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 cardiac intensive care. 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, Kristy Friel kristy.friel@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 as well as developing expertise in 3D echocardiography and 3D modeling. 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. Teaching opportunities include twice weekly echocardiography conference to include junior fellows, imaging faculty and pediatric sonographers. 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.

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology at UT Southwestern/Children’s Medical Center of Dallas offers advanced training in pediatric cardiovascular MRI. During this year, the Cross-Sectional Advanced Imaging fellow would be expected to be heavily involved in both our clinical and research MRI programs. We are interested in novel imaging sequence design, 3D printing, biomechanical modeling and coronary vasculopathy imaging. Our team includes four pediatric cardiologists, two pediatric radiologists, three dedicated CMR technologists, a lead technologist in CCT, a cardiac MR physicist and two imaging scientists. 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 two dual source CCT scanners. We have active partnerships with UT Southwestern Dept. of Radiology and Advanced Imaging Research Center, UT Dallas, national collaborations with Boston Children’s, Cleveland Clinic, and international collaborations including King’s College London (UK), École Polytechnique (FR) and Heidelberg University (DE).

Heart Failure, Mechanical Circulatory Support and Heart Transplant Fellowship

Director: Ryan Butts, M.D.

Children’s Medical Center, Dallas is an active pediatric heart failure, VAD and transplant centers. We perform 15-20 transplants and implant 10-15 VADs annually. Our team includes 4 physicians, 3 nurse practitioners and 8 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.

Cardiovascular Intensive Care

Director: Priya Bhaskar, M.D.

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology at UT Southwestern/Children’s Medical Center of Dallas offers advanced training in cardiovascular intensive care for fellows who have completed either a pediatric cardiology fellowship or a pediatric critical care fellowship. Subspecialty fellows will spend time approximately 20 weeks on service in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit with the additional time spent in different electives which will depend on the fellow’s training background. In addition to clinical responsibilities, advanced fellows will participate in the supervision and education of categorical fellows. The cardiac intensive care unit is a busy unit with a large population of surgical and medical cardiac patients as well as patient requiring mechanical circulatory support. The advanced fellows will have increasing autonomy through the year with the goal that the fellows will be well prepared for a career in cardiac intensive care.