Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences offers a one-year Cardiothoracic Surgery and Transplant Physician Assistant Fellowship at Mayo Clinic's campus in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona. This program focuses on cardiothoracic surgery, unique in its emphasis on advanced surgical heart failure therapies. One physician assistant is accepted per year for postgraduate training.

Trainees start the fellowship year with their national certification and state licensure in place.

Cardiothoracic surgery and transplant program highlights

The Cardiothoracic Surgery and Transplant program allows for both surgical skills and patient care experience. As a fellow, you will experience high-quality postgraduate surgical training from world-class faculty in the surgical triaging, intervention, and management of patients with cardiothoracic disorders.

Fellows will:

• Gain an in-depth understanding of general cardiac surgery through our advanced curriculum. This includes sub-specialty knowledge of heart failure surgical options including mechanical circulatory assist devices, transplantation, and extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation. You will also have exposure to endoscopic vein harvesting.
• Rotate through a variety of clinical rotations, including thoracic surgery, advanced heart failure cardiology, critical care, and more.
• Learn in a variety of lab settings through our didactic coursework in the Endoscopic Vein Harvest Cadaver Lab, Scrubbing/Instrument Lab, Suture Lab, and more.
• Experience the surgical management of other thoracic disorders, including lung and esophageal diseases.
• Develop intensive care unit and step-down unit clinical management skills and independent first assistant operative skills.

The accepted fellow will be exposed to ongoing clinical investigation in heart failure, cardiac transplant, and VAD medicine. The fellow is expected to participate in new clinical projects with anticipated authorship.

Graduation and certification

After successfully completing this fellowship, you will receive a certificate of completion from Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences.

Accreditation information

See accreditation information for Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

Program goals and mission  

The program's main goal is to provide specialized, postgraduate surgical training to motivated physician assistants interested in careers in cardiothoracic surgery and transplant.

Our mission is to:

• Expand the physician assistant fellowship opportunities in the United States that focus on cardiothoracic surgery, advanced heart failure, and heart transplant cardiology, and those that focus on the surgical interventions of these patients.
• Develop a potential pool of physician assistants with advanced training eligible for employment within our own system, if there is an opening, or at any cardiothoracic surgery and transplant center in the United States.
• Allow the surgical physician assistant to be employed in the community with expertise in the pre-, post-, and intra-operative management of cardiothoracic surgery.