Heart Failure/Cardiac Transplant Fellowship

Because doctors can now save many heart attack victims who probably would have died in the past, and because Americans are living longer, patients are increasingly surviving long enough for heart failure to catch up with them. In that sense, the epidemic is really a shift in causes of death.

About 4.9 million Americans have heart failure, and a million of them are under the age of 60. Every year, 400,000 new cases are diagnosed, and the condition leads to more than 800,000 hospital stays, including many repeat visits. Congestive heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization in the elderly, and hospital bills accounted for much of the $18.8 billion spent on the disease in 1998. Health experts say the problem is getting worse. Physicians in the Congestive Heart Failure Fellowship/Cardiac Transplant Fellowship program have an opportunity to play a key role in advancing our knowledge about heart failure, its diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Program directors

Dr. Garrie Haas and Dr. Ayesha Hasan
The Ohio State University Medical Center
473 W. 12th Avenue - 200 DHLRI
Columbus, OH 43210

Overview

During this one-year fellowship fellows will become adept with the management of patients with congestive heart failure, and pre- and post-cardiac transplant patients. Fellows will participate in endomyocardial biopsies, placement of Swan-Ganz catheters and other procedures. Candidates will have completed, or be in the process of completing a formal 3 year CV fellowship and must have a valid Ohio Medical License and ACLS certification.The primary training hospital will be The Ohio State University Medical Center. After satisfactory completion of the fellowship, candidates will be issued a certificate.

Fellows Duties

• Participate in the inpatient care of patients on the CHF/Cardiac Transplant service
• Participate in the outpatient CHF and cardiac transplant clinics
• Evaluate patients referred for cardiac transplantation at various hospitals
• Participate in CHF satellite clinics
• Participate in procedures, including endomyocardial biopsies, Swan-Ganz catheter placement and device-based therapies for CHF
• Participate in/coordinate perioperative care of cardiac transplant patients including pre-operative orders, line placement, etc.
• Evaluate inpatient referrals for cardiac transplantation
• Take call for the heart failure service
• Participate in research protocols in CHF/transplant
• Work closely with the nurse coordinators and the Physician’s assistant
• Attend and participate in Cardiac Transplant Conferences
• Attend all mandatory fellowship conferences as outlined in the cardiology fellowship curriculum
• Interact with the fellow on the Heart Failure monthly rotation and insure that the rotating fellow achieves goals for the monthly rotation

Learning Objective

• Become proficient in the diagnosis and management of patients with Congestive Heart Failure and patients who have undergone cardiac transplantation
• Learn the nuances of outpatient and inpatient care of these patients in terms of medications and their side effects.
• Learn when and how to work up a patient for cardiac transplantation.
• Learn about post-transplant immunosuppression and management of these medications and their side effects
• Learn when and how to enroll patients in CHF clinical trials and the benefits of clinical trial research
• Develop skill in device-based therapies for CHF.

Evaluation

Evaluation will be carried out by the CHF program directors. Evidence of progress will be discussed with the fellow on a continuing basis.