Combined Clinical and Research Training

The Combined Clinical and Research Training Program in Cardiology meets all requirements of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) for subspecialty certification in cardiovascular disease. Completion of the program requires demonstration of competence in general cardiology, including invasive and noninvasive procedural skills. The primary goal of our training program is to prepare fellows for careers in academic cardiology.

Candidates for the combined program will hold M.D. or M.D./Ph.D. degrees and have completed an internal medicine residency at the time of enrollment.

Fellowship Tracks

Clinical Investigator (three to four years)

Fellows on the Clinical Investigator track complete at least three years of training which will include one or more years of research training. The first two years are devoted to the core curriculum in clinical cardiology. The third training year is dedicated to research, with an optional fourth training year devoted to an additional year of research or a combination of research and subspecialty clinical training. At the end of the fellowship, the Clinical Investigator is well-prepared for the practice of general cardiology and will be competitive for a faculty position at a major academic medical center.

Learn more about training in clinical cardiology.

Physician Scientist (four to five years)

Fellows on the Physician Scientist track complete four or five years of training, which includes two or three years of basic research following the two-year core curriculum in clinical cardiology. Upon successful completion of training, the Physician Scientist will be competitive for a career combining basic research with general clinical cardiology at a major academic medical center.

“Research First” Training 

Fellows on either the Clinical Investigator or Physician Scientist pathway may elect to do the research component of the fellowship first, followed by the two year core curriculum in clinical cardiology. In this program, fellows complete either 2 or 3 years of research before beginning clinical training. The outpatient continuity clinic begins during the final research year, so that the fellow is board eligible following the two clinical years. Fellows interested in this pathway should have a clearly defined research program and mentor identified, and must make their wishes known prior to the fellowship match.

An NIH-sponsored T32 training grant is available to support fellows committing to two or more years of research on any of the pathways described above. 

Learn more about research training.

Training Sites

Parkland Health and Hospital System

U.S. News & World Report: Americas's Best Hospitals 2010-2011
The Dallas County Hospital District, a tax-supported entity of the city and county of Dallas, is responsible for Parkland, a facility nationally recognized as an exemplary county hospital. Our partnership with Parkland provides faculty and fellows with the privilege of providing care for the most vulnerable patients in Dallas County. Parkland Hospital has a capacity of 968 beds, with a 12 bed coronary care unit and adjacent 24 bed telemetry monitoring floor. Serving as one of our continuity clinic sites, the fellows have the valuable experience of serving as the primary cardiologist for many of these patients. One of the most unique features of the Parkland population is the high proportion of previously undiagnosed complex cardiovascular disease. For example, patients with complex valvular and adult congenital heart disease commonly presents to Parkland for their initial diagnosis and management, providing cardiovascular fellows a unique opportunity to see a diverse spectrum of cardiovascular disease not commonly seen in contemporary training hospitals. Construction of a new Parkland Hospital has begun, and will complete in 2014. When completed, this hospital will be the largest in the Western Hemisphere.

North Texas Healthcare System (DVAMC)

The Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center is located twenty minutes (13 miles) from Parkland. It operates 720 beds, including a 16 beds coronary care unit. The hospital serves the populous North Texas area, including Dallas and Fort Worth, and a number of small VA hospitals and outlying community hospitals who refer patients to the VA Medical Center for advanced care of complex cardiac disease. The Dallas VA has the busiest cardiac catheterization laboratory in the Veterans Hospital system and is a leader in VA sponsored multicenter clinical trials. Moreover, it has one of the largest electrophysiology referral bases in the VA system, with high volumes of complex ablations as well as standard EP procedures. In addition, the Dallas VA serves as another one of our key continuity clinic sites.

St. Paul University Hospital

St. Paul University Hospital is a 300-bed private facility located on the main campus of UT Southwestern. It serves as both a tertiary/quaternary referral center and a community hospital. This facility affords fellows the opportunity to gain valuable exposure to our advanced programs including the heart failure/transplantation/LVAD, adult congenital heart disease, complex electrophysiology ablations, and pulmonary hypertension. In 2011, we broke ground on a new University Hospital, which will represent the largest single building project in the history of the University of Texas system.