Clinical Cardiology Residency

Clinical Rotations

The residency combines clinical training and rounds, weekly seminars, self-study, and clinically-relevant research. The program is highly structured and organized to facilitate both clinical training and post-graduate education. Specific goals are the development of strong competencies in physical and imaging diagnosis, echocardiography, electrodiagnostics (ECG, Ambulatory ECGs, signal-averaged ECG), cardiac catheterization, angiocardiography, cardiac pacing, interventional cardiac procedures, with clinical competence in respiratory endoscopy. Cardiology residents also are expected to develop core competency in general internal medicine.

The resident spends approximately 120 weeks in scheduled clinics within the Veterinary Teaching Hospital over a 3-year period. Clinical experience includes primary care (referral) cardiology, in-hospital case consultation in small and large animals, management of small animal patients with respiratory diseases, and treatment of cardiac patients with multi-systemic internal medicine disorders. The Cardiology Clinic caseload is approximately 90% cardiovascular disease based and about 10% respiratory disease based. Additional clinical experience in general internal medicine is gained at other times during the program. Clinical rotations are organized as series of 4 to 8-week rotations. Most of these rotations are on the Clinical Cardiology Service, but some time is spent in the internal medicine. Four cardiologists ? three ACVIM and one ECVIM certified ? contribute to the program through direct supervision, mentoring, consultation, classroom and seminar teaching, and research support. All clinical work is done in conjunction with clinical teaching of senior veterinary students and interns and is supervised at all times by faculty in cardiology. The hospital is one of the busiest in terms of academic practices, with a full complement of clinical specialists. Daily interaction with colleagues in internal medicine, oncology, neurology, radiology, anesthesiology, critical care and emergency medicine, and surgery is typical. Residents do have limited urgent and emergency care responsibilities; currently this involves backing up interns on emergency duty for cardiology patients. Backup responsibilities occur during both ?on-clinics? and ?off-clinic? periods, though the faculty or other residents assume back-up calls during designated board preparation time, when the resident is on vacation, or as required to assist the resident.