Clinical Experience

In addition to learning the required skills of percutaneous intervention in the cardiac catheterization laboratory, fellows are involved in the care of patients prior to intervention and after intervention. This includes a one half-day per week clinic experience with one of the interventional cardiology faculty as well as the hospital management of all patients undergoing interventional procedures. Additionally, fellows, under the supervision of faculty members, are key members of the Vascular Medicine service, which provides consultative services for patients with peripheral and cerebrovascular disease.

Our interventional cardiology fellows are active participants and discussion leaders in a number of weekly or monthly conferences. These include a weekly film review and board preparation session headed by the director of the interventional cardiology fellowship program, a monthly morbidity and mortality conference, and a monthly medical-surgical conference where complex management cases are discussed amongst interventionalists and cardiovascular surgeons.

Research Experience

During the course of interventional training, fellows are required to take part in research endeavors in the field of interventional cardiology. This can include either basic science or clinical research in any aspect of interventional cardiology that is of interest, including, but not limited to, coronary and peripheral intervention, congenital, and valvular heart disease. It is expected that each fellow publish and/or present his or her research in a peer-reviewed journal or at a national conference. The Rush Interventional Heart and Vascular Research (RIHVR) Group is a integral component of the Section of Cardiology and provides our interventional fellows, as well as general cardiology fellows and residents/medical students, the opportunity to be involved with single center and multi-center clinical trials of new interventional cardiovascular treatments, devices, and drugs.