Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Program | Review of Pediatric Cardiology Categorical Training
Categorical three-year fellowship
The standard pediatric cardiology fellowship is a three-year program at Boston Children’s. The program accepts eight fellows each year. Training consists of 24 months of clinical rotations and 12 months of elective and research experience. The first year starts with an innovative, month-long “boot camp.” This program engages new fellows with hands-on training and skill development. Fellows complete a checklist “passport” of tasks in cardiac ICU care, electrophysiology, exercise physiology, catheterization, and echocardiography. The wide array of tasks includes:
- Using a state-of-the-art vascular access simulator
- Practicing entering a vein before a catheter procedure
- Obtaining consent for a procedure from a patient’s family
- Practicing emergency situations with a responsive human mannequin simulator followed by a team debriefing
A core group of teaching staff oversees the program and supplements clinical experiences with lectures that impart fundamental knowledge, including an in-depth cardiac pathology curriculum utilizing the resources of our cardiac registry.
Comprehensive core rotations
The clinical core consists of 24 months of clinical rotations that follow a 13-block schedule per academic year. These include training in outpatient and inpatient settings, and the collaboration of multidisciplinary programs. Fellows complete core rotations in each of the following main subspecialties of pediatric cardiology: imaging, cardiac intensive care, inpatient care, catheterization, electrophysiology, consultation, outpatient longitudinal care, adult congenital heart disease, and heart failure/advanced therapies/transplantation.
Gaining research experience
Research opportunities are diverse at Boston Children’s. They combine intramural expertise in molecular genetics, cardiac morphogenesis, and cellular adhesion with a wide range of laboratory investigation occurring throughout the Boston medical community. Educating fellows in patient safety and quality improvement (QI) science is another important goal of the core fellowship, and all fellows take a longitudinal course in QI methods during the first year. Fellows are then expected to meaningfully participate in ongoing QI projects in the Cardiovascular Fellowship Program or design and implement their own QI project.
| Year 1 (blocks) | Year 2 (blocks) | Year 3 (blocks) | Total (blocks) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bootcamp | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Echocardiography | 3 | 2 | 0.5 | 5.5 |
| Cardiac Intensive Care Unit | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Catheterization | 2 | 1-2 | 0 | 3-4 |
| Acute Cardiac Care Unit | 1-2 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 3.5 |
| Electrophysiology | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Consults | 0 | 1 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| Adult Congenital and Heart Failure | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Subspecialty Clinic | 0 | * | 0 | * |
| Research & Elective | 0.5 | 2.5 | 7 | 13 |
| Vacation | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |