Pediatric Cardiology Fourth Year Fellowship

Pediatric Cardiology has fourth year fellowship positions for one year of advanced training in pediatric cardiology sub-specialties. These include echocardiography, MRI, cardiac transplantation/heart failure, interventional cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology. We accept applications from July 1 through August 31 and selected candidates will be invited to interview in September. Please complete the uniform application and provide a curriculum vitae and two letters of recommendation to the Fellowship Coordinator, Priscilla Castro at Priscilla.Castro@utsouthwestern.edu.

Graduates of foreign medical schools must possess a valid ECFMG certificate.
We do accept applications from persons holding J-1 visas.
According to institutional policy, we cannot accept applications from anyone holding any type of H visa at the time of application.

Echocardiography

Director: Claudio Ramaciotti, M.D.

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology at UT Southwestern/Children’s Medical Center of Dallas offers advanced training in pediatric echocardiography. Subspecialty fellows will spend one year in the echocardiography laboratory performing and interpreting a full range of diagnostic procedures, including transthoracic, transesophageal, and fetal echocardiography. In addition to their clinical responsibilities, fourth year fellows will participate in the supervision and education of the junior fellows in the echocardiography laboratory with obtaining and interpreting echocardiographic exams. Academic research is also expected, with the goal of a first author publication prior to completion of the fellowship. It is our goal to educate and train future academic, clinical, and research leaders in pediatric echocardiography.

Pediatric Cardiovascular MRI

Director: Tarique Husain, M.D., Ph.D.

During this year, the MRI fellow would be expected to be heavily involved in both our clinical and research MRI programs. We are interested in improving imaging quality, 3D printing, biomedical engineering, vascular health, cardiac MRI (CMR) in transplant and computational modeling. Our team includes four pediatric cardiologists, a pediatric radiologist, and two dedicated technologists, all with extensive CMR experience. We perform CMRs on our dedicated 1.5 T Philips Ingenia CMR scanner in the Heart Center, with an expanding cath-MRI program, cath fusion capabilities, and research agreements with Philips and Siemens. We have active partnerships with UT Southwestern Dept. of Radiology and Advanced Imaging Research Center, UT Dallas, national collaborations with Boston Children’s, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and international collaborations including King’s College London (UK), University of Tübingen (GE), Toronto SickKids (CA), Kinderspital Zürich (CH).

Heart Failure, Mechanical Circulatory Support and Heart Transplant Fellowship

Director: Ryan Butts, M.D.

Children’s Medical Center, Dallas is one of the busiest pediatric heart failure and transplant centers in the nation. We undertake 15-20 transplants and implant 5-10 VAD annually. Our center has one of the largest experiences of percutaneously placed VADs. At any one time we have over 10 heart failure inpatients and run three heart failure and four transplant clinics each week. Out team includes 4 physicians, 3 nurse practitioners and 4 nurse coordinators along with the full complement of specialist support staff. The fellowship is a one year program during which the fellow will be exposed to all areas of pediatric heart failure, mechanical circulatory support and pediatric heart transplantation. Fellows will be involved in the care of children with heart failure and all aspects of VAD and transplant care – from evaluation, VAD management, recovery or listing, transplantation and post-transplant care. There is a formalized training program and mentorship in all these aspects of care by our dedicated heart failure, VAD and transplant staff. Education opportunities include the weekly teaching meetings, transplant selection committee, twice weekly team rounds in addition to one-on-one sessions. The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) is closely allied to Children’s Health and the fellow will be involved in a research project that leads to an abstract submission at a national or international conference, as well as a manuscript submitted to a peer-review journal. Our established links with UTSW, which has a strong clinical and research orientated adult cardiac failure and VAD program, enables fellows to have exposure to caring for older patients too. By the end of the training program, the fellow will have had extensive clinical experience in pediatric heart failure, mechanical circulatory support, and heart transplantation as well as research and publication techniques. The skills gained will prepare them for either a clinical or academic career in the field of advanced heart failure, mechanical circulatory support and transplantation.

Interventional Catheterization

Director: Surendranath Veeram Reddy, M.D.

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology at UT Southwestern/Children’s Medical Center of Dallas offers advanced training in pediatric interventional cardiology. Subspecialty fellows will spend one year in the catheterization laboratory performing a full range of diagnostic and interventional procedures with the goal of performing these procedures independently upon completion of their training. In addition to their clinical responsibilities, fourth year fellows will participate in the supervision and education of the junior fellows in the catheterization laboratory helping with pre-procedural preparation, and intra-procedural and post-procedural management. Academic research is also encouraged, with the goal of a first author publication prior to completion of the fellowship. It is our goal to educate and train future academic, clinical, and research leaders in pediatric interventional cardiology.

Electrophysiology

Director: Hoang Nguyen, M.D.

During this year the fellow is trained to master all aspects of clinical electrophysiology. This includes non-invasive studies (ECG, holter, event monitoring, and stress testing), cardiac pacing (esophageal, transvenous, and permanent) including implantation and analysis, and invasive studies including catheter ablation. The fellow will demonstrate competence in interpreting electrocardiograms and 24-hour ECG recordings, performing and interpreting direct cardiac recordings, and assessing pacemaker function. Evaluation of the fellow occurs through direct observation during the various activities of this rotation. In addition, the fellow will participate in electrophysiology studies and catheter ablation procedures. All fellows will become proficient in performing intra-cardiac studies and ablations. The fellow will also participate in a research project with the goal of a first author publication.