Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Structure

The TTUHSC interventional cardiology fellowship is comprised of:

1. Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Experience and Procedural Techniques
2. Outpatient Clinic
3. Consultative Services
4. Inpatient Service
5. Research
6. Conferences
7. On-Call Experience
8. Independent Reading and Studying
9. Discussion and Interaction with faculty and other fellows
10. Extramural Conferences and Training Programs

The fellow has only one rotation.  He/she is responsible for pre-and post-operative care of the interventional patient as well as the procedure.  Also, he/she is responsible for interpretation of non-invasive vascular studies.   In addition, he/she will have one half-day continuity clinic per week.

As is expected of interventional cardiologists in “real world” practice, these experiences occur simultaneously throughout the interventional fellowship year. This allows the fellow to participate in all aspects of the care of a wide variety of interventional cardiovascular patients including pre-procedural assessment, diagnostic and interventional therapeutic procedures, post

procedural care in the hospital and long-term, and in research relative to the field. As the fellow learns and gains experience, it is expected that he/she will integrate this knowledge and finesse to become a complete, well rounded, competent interventional cardiology consultant.

The Division of Cardiovascular Medicine provide numerous conferences to enhance the educational experiences of fellows. Interventional fellows are required to attend the Cath Conference (which includes Quality Assurance and Morbidity and Mortality Conference), Journal Club and Research Conferences, and Interventional Cardiology Board Review.

The call schedule is published on a monthly basis.  The fellows make their own call schedule, with number of calls based on academic year. The fellow on call is responsible for all consults and CVICU admissions.  The interventional fellow will be expected to take call 2 weeks per month.  Interventional calls will be shared with the two third year fellows.

Interventions are performed by the interventional fellow and third year general cardiology fellows or faculty, as the procedures require experience.

The fellowship program provides the opportunity to acquire procedural expertise:

• Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty
• Balloon angioplasty
• Stent deployment
• Rotational atherectomy
• Directional atherectomy (lower extremity)
• Laser atherectomy (lower extremity)
• Mechanical thrombectomy  (lower extremity)
• Rheolytic trombectomy (lower extremity)
• Distal protection devices 
• Carotid arterial intervetion

Fellows will learn techniques for percutaneous coronary intervention and other procedures:

• Percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty
• Percutaneous valve implantation/replacement

Clinical investigations include the use of novel devices for percutaneous treatment of coronary artery disease, non-coronary cardiac interventions, such as percutaneous valve replacement, drug-eluting stent studies, stem cell and angiogenesis factor treatment for patients with end-state coronary, and peripheral arterial disease and novel imaging technologies.

Fellows graduating from the one-year program will easily exceed the minimum ACGME requirement of 250 coronary interventions. Our curriculum meets the requirements specified by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) for interventionalists; and our high volume and high level of case complexity provide an excellent foundation to develop expertise as an independent operator.

UMC- Our primary teaching hospital is University Medical Center (UMC), a county-supported tertiary medical facility offering a wide variety of services.  Patients are referred from Lubbock and surrounding counties over a 200 mile radius, including eastern New Mexico. 

The Cardiovascular Center of Excellence is in the professional building located adjacent to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and is where the clinics are held weekly

Cardiology fellow clinic is held at pre-scheduled times. Patients are seen by the fellow and are presented to the faculty member for discussion and approval of planned management.

This a continuity clinic, so you follow your patient for the year you are a fellow.

The interventional fellow will spend 5 days per week in the cardiac catheterization laboratories at UMC participating in diagnostic procedures and coronary and peripheral vascular therapeutic interventional procedures. ½ day per week will be spent in the outpatient clinic with the cardiologists. The other half of the clinic day will be devoted to research concurrent with cath lab responsibility. If fellow become involved in a research project that requires more time, one additional day may be devoted to research with three days in the cath lab, or other arrangements can be made for protected research time.