During the two-year Adult Congenital Heart Disease Fellowship at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota, you are exposed to the full spectrum of congenital heart disease in adult patients, from the new diagnosis of congenital heart disease in an adult to the complicated patient with palliated or repaired congenital heart disease. Mayo Clinic offers expertise in the full range of diagnostic testing and interventional procedures required to care for these patients, and you work closely with colleagues in multiple disciplines to provide care.

The Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic at Mayo Clinic is one of the largest in the country and has a long history of caring for patients with simple, moderate and complex congenital heart disease. Many of the first open-heart operations on patients with congenital heart disease were performed at Mayo Clinic in the 1950s and 1960s, and Mayo has played a prominent role in the management of patients with complicated congenital lesions.

The Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic sees patients daily, with a total of more than 2,000 outpatients seen annually. The congenital echo laboratory performs more than 2,000 adult congenital transthoracic echocardiograms each year. Mayo has surgical expertise in the care of adults with congenital heart disease and performs approximately 200 adult congenital operations a year, including complicated redo and hybrid operations.

The congenital catheterization laboratory performs around 150 adult congenital catheterizations a year, including complex diagnostic hemodynamic studies and interventional procedures such as transcatheter valve insertion, device closure of septal defects, and stent implantation for coarctation of the aorta or pulmonary artery abnormalities.

Mayo Clinic's adult congenital heart disease specialists work collaboratively with colleagues who have expertise in pediatric cardiology, congenital cardiac surgery, interventional cardiology, congenital electrophysiology, pulmonary hypertension, and advanced heart failure/transplant, cardiac radiology, cardiac anesthesia, hepatology, high-risk obstetrics, and medical genetics to provide state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic options for patients with congenital heart disease.

Accreditation

The Adult Congenital Heart Disease Fellowship is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Certification

After successfully completing the program, you are eligible to take the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Certification Exam offered by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Program history

The Adult Congenital Heart Disease Fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, began in 1991. We anticipate that one trainee will complete this two-year program annually.