Department of Medicine

Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

Cardiology Fellowship Training Program

 Aurigemma sm  Gerard P. Aurigemma, M.D
Director, Cardiology Fellowship Program 
Professor of Medicine and Radiology
Director, Noninvasive Cardiology 

equipment_croppedThe Cardiology Fellowship Training Program at U Mass Medical School is a three year program that provides 24 months of clinical cardiology and 12 months of research/clinical concentration.  Six fellows are chosen each year through the National Residency Match Program (NRMP).   Cardiology fellowship applications are submitted to The Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) starting November 15th of each year, and our deadline for all application materials being submitted to ERAS is January 31st of the following year. 

Goals of the program 

Simply stated, the goal of our fellowship is to find the very strongest medical residents and transform them into the tomorrow’s leaders in academic and clinical cardiology. 

We believe that our program provides superb training in all aspects of cardiology in a supportive, collegial, and stimulating environment.  Some the attributes of the program are:

  • Experience in all aspects of both tertiary care and community cardiology.
  • State-of-the-art cardiac catheterization laboratory, digital echocardiography, and coronary care unit.
  • Research opportunities in clinical and basic cardiology
  • Ambulatory experience with direct supervision by skilled and experienced clinicians, both in adult cardiology and adult congenital cardiology.
  • Nuclear cardiology training, with the ability to obtain an NRC license
  • Experience in advanced tomographic imaging (MRI/CT)
  • Experience with the care of cardiothoracic surgical patients
  • In depth training in all aspects of preventive cardiology, including nutrition counseling
  • Opportunities for teaching both medical residents and medical students

Clinical cardiology 

The first two years of the fellowship are mostly devoted to training in all aspects of clinical cardiology. During this time, with close staff mentoring, fellows serve as cardiology consultants for acutely ill medical and surgical patients; provide ongoing, outpatient care for their own patients; and perform and interpret both invasive and noninvasive diagnostic procedures. Fellows are expected to participate in didactic sessions, including Journal Club, Noninvasive Conference, Catheterization Conference, and Electrophysiology Conference. Time is set aside in the second year to enable fellows to pursue a research project under the guidance of a mentor.  

The third year is designed for completion of research projects as well as advanced training in such areas as cardiac catheterization, echocardiography, and electrophysiology.  

Fourth year fellowships are offered in interventional cardiology and electrophysiology. 

 AEPC center 06 Ground has been broken for a 258,000 square foot ambulatory care center, which will be inaugurated in 2009. 
The clinical training experience in cardiology at the UMass Memorial is rich. The echocardiography laboratory p erforms approximately 10,000 studies, intraoperative and noninteroperative transesophageal echocardiograms and stress/ dobutamine echocardiograms.

The catheterization laboratory performs approximately 6950 total procedures of which 2289 are coronary interventions.  In addition, the vascular interventions are performed by Division members as well as by members of the Division of Vascular Surgery. Each year, the electrophysiology laboratory implants approximately 270 ICD’s, 95 BiV ICD’s, 355 pacemakers, 200 ablations, and 260 electrophysiology studies.

Fellows have a weekly outpatient session, precepted by senior clinicians. Each patient is seen by an attending. Fellows are accorded progressive responsibility as they mature as clinical cardiologists. There is a monthly session devoted to adults with congenital heart disease, preceded by a didactic lecture given by a pediatric cardiologist, usually Dr. Richard Liberthson, an international expert in the field.  In the course of their training, virtually every aspect of adult congenital heart disease is covered in depth. 

Research: 

  • All cardiology fellows have a research block in their second/or third year
  • Fellows are expected to produce at least one manuscript and one abstract during their research time
  • If desired, as much as twelve months can be devoted to research within the fellowship's 3 year period
  • A fourth year devoted to research is possible with advance planning
  • In the past, fellows have completed research projects in the following:
    • Epidemiology (Worcester Heart Attack Study)
    • Imaging (echocardiography, MRI, CT)
    • Electrophysiology
    • Interventional Cardiology
    • Clinical Trials
  • The program director’s responsibility is to guide the fellow, beginning in the first year, to a research project and mentor