members be notified that their letters should be ready for submission to ERAS on June 7, if possible.

Required Documents

All applicants must apply through ERAS and register with the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). Along with your application, we require several documents that ERAS does not scan.

They are:

• a copy of Virginia medical license (if you have one);
• ECFMG certificate;
• copy of your J1 or green card;
• medical school diploma (and translation where applicable); and a fourth reference letter.
• Social Security number/card.

Our ideal candidate has completed three years of Residency in Internal Medicine in a university hospital.

*** The majority of the documents described in “Required Documents” are required by ERAS. However, ERAS will not scan several of the documents that we require, i.e. social security card, copy of Virginia medical license (if you have one), ECFMG certificate; copy of your J1 or green card; medical school diploma (and translation where applicable). Mail all documents to (if selected for fellowship):

VCU School of Medicine
Department of Internal Medicine
Box 980509
Richmond, VA 23298-0509
Phone: (804) 828-9726
Email: imfellowships@vcuhealth.org

Application Timeline

We plan on interviewing applicants during July through September for positions starting in 2024. Applications will be accepted beginning in July 15, 2024. Interviews are granted and positions offered on a rolling basis.

Interview Information

Interview Days begin from approximately 07:00 AM to 2:00 PM. You have the option to stay longer and observe in the lab. This will include EP Core Conference, interviews with 6 faculty members, the current EP fellows, the Program Director, and the Division Chief. There will be opportunities to stay in the lab to observe cases.

Attention:  In support of our applicants, we will be flexible in providing virtual and on-site fellowship interview opportunities.  We understand that applicants may have restrictions on travel during this time.  Our interview schedule may change as we approach the late summer and fall. 

Program Director

Jayanthi N. Koneru, MD
VCU Medical Center 
Box 980053 
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0053 
Phone: (804) 828-7565
Email: jayanthi.koneru@vcuhealth.org

Fellowship Coordinator

Jeanette Wood
Department of Internal Medicine
Box 980509
Richmond, VA 23298-0509 
Phone: (804) 828-9726
Email: imfellowships@vcuhealth.org

For training verification requests, please visit us at https://intmed.vcu.edu/education/verification/