The Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology Physician Assistant Fellowship prepares you for professional practice in cardiology and transplant cardiology in hospitals and a clinical environment. The fellowship curriculum includes knowledge, skills, and understanding of health care areas.

By the end of the fellowship year, you will:

• Exhibit a working knowledge of the following disease entities:
• Cardiovascular diseases
• Cardiac dysrhythmia
• Care of the critically ill
• Care of the chronically ill
• Heart failure, all stages and classes
• Perioperative medicine
• Shock due to various etiologies
• Restrictive and constrictive cardiomyopathies
• Adult congenital heart disease
• Pulmonary hypertension
• Heart Transplant indications, management, and surveillance
• Identification and management of rejection post-transplant.

Clinical training and rotations

The Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology Physician Assistant Fellowship is composed of rotations in various specialty areas. Subspecialty rotations may vary from two to four weeks in length.

• Advanced heart failure and cardiac transplant, outpatient and inpatient
• Cardiology, outpatient and inpatient
• Cardiothoracic surgery, including mechanical circulatory support
• Congenital heart disease
• Pharmacology
• Electrophysiology
• Additional experiences to be determined during the clinical year

Schedule and hours

For the majority of the fellowship, your learning schedule includes 10- or 12-hour days, four to six days a week. These times will vary to include nights and weekends. The average workweek is 40 to 50 hours. 

Department and faculty

The Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology Physician Assistant Fellowship is coordinated and taught by the clinical, scientific, and technical staff of Mayo Clinic. Faculty members are chosen for their commitment to teaching, as well as their clinical practice and research. Many have published and lectured extensively and are highly regarded in their fields.

You have direct access to these individuals throughout your training, giving you the opportunity to learn from experienced practitioners in many areas of medicine.

Visiting professors and lecturers

A hallmark of higher education excellence is the breadth and depth of information and experience provided to you by faculty and visiting experts. Each year, many prominent professors visit Mayo Clinic to lecture in their areas of medical and scientific expertise.

As a student at Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences, you are encouraged to learn from these valuable resources by attending all relevant conferences, lectures, and seminars prepared for students, interns, residents, fellows, and consulting staff.

Facilities

Mayo Clinic has two campuses in Arizona. The Mayo Clinic campus in Phoenix, Arizona includes the state-of-the-art Mayo Clinic Hospital, the first hospital entirely designed and built by Mayo Clinic. Services in numerous medical and surgical disciplines are provided, including outstanding programs in cancer treatment and organ transplantation. It has been recognized several times by Phoenix magazine as the Best Hospital in Phoenix.

Mayo Clinic's campus in Scottsdale, Arizona, is centered around a beautiful, five-story outpatient clinic. This modern facility contains extensive exam rooms, an outpatient surgery center equipped for general anesthesia, a full-service laboratory, a pharmacy, a patient education library, an endoscopy suite, and a 188-seat auditorium for patient, staff, and student education programs.

During the fellowship, a majority of your time is spent at the Phoenix campus.

Evaluation

Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences uses these evaluative tools:

• Written examination
• Demonstration of skills
• Self-assessment exercises
• Faculty reviews

Mayo Clinic's system of evaluation provides students and faculty with a comprehensive look at individual performance. This allows faculty and administrative staff to direct students who are experiencing academic difficulty to the appropriate support resources, including tutoring programs and counseling opportunities.

Curriculum enhancements

Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences is committed to developing and maintaining the best education programs. The curriculum and other aspects of this program are routinely assessed and changed as necessary to ensure the highest quality training.