Echocardiography and Advanced Imaging Fellowship Programs
Program Description
Faculty
Previous Fellows
Salary and Benefits
How to Apply
Advanced Echocardiography Fellowship
[Prerequisite: completion of an ACGME cardiology fellowship]
We are now accepting applications for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Description
The UCSF Echocardiography Fellowship Program is housed within the Adult Echocardiography Laboratory of the UCSF Medical Center located in the Moffitt-Long Hospital. Annually, the lab performs over 15,000 echocardiograms, including transthoracic, transesophageal and stress (exercise or pharmacologic) studies.
The Advanced Echocardiography fellowships is designed to help fellows hone their clinical skills in echocardiography and advanced methodology including: 3-dimensional imaging, strain imaging, structural echo, and contrast echocardiography. Fellows will have the opportunity to play an integral role in our structural echo procedures (such as TAVR, MitraClip, ASD closures, valve in valve) with opportunities to learn on the latest, state of the art imaging equipment. Additional clinical skills are developed in the arena of adult congenital heart disease by rotating through congenital clinics.
The fellow will have dedicated time for research and will be expected to work on independent research projects under the mentorship of one or more faculty. Prior fellows have had success in developing their own protocols, getting IRB approval, recruiting subjects, and generating and analyzing data. There are also numerous ongoing research projects that fellows can be integrated into. Research is fostered through biweekly meetings to review progress obtain feedback.
Finally, teaching and scholastic skills are enhanced as fellows assume increasing responsibility throughout the year for running several of our core echo conferences and teaching first year fellows.
The clinical training program is designed to provide the fellow with level III training in clinical echocardiography as defined by the American College of Cardiology and the American Society of Echocardiography, provided that a general cardiology fellowship has been completed as well. Upon completion of the echo fellowship, qualified participants are eligible to sit for the examination of Special Competency in Echocardiography (ASCeXAM). Upon successful passing of the examination, the applicant will receive certification as a Level III Echocardiographer as determined by the National Board of Echocardioography.
Advanced Non-Invasive Cardiovascular Imaging Fellowship
[Prerequisite: completion of an ACGME cardiology fellowship or completion of Radiology Residency (including medical internship year) at ACGME-accredited institutions]
We are now accepting applications for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Description
The UCSF Advanced Imaging Fellowship was developed in response to the need for graduates of cardiovascular fellowships to have training in the new modalities of CMR and CCT and to provide radiologists with further training in Advanced Cardiac Imaging. A collaborative Advanced Non-invasive Cardiovascular Imaging Fellowship allows trainees in Cardiology to be exposed to the expertise in Radiology (such as technical expertise, approach to interpretation and imaging modalities not available in Cardiology) and trainees in Radiology to be exposed to expertise in Cardiology (such as clinical expertise, patient access, broad range of diagnostic approaches, and imaging modalities not available in Radiology). Most importantly, the collaborative fellowship creates opportunities for extensive clinical and research collaboration.
The Echocardiography Training Fellowship
[Prerequisite: completion of internal medicine, anesthesia residency or critical care fellowship]
We are now accepting applications for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Description
In certain instances, we will consider qualified applicants who have not completed a cardiology fellowship. We welcome highly qualified applicants who have strong research and clinical interests in the discipline of echocardiography. The echocardiography training fellowship is not accredited by ACGME. While applicants will likely meet Level III training requirements in echocardiography, certification by the National Board of Echocardiography is currently limited to cardiologists and anesthesiologists. The research opportunities are similar to those offered in the Advanced Echocardiography Fellowship. These fellows will be exposed to the identical curriculum, including academic conferences.
Faculty
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Neal Shah, MD |
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Rima Arnaout, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine |
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Michael Crawford, MD Professor of Medicine |
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Francesca Nesta Delling, MD, MPH Assistant Professor of Medicine |
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Kirsten Fleischmann, MD |
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Gordon Fung, MD |
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Ian S. Harris, MD |
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Atif Qasim, MD |
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Nelson B. Schiller, MD |
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Eveline Stock, MD |
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Geoff Tison, MD, MPH |
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Kirsten Tolstrup, MD, FACC, FASE |
Advanced Non-Invasive Cardiovascular Imaging Faculty
Echocardiography:
Kirsten Fleischmann, MD
Nelson Schiller, MD
Nuclear/PET:
Elias Botvinick, MD
Michael Dae, MD
Donald Grandis, MD
Miguel Pampaloni, MD
Atif Qasim, MD
Cardiac MR:
Brett Elicker, MD (Director)
Charles Higgins, MD
Previous Fellows
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Raymond Bamvi Fohtung, Senior Associate Consultant in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ Rohit Mital, Senior Associate Consultant in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ Satvik Ramakrishna, Assistant Clinical Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Utah, UT Punita Kaveti, Advanced Cardiac Imaging Specialist, Orlando Health Heart and Vascular Institute, Orlando, FL Brian Agbor-Etang, Director of Cardiac CT/Imaging Cardiologist, Cone Health HeartCare, Greensboro, NC Jonathan Wong, Cardiologist, Sutter California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, CA Christiane Abouzeid, Assistant Professor in Cardiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Mark Larralde, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Columbia University Division of Cardiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, FL Arora Bhaskar, Cardiologist, Hartford Hospital, Hartford CT Ahmed "Sami" Abuzaid, Alaska Heart & Vascular Institute, Anchorage, AK Jonathan Rodriguez-Ortiz, Cardiologist, Orlando Health Heart Institute, Orlando, FL Pooja Sethi, Cardiologist, Texas Tech, Lubbock, TX |
Salary and Benefits
Salary: The Echocardiography and Advanced Imaging Fellowship is a PGY level 7.
Benefits: UCSF provides residents and clinical fellows a rich package of health and welfare benefits at a good value. Plans include health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance. To learn more about fellowship benefits including our retirement savings plan click here.
Vacation: Every year, fellows get 4 full weeks of vacation time in 1-week blocks. Rules about scheduling vacation varies by program.
How to Apply
All trainees must be able to obtain a California Medical License. 3 of the main requirements are:
- Received medical school education from/graduated from a medical school recognized or approved by the Medical Board
- Pass all 3 steps of USMLE
- Completed an ACGME accredited residency program
Please send the application along with your curriculum vitae, your research interests, and 3 letters of recommendation discussing your skills as a clinician, including letters from the program directors of your current and past training programs to Salina Gu at [email protected] and Michael Stover at [email protected]
J-1 and H-1B Visa Sponsorship
For international applicants, UCSF can sponsor J-1 and H-1B visas.
How to Acquire H-1B Visa Status at UCSF: https://isso.ucsf.edu/immigration-visas/h-1b-scholars
J-1 Scholar Categories at UCSF: https://isso.ucsf.edu/j-1-scholar-categories-ucsf
For more information about application criteria please contact:
Michael Stover
Associate Fellowship Coordinator
[email protected]
Professional and Ethical Behavior
The Division of Cardiology is committed to a culture of professionalism that places the needs of the patient first, maintains a commitment to scholarship, continuous quality improvement, and fosters a spirit of collaboration among colleagues. Fellows learn these attitudes from mentors and role-model clinicians. The training program is committed to maintaining a high ethical standard, a spirit of collegiality, integrity, respect, compassion, professional responsibility and accountability, courtesy, and sensitivity to patient needs and comfort. Fellows are evaluated in these areas, and they are considered to be an integral part of the training program.