Advanced Heart Failure Fellowship Program

The Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship program, offered through MedStar Washington Hospital Center and Georgetown University, provides fellows with exceptional clinical training and research opportunities. Our program is based at MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute, which is located on the campus of MedStar Washington Hospital Center, and is partnered with Georgetown University School of Medicine.

The Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship is a one-year program and is ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) accredited in good standing since its inception in 2013. We accept two fellows each year, balancing the optimal clinical exposure with a high faculty-to-fellow ratio.

Our program spans the breadth and depth of all facets of advanced heart failure. We have one of the largest LVAD programs in the country and a large and growing transplant program. We have one of the largest infiltrative cardiomyopathy programs in the country and a strong pulmonary hypertension program. We have palliative care embedded in our service. There are no gaps in the clinical exposure that the fellows receive in our program.

Additionally, we have the flexibility in the curriculum to tailor the experience to the clinical interest of the fellow as opposed to rigidly following a rotation structure based on the clinical needs of the program.

Our fellowship program specifically focuses on preparation for early career. Our program has a large group of hospitalists and nurse practitioners to focus on direct patient care, allowing the fellow to assume the role of the supervising attending under the guidance of the AHF faculty. This accomplishes the goal of making the clinical experiences intellectually based as opposed to task based.

Our focus is on mentorship to allow the fellow to accomplish their personal and professional goals to get the most out of the one-year fellowship as opposed to accomplish the service requirements of the individual rotations.

The Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology fellowship curriculum qualifies trainees to sit for the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) subspecialty certification in Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology. The 12-month curriculum is as follows:

Our inpatient service is staffed by three Advanced Heart Failure Attending Physicians. The service is divided into a team focusing on transplant patients, a team focusing on LVAD patients, and a team focusing on consults. We have a 42-bed IMC for Advanced Heart Failure, but regularly see around 50 patients daily throughout MHVI.  The team is composed of two hospitalists based in the IMC, at least two Nurse Practitioners, as well as a general cardiology fellow and 3-4 Internal Medicine residents.  The AHF Fellow serves as a junior attending on the service helping to supervise the NPs and housestaff.

We have a large outpatient practice with around 6000 patient visits annually.  Our patients are seen in various clinics including Advanced Heart Failure, Heart Transplant Clinic, MCS/LVAD Clinic, Infiltrative Cardiomyopathy Clinic, Pulmonary Hypertension Clinic, amongst others.  The fellow rotates through all the various clinics in order to be exposed to a variety of patients, giving a broad outpatient experience.  Other outpatient activities include cardiopulmonary stress testing, right heart catheterization, and endomyocardial biopsy of transplant patients.

In addition to having protected time on a weekly basis to work on research projects, there is a dedicated one-month rotation for research.

Fellows are offered one-month electives from which they choose a variety of areas including Pulmonary Hypertension, Infiltrative Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, CVICU Critical Care, Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Transplant ID, Palliative Care, among others.

The curriculum allocates one month to research, but fellows can extend this time through electives. Additionally, there is protected time during each rotation for ongoing research activities throughout the year. Finally, for interested candidates, we offer a fully funded year-long Advanced Heart Failure Research Fellowship.

Fellows are responsible for finding a mentor to guide their research efforts. In many instances, fellows become heavily involved in the research pursuits of their mentor and will remain actively engaged in those activities during their fellowship.

Educational objectives

Current studies