Surgery Education - Cardiothoracic Surgical Fellowship

The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, Department of Surgery Cardiothoracic Surgical Fellowship is a newly-developed one- to two-year full-time clinical program experience, allowing for participation, training and exposure in cardiac and thoracic surgery. Successful program applicants will be U.S.-certified or internationally certified general surgeons.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR TRAINING

Fellows will assist with adult and pediatric cardiac and thoracic surgeries and provide call coverage and academic support. This program provides a unique opportunity for interested committed physicians to participate in a thriving educational and experiential environment. The program can, to a certain degree, be tailored to the potential applicant's needs and interests.

SKILLS / TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

Clinical and research components will include duties similar to the current ACGME approved fellows, with a focus on cardiac and non-general thoracic surgical experiences. The fellowship will provide hands-on surgical skills experience in over one hundred cases of primary responsibility. In addition, depending on the applicant's experience and ability, additional primary case exposure or surgical assistance will be provided. Publication of at least one peer-reviewed article or similar is expected and will be assisted by the faculty. Participation in clinical research effort of the Division is a given. The participant's supervisory and patient care responsibilities are similar to that of our ACGME approved Thoracic Residents' program. The candidate will be expected to be involved with every aspect of the pre- and post-operative effort as well as the intra-operative care and decision making.

QUALIFICATIONS / EXPECTATIONS

The successful fellowship applicant will be a physician who has at least three to four years of general surgery training. The candidate will have qualifications commensurate with a board-eligible/certified general surgeon interested in a full-time position with the UTHSCSA. The candidate chosen will assist and perform as primary surgeon in approximately 100 major cardiac cases annually. The selected physician will be expected to work approximately 80 hours a week, participate in pacemaker and EP device placement, assist in the outpatient clinic, and participate in the call schedule.

Procedural requirements will be focused on a variety of cardiac cases. A focus on coronary revascularization is clear, but Valvular and aortic diseases will be included as well. Less thorough will be the exposure to non-cardiac areas.

The successful fellow will emerge from this fellowship a more experienced and skilled cardiothoracic surgeon. Didactic components are the same as for the ACGME residency. Our curriculum is covered weekly during our resident education conference and attendance at our weekly M & M, citywide cardiothoracic, and general thoracic/transplant conferences will be encouraged.

EVALUATION

A formal evaluation process similar to our current one for our fellows will be employed. This non-accredited fellow will be formally evaluated every four months by our faculty in a web-based product that we currently use. It provides blinded evaluation of the faculty by the fellow and allows productive feedback to the fellow by the associate program director or program director at that interval. As always, any perceived problems or concerns may be addressed sooner by informal faculty discussion, which happens on a weekly basis at our faculty meetings.

APPLICATION PROCESS

The selected physician will receive a letter from the Division Head certifying that he has spent 12 to 24 months in a non-accredited cardiac fellowship program. Interested applicants should send curriculum vitae and three letters of recommendation to:
    John Calhoon, M.D., Professor and Head
    President's Council Chair
    Attn: David Abramson
    Department of Surgery - MC 7840
    7703 Floyd Curl Drive
    San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900

. . . .

NIH LOAN REPAYMENT PROGRAM