In addition, more than 1,000 open-heart procedures are performed annually at West Penn. The Cardiology Fellowship Program at The Western Pennsylvania Hospital is a three-year integrated program designed to provide trainees with the cognitive and procedural skills necessary to practice modern cardiology. While comprehensive in scope, the program allows trainees to individualize their training by emphasizing specific aspects of cardiology in which they have a particular talent or interest. Except for elective rotations in pediatric cardiology at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and in transplantation at Presbyterian University Hospital, fellowship program experiences are scheduled on campus at The Western Pennsylvania Hospital. Core Curriculum - The first two years of the Cardiology Fellowship constitute a core curriculum in clinical cardiology.
Fellows spend four months on the clinical cardiology services.
During this period, fellows participate as consultants in the daily care of patients with a wide range of cardiovascular diseases. Four months are spent as a junior attending physician in the Cardiac Care Unit, which has more than 850 admissions per year of patients suffering from cardiac conditions ranging from acute myocardial infarction to malignant ventricular arrhythmias. Each cardiology fellow is responsible for active supervision of three members of the house staff under the direction of an attending cardiologist. Fellows also spend time in the Electrocardiology Laboratory, obtaining experience in interpreting the results of ECG and Holter monitoring and diagnostic stress testing. Daily reading sessions are held with faculty attending physicians, and there is a biweekly echo conference.