Video Transcript: Overview of the Cardiology Fellowship Program

00:00 Intro: Soft music, multiple people talking

00:05 Amit Khera, M.D., Fellowship Program Director: I trained here as a fellow myself, and I remember when I came to visit during an interview you could just sense it, that people really committed to teaching. It wasn't an afterthought.

00:15 Joseph Hill, M.D., Ph.D., Chief of Division of Cardiology : We work to inspire our fellows to be amazing doctors. The privilege of taking care of a human being is incredibly precious. But we inspire all of them to do something beyond that. That can be research, it can be program development, it can be education. It can be something other than just being an amazing doctor.

00:36 Gail Peterson, M.D., Associate Director of Internal Medicine Residency Program : At UT Southwestern we are mentors, we are advisors, and we are sponsors. The faculty put educating the fellows as a major priority.

00:48 Dr. Khera: Our first few months are about them getting acclimated, feeling comfortable, and making sure they're fully supported to begin to learn the tricks and trade of cardiology.

00:58 Dr. Hill: We have the most diverse faculty in the nation. There is a vast underrepresentation of women in cardiology: 15 percent. We have twice that; we have 30 percent—twice the national average. Last year 10 fellows matriculated; half were women.

01:14 Dr. Khera: [In] our clinical training, one of the key components is we have three hospitals, and they are very different.

01:20 Nicholas Hendren, M.D. 2020 Chief Fellow: We have spent about a third of our time at one of the largest veterans hospitals in the country, giving high-quality care to veterans in the North Dallas/ North Texas area.

01:30 Dr. Khera: Fellows feel like that's a place where they really get to put together all their skills since it's sort of combined in one area. It's a wonderful complement. Our fellows really loved rotating there.

01:41 Dr. Hendren: In addition, we have our public hospital—Parkland Memorial Hospital—that serves the underserved population of Dallas.

01:49 Dr. Peterson: There are things that you will see at Parkland that you will not see, I don't think, anywhere else.

01:55 Dr. Khera: But we're in one of the most advanced hospitals in the country, that has all the resources that you can ask for. So it's almost the best of both worlds, in terms of learning but also the ability to do something meaningful.

02:06 Dr. Hendren: And finally, we take care of patients at [Clements] University Hospital, where we provide all of the leading cutting-edge care that you can imagine in cardiology.

02:14 Dr. Khera: Clements is one of the top 15 hospitals in the country for cardiovascular disease, for good reason. We see some of the most complicated quaternary care there, and what a great complement to all the other training sites that we have in our program.

02:28 Dr. Hill: We provide them with a long menu of opportunities spanning, of course, a vast spectrum of clinical events and clinical procedures, but also research and education and publishing. We don't tell you where to go, but we help you discover where you want to go.

02:45 Dr. Khera: One of the best things to me is when I get a text from a fellow, one that did their first TAVR [transcatheter aortic valve replacement] or started a new program or won an award, they got an accolade. The fact that they share that back with us, it's so rewarding to see them doing well.

02:58 Dr. Peterson: We are proud of the fact that many of our fellows are competitive for academic positions; in fact, more than 50 percent of our graduates become academic cardiologists. Recent graduates have taken positions at Northwestern, Brigham & Women’s, Yale, University of Colorado, Michigan State University, and of course some have chosen to stay with us at UT Southwestern.

03:19 Dr. Hill: Without question it’s the culture here. Couple that with an incredibly robust research portfolio where the culture is collegial, friendly, inviting, supportive, mentoring. We give you feedback and then you decide where you're going and we’ll help you get there.