Program Curriculum

The program will have one resident per year with rotations through all three clinical disciplines in the first year of training to include general thoracic, adult cardiac and congenital cardiac surgery.

The curriculum is divided into three possible tracks; Cardiothoracic, Cardiac and General Thoracic. The curricula will provide weighted experiences towards the specialty of the applicant’s choice. This will include one month per year on specialty imaging and interventional or catheter-based rotations dictated by the specialty track. 

Examples include:

• Cardiac imaging (cardiac CT/MRI and echocardiography)
• Interventional cardiology and structural procedures
• Thoracic imaging, interventional pulmonology
• Advanced bronchoscopy (EBUS, rigid bronchoscopy), and foregut endoscopy

The resident will attend out-patient clinic in the equivalent of one-half day per week. Under the supervision of the attending physician, the resident will evaluate patients in the pre-operative and post-operative phases of care, developing a care plan that will be evaluated in real-time by the attending physician. The resident will be given gradual levels of supervised responsibility in the operating room. Their technical ability will dictate the rate of progression. Faculty will provide continuous real-time feedback regarding technical abilities.

The resident will be intimately involved in all aspects of patient care. This includes pre-operative, interoperative and the post-operative settings. Under the supervision of faculty members, residents will have responsibility for the total care of the patient, including pre-operative evaluations and timing of interventions. Many patients are presented at multidisciplinary conferences providing residents with feedback from team members regarding treatment plans and surgical options in real time.

Post operative care begins immediately at the completion of the operation. The resident will provide sign out to the accepting ICU team describing patient presentation and the procedure in detail to include any complications and the projected postoperative course. The resident will participate in morning rounds with the attending surgeon and ICU team allowing continuous assessment and feedback. As the resident becomes more experienced, they will be given more autonomy in this group setting.

The resident will continually participate in weekly conferences dictated by their current rotation that are designed to be interactive with input from faculty and residents.

Examples include:

• Monthly patient-based learning conference (M&M)
• Heart team, a twice weekly multi-disciplinary meeting to discuss upcoming high risk cardiac cases
• Congenital cardiac cath conference
• Thoracic tumor board, mitral and aortic structural conferences, in addition to weekly protected didactic sessions

The resident will be exposed to the full breath of cardiac and thoracic procedures at their highest complexity. This includes complex congenital cardiac surgery, complex aortic surgery, acute aortic dissection interventions, heart transplantation, ECMO, ventricular assist device implantation, minimally invasive valve and coronary artery bypass grafting procedures, investigational and commercially approved transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedures, catheter-based mitral interventions, arrhythmia surgery, robotic assisted thoracic and foregut procedures and advanced bronchoscopy and foregut endoscopy.