Clinical training

Fellows are afforded broad exposure to all aspects of adult and congenital cardiac surgery.

Rotation schedule

Upon beginning the fellowship, you will meet with the program director and your mentor to develop a rotation schedule commensurate with your level of training, as well as mutually agreed upon goals and objectives.

Didactic training

A detailed and comprehensive didactic curriculum is offered for fellows in the Cardiovascular Surgery Fellowship.

Research training

Fellows are encouraged to participate in clinical research projects. These are usually retrospective studies of particular topics. Mayo Clinic has many resources — including libraries, computers, statistics and audiovisual aids — available to fellows to assist them in their projects.

As a result of these studies, fellows are expected to generate work suitable for publication in a major cardiothoracic journal, as well as for presentation at a cardiothoracic society conference.

Call frequency

Fellows are expected to participate in hospital call during the fellowship.

Call duties include intensive care unit call on both weekdays and weekends, in-hospital call on operative days and out-of-hospital call on weekends. On average, duties include one call every five to six days.

Conferences

Formal seminars on thoracic and cardiovascular surgical problems are scheduled several times each week. Fellows are also encouraged to attend seminars and lectures in general surgery and allied medical fields.

Evaluation

To ensure that fellows gain proficiency and develop the corresponding technical skills, performance is monitored throughout the Cardiovascular Surgery Fellowship.

Fellows are formally evaluated by their supervising faculty members after completing each clinical rotation. The program director reviews these evaluations and assigns a satisfactory or unsatisfactory grade. In addition, fellows regularly evaluate the faculty to ensure that their educational goals are being met.