Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology Fellowship Program

Description
General Overview
Training Program
Research
Faculty
Previous Fellows
Salary and Benefits

How to Apply

Description

The UCSF Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship is a one-year ACGME accredited program designed to train fellows to become proficient in diagnosis and management of right, left and biventricular heart failure as well as preserved ejection from a wide variety of etiologies.

This program prepares fellows for the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Board Certification and meets the UNOS certification requirements. In addition to training in clinical heart failure, devices (electrophysiologic and mechanical circulatory support), heart transplantation, and pulmonary hypertension, the fellow is afforded the opportunity to participate in other academic activities such as teaching, conferences and research. In addition to inpatient care, the fellow will participate in outpatient clinic and will be trained to become proficient in resting and exercise right heart catheterization with vasodilator testing and right ventricular endomyocardial biopsy.

The eligible candidate must have completed, or currently be on track to complete, a three-year fellowship in Clinical Cardiology.

General Overview 

The program consists of 12 months of clinical training where fellows will gain core competency in pathophysiology, prevention, diagnostics, and treatment of heart failure spanning ACC/AHA stages A-D. Fellowship clinical training takes place primarily the UCSF Parnassus Campus. 

Fellows will learn initial inpatient and outpatient evaluation, management, and long-term follow-up of patients with heart failure and pulmonary hypertension. Fellows learn all aspects of advanced heart failure therapies, from the evaluation process through perioperative management and long-term follow-up.  

The program is designed to provide sufficient experience for fellows to understand and implement disease management strategies, learn the indications and interpretation of right heart catheterization, various imaging modalities and heart biopsy. The fellow will understand arrhythmia mechanisms and management (pharmacologic, interventional and device-based). 

Program Breakdown

  • Participate in the inpatient advanced heart failure service, which consists of a primary service as well as a consultative service.
  • Attend outpatient heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, and advanced therapies clinics.
  • Review all outpatient labs with pre- and post-transplant coordinators daily with supervision by attending physician
  • Present new and ongoing patients at Heart Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support Committee meetings
  • Perform heart biopsy and resting and exercise right heart catheterization with or without pharmacologic challenge in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory with attending supervision
  • Participate in donor procurement with the cardiothoracic surgeon (> 5 procedures)
  • Review endomyocardial biopsies with heart failure attendings and cardiac pathologist
  • Participate in cardiology resident and fellow teaching

Training Program 

UCSF is consistently ranked as one of the top hospitals in the United States. Clinical rotations take place at our three diverse clinical sites: UCSF Health ParnassusZuckerberg San Francisco General, and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs.

Ongoing Research 

The Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship offers research training with UCSF cardiology faculty. To view the active research and clinical trials for heart failure click here.   

In addition to research training, UCSF's Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI) offers extensive training opportunities in basic science and patient-based research.

Heart failure and transplant research is funded by a number of grants (i.e., NIH training grants, the NIH-funded Program of Excellence in Molecular Biology of the Cardiovascular Research Institute, individual NIH Fellowships, Heart Association Fellowships, Pharmaceutical Fellowships, etc.)

Faculty

Dr Marc Simon

Marc Simon, MD

Professor of Medicine
Program Director, Advanced Heart Failure Fellowship

 

Dr Aras

Mandar Aras, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Associate Program Director, Advanced Heart Failure Fellowship

 

Dr Cheng

Richard Cheng, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr Teresa De Marco

Teresa De Marco, MD

Professor of Medicine

 

Dr Klein

Liviu Klein, MD, MS

Associate Professor of Medicine
Medical Director, Advanced Heart Failure Comprehensive Care Center

For other faculty members within the division, please see Faculty Profiles. For the research activity of specific faculty members, please see Research.

Previous Fellows

Kara Chaudhary, Cardiologist, Salt Lak City, UT

Stephanie Mattahil, Cardiologist, Florida

Namit Rohant, Cardiologist, Tucson, AZ

Nalini Colaco, Assistant Professor, OHSU, Portland, OR

Sanjeeb Bhattacharya, Assistant Professor, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH

Santi Yarlagadda, Assistant Professor, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO

Mandar Aras, Assistant Professor, UCSF, San Francisco, CA

Jana Svetlichnaya, Cardiologist, Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, CA

Mitchell Psotka, Faculty, Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, VA

Richard Kiel, Assistant Professor, University of California, Fresno, CA

Charu Gupta, Advanced Heart Failure Specialist, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL

Van Selby, Cardiologist, Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, CA

David Majure, Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiologist, Northwell Health, New York, NY   

Salary and Benefits

Salary: The Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology 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

Application Procedure & Timetable

Steps Timetable
1. Submit your application through ERAS, Electronic Residency Application Service. Apply online. The ERAS phone is (215) 966-3940. No paper applications accepted. Available July 2024
2. Interviews Interviews will be held in September and October 2024
3. Rank list due November 2024
4. NRMP Match Day November 2024
5. Fellowship begins July 2025

We participate in the National Resident Matching Program for this fellowship. Please contact the NRMP for information on how to sign up for their services.

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.