The 1-year, Advanced Cardiac Imaging Fellowship Training Program at the University of South Florida currently accepts 1 fellow for each academic year. Applications are accepted at any time and should be sent to the Program Administrators via email: Carmela Villanueva cvillanueva3@usf.edu,Twyla Sumpter tsumpter@usf.edu. Interviews are typically held in July & August, for the following July 1 academic year start.

During recruitment, decisions regarding individual candidates are made through applications, transcripts, scores on national exams (i.e. USMLE, etc), prior scholarly activities, letters of recommendation, personal statements, and interviews. Applicants must have successfully graduated from a 3-year, ACGME-accredited, Internal Medicine Residency and Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship program and must be board-certified or eligible.

Application Requirements:

• ACI Application
• CV
• Personal Statement
• LORs (Preferably 1 each from current PD and Chair)
• USMLE transcript scores
• Must have a current certification in ACLS/BLS

Educational Program & Curriculum

The Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging Fellowship Training Program consists of a 12-month training program comprised of clinical exposure, didactic teaching, and research opportunities. Instruction will be performed under the direction of expert faculty during the performance and interpretation of cardiovascular imaging studies.

Advanced Cardiac Imaging Fellowship Training Program's two primary goals are:

1. To train board certified or board eligible cardiologists to independently run or develop a state-of-the-art, clinical cardiac imaging service and to conduct independent cardiac imaging research.
2. To provide for the training and education in all technical and clinical aspects of cardiovascular patient-centric CT, MRI, PET/CT and echocardiography to achieve level three core competency in these modalities.

The curriculum is designed to allow the Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging fellow to learn the indications for, the techniques of, and the practical application and interpretation of state-of-the-art cardiovascular and cardiothoracic imaging, with emphasis on CT, MR and advanced echo techniques. In particular the trainee will gain knowledge of CT and MR physics, scanning principles related to cardiovascular and cardiothoracic imaging protocols, basic ECG interpretation skills as applicable to imaging protocols, contrast agents used for safe and optimal imaging, interpretative skills for reading clinical cardiovascular and cardiothoracic imaging studies, including data post-processing tools for analysis, an in-depth knowledge of normal and pathologic cardiovascular and cardiothoracic anatomy, and the physiology of acquired and congenital heart disease, cardiothoracic diseases, and vascular diseases of the aorta. Fellows have hands-on supervised clinical training, one-on-one teaching sessions with imaging attendings and participate in research and educational activities. The high volume of clinical studies and research opportunities provide fellows an excellent teaching environment.

Didactic Sessions and Teaching Methods

• Multidisciplinary Valve Conference, 1-hour weekly conference, structural case review
• Daily teaching during review of studies computed
• Course curriculum as delineated by Society for Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Advanced fellows provide education/expertise to general fellows on rotations
• Heart Revascularization, 1-hour weekly conference
• Grand Rounds, 1-hour monthly conference with fellow meeting

Evaluation System

A periodic evaluation of the program’s educational quality and compliance with the program’s requirements will be formally implemented through the faculty and fellow.

The COCATS taskforce statement on multimodality imaging provides case performance numbers for competency in each modality. Faculty will complete standard evaluation documents quarterly and report on the progress of the fellow. The fellow will also be the opportunity to evaluate the faculty. The ultimate success of training will be gauged by performance on single or multimodality board examinations in the future.