The Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship at Lankenau Medical Center has been training fellows for over thirty years. The fellowships our accredited by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education. Our fellowship requires a minimum of three years of general cardiovascular training. The first two years includes core clinical rotations that meet COCATS requirements. The third years includes subspecialty training to meet the individual fellows' goals. Additional training may include further subspecialty training in areas of electrophysiology or invasive cardiology.
Our curriculum is unique in several ways. A structured lecture series is given by the faculty on core curriculum topics. The lecture series including catheterization, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology and electrophysiology are totally integrated by topic. We use an audience response system lecture series to re-enforce the core curriculum lecture points. Our audience response teaching method was awarded one of ten oral presentations at the national Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education meetings in March 2009.
The Lankenau Heart Institute conducts and participates in numerous investigative clinical trials. Fellows have ample opportunity to take part in ongoing clinical trials. There is also the opportunity for bench research if the fellow chooses to pursue it. The fellowship program has an affiliation with the renowned Lankenau Institute for Medical Research.
Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) is a non-profit, biomedical research institute located on the campus of Lankenau Medical Center. Founded in 1927, research here has spanned over decades and yielded pinnacle research points such as the Philadelphia Chromosome in CML to the discovery of hepatitis B’s causality in liver cancer. Both residents and fellows can participate in laboratory research within LIMR and there is an immense breadth of resources available to do so. From poster printing to analytical support, all are easily accessible within this on-site research institution.
Ongoing cardiovascular research at Lankenau includes participation in trials spanning from preventative Cardiology to Interventional to Structural Heart and beyond. Structural trials include the Edwards Cardioband Tricuspid Valve Reconstruction System, Edwards PASCAL CLASP, Trancatheter Arial Shunt System (Alt FLOW), ACURATE Neo TAVR, MitraClip Repair MR, TRISCEND II TAVR system, and APOLLO (transcatheter mitral replacement).
Within electrophysiology we participate in examining new ablation techniques in Medtronic Terminate AF and new devices for left atrial appendage closure with CONFORMAL. And in the heart failure space, there are ongoing trials for Sotaracept and Macitentan in Pulmonary Hypertension.
In addition to all the research surrounding procedures, our fellows participate in an incredible volume of procedures. And all those who choose to subspecialize have expressed how well prepared they are for their field of choice after their general fellowship at Lankenau!
In the last calendar year, we performed the following (numbers include Lankenau and Bryn Mawr Hospital, locations where fellows perform procedures regularly with graded autonomy based on their experience level):
- Left Heart Catheterizations: 2,626
- Right Heart Catheterizations: 860
- TAVR: 340
- Atrial Fibrillation Ablations: 396
- ICD and Pacemaker Implantation: 468
The Lankenau Institute of Medical Research is comprised of many world-renowned PhD basic scientists that can be a great resource for cardiovascular fellows in training.
At Lankenau Medical Center we are very proud of the cardiovascular care provided and the training program. The fellowship program provides a unique training opportunity that can be tailored to a fellows' specific goals. Each fellow is provided the opportunity for their own experience depending upon their interest and career plans.