Training & Curriculum

Cedars-Sinai is a tertiary-care hospital with strong community ties and is ranked as one of the largest nonprofit academic medical centers in the western U.S. It is consistently recognized as one of the country's most prominent for cardiology and heart surgery.

Our master clinician teachers aim to:

• Teach the knowledge, procedural skills, clinical judgment, attitudes and values that are essential to the effective practice of cardiovascular medicine
• Foster humanistic and ethical attributes in our trainees
• Encourage an appropriate balance between academic and research endeavors and clinical service
• Develop teaching skills by actively engaging our fellows in teaching activities with medical students, residents and allied health professionals

Fellows gain experience in all facets of cardiovascular diseases, as well as specialized training using the latest therapeutic modalities. One of the major strengths of the program is the high volume of clinical cases and procedures (among the largest in the nation) available to the fellows.

Frequent interaction between the fellows and the highly accomplished team of faculty members and mentors provides a level of psychological and backup support to fellows that is a major strength of the program.

Rotations comply with ACGME requirements and the Core Cardiology Training Symposium guidelines for the clinical core experience of the American College of Cardiology.

Because of its location at the intersection of Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, Cedars-Sinai provides trainees with exposure to an amazing diversity of patients and care models. This is enhanced by our training program’s partnership with Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (LAMC).

• At Cedars-Sinai, the Smidt Heart Institute's cardiac transplant program is the world's largest adult program, with a dedicated 52-bed heart-failure/transplant inpatient unit featuring invasive hemodynamic monitoring capabilities.
  
• Cedars-Sinai has nine cardiac catheterization suites that serve the surrounding community as Los Angeles' highest-volume ST segment elevation myocardial infarction receiving center.
• The hospital also offers an all-inclusive, high-tech program in percutaneous valvular interventions and advanced structural heart disease treatments, as well as advanced peripheral interventions.
• There are two labs dedicated to providing leading-edge electrophysiology interventions, including atrial fibrillation ablation, supraventricular and ventricular tachycardia therapy and ICD/CRT/pacemaker device implantation.
• The noninvasive echocardiography lab provides complete training in transthoracic echocardiography, stress echocardiography, transesophageal echocardiography and 3D echocardiography.
• The renowned cardiac imaging department offers comprehensive training in nuclear, PET, MRI and CT modalities.
• Outpatient experiences include a diverse patient population, including the Cedars-Sinai Cardiology Outpatient Clinic (where fellows function as the primary outpatient cardiologist) and at local free clinics for the underinsured.
• A specialty ambulatory clinic rotation provides additional exposure to outpatient cardiology, and fellows have the option of electing a six-month specialty clinic experience after their second year. During the second or third years, fellows conduct their weekly outpatient continuity clinic at Kaiser Permanente LAMC or general cardiology clinics staffed by faculty in the surrounding community practices.
  
• Fellows perform one inpatient cardiology consultation rotation and one cardiac catheterization rotation at Kaiser Permanente LAMC. This is a 460-bed tertiary referral center for more than 3 million Southern California Kaiser Permanente members. As with Cedars-Sinai, most Kaiser Permanente attendings involved in fellowship training hold faculty appointments at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Fellows are often invited to lecture to house staff and graduate students and regularly present teaching cases in division conferences. Fellows teach first- and second-year medical students through problem-based learning sessions and laboratory sessions at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Fellows also present their research in the Smidt Heart Institute's research seminar series.

Cedars-Sinai is the largest teaching hospital affiliated with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. More UCLA students rotate through Cedars-Sinai than through any other hospital affiliated with that institution.

Internal medicine residents and medical students rotating through the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit, heart failure/transplant and cardiology consult services are eager to learn from our fellows, as are trainees in other departments and divisions.

A core curriculum of more than 75 lectures covers the basic and clinical fundamentals related to cardiovascular medicine. Advanced Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited training programs are available in heart failure and cardiac transplantation, clinical cardiac electrophysiology, interventional cardiology and critical care. Non-ACGME-certified advanced training is available in cardiac imaging and women's/preventive health.