Cardiology Fellowship

Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory: The anticipated volume of procedures for the coming year will approach 3000. There are three new or recently renovated rooms in the catheterization laboratory. Approximately 80% of the patients are evaluated for coronary heart disease. The primary approach to the left heart catheterization is the percutaneous femoral artery approach. Both the Sones technique and the percutaneous brachial artery approach are also used. There is an active program in Interventional Cardiology. Fourth year Fellows are assigned to that service. The projected volume for 2000 will be more than 850. The Fellow is responsible for the workup, the catheterization procedure, data evaluation, and report. The average weekly volume for each fellow is 10 cases.

Noninvasive Cardiology: During the three years of Fellowship, each Fellow is assigned to the noninvasive laboratory for six months. The annual volume of echocardiograms, exercise tests, holter studies, and other noninvasive tests is in excess of 10,000. The Fellows have abundant experience in the performance of the individual procedures.

Nuclear Cardiology: The Fellows devote a portion of their noninvasive rotation to nuclear cardiology. Pyrophosphate scans, Sesta MIBI scans, and gated blood pool scans are all performed.

Electrophysiology/Pacemaker Service: The Fellow assigned to the electrophysiology/pacemaker service participates fully in its activities. The Fellow evaluates all patients with serious arrhythmias, and assists in all electrophysiology evaluations, including 8-10 invasive procedures a week. Fellows observe implantation of permanent pacemakers in the EP Lab, and attend pacemaker and arrhythmia clinics with the faculty members.

Cardiac Intensive Care Unit: The CICU has twelve beds and is staffed by interns and residents. When assigned to the CICU, the Fellow participates in the care of patients with complicated problems and is responsible for teaching.

Consult Service: The Fellow is responsible for evaluating all consultations to the Cardiology Service. The Fellow is responsible for supervising the residents and medical students who have selected the elective in cardiology. Typically, there is one resident and one medical student on the service.

Cardiac Surgery: Cardiac surgery was initiated at Baystate Medical Center in February, 1978. The surgical volume exceeds 800 cases per year.

Pediatric Cardiology: There is a Pediatric Cardiology Service at Baystate Medical Center under the direction of Dr. Thomas Rowland. The service has eight clinics per month and an inpatient consultation program.

Research Activities: Each of the disciplines within Cardiology has its own research activity. The electrophysiologists participate in a number of multicenter trials evaluating new antiarrhythmic drugs, artificial pacemakers, and heart-rate variability as a predictor of prognosis in patients with coronary artery disease. They also are active in investigating implantable cardioverter defibrillators. The physicians who practice interventional cardiology have participated for many years in the TIMI (Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction) trials, now initiating TIMI 13. The physicians also participate in studies related to coronary angioplasty. There are also ongoing studies of secondary prevention with cholesterol-lowering drugs in patients with coronary heart disease, and of Amlodipine in the treatment of congestive heart failure. Each Fellow is assigned to participate in a research project at the start of the Fellowship, and the Fellows are encouraged to initiate studies as well. The Fellows are required to submit abstracts to national meetings as part of their training.