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Cardiac Imaging Fellowship
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University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital
Supervisor: Dr. Elsie Nguyen
The Cardiac Radiology Program at University Health Network, Mount Sinai Hospital and Women's College Hospital is well established as a centre of excellence and one of the few in North America that offers a focused 12 month Fellowship dedicated solely to Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) and Computed Tomography (CT). There is a dedicated faculty of 6 cardiac imagers working in a collaborative clinical and research environment with the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre which encompasses the Divisions of Cardiology, Vascular Surgery and Cardiac Surgery.
Cardiac MR: There is a large clinical caseload, ~1,800 per annum comprising 40-50% complex adult congenital heart disease, 30-40% acquired heart disease (viability studies, cardiomyopathies, cardiac masses), the remaining 10-20% focuses on the thoracic aorta.
Cardiac CT: The current clinical caseload, ~2,000 cases per annum comprising 85-90% CT coronary angiography, the remaining 10-15% focuses on assessment of pulmonary veins pre and post ablation and complex congenital heart disease.
Equipment: Recent installation of a dedicated cardiac 1.5T Siemens MR, with a dedicated cardiac 3T Siemens MR to be installed in the Fall of 2008. There is an adjacent research 1.5T General Electric MR. Cardiac CT is performed on a dedicated 320 row MDCT, Toshiba Aquilion ONE, a second 320 row MDCT unit is to be installed early in 2009. There are 2 additional 64 row MDCT units, Toshiba, which are available for cardiac imaging.
Fellowship: There are currently two funded and one self funded clinical fellowship positions available. The fellowship lasts one year with time evenly split between cardiac MR and CT. Eighty percent of the fellowship is clinical and twenty percent is dedicated to research. It will be the fellow's responsibility, under appropriate supervision, to triage, protocol, monitor and report CMR and CT cases. The fellows attend and present cases at the weekly, multidisciplinary Adult Congenital Heart Conference. Research is a key component of this fellowship, and it is expected that the fellow will present an abstract to at least one international meeting, and should complete at least 2 papers over the course of the year.
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Supervisor: Dr. Anna Zavodni
Our goal is to make our fellow competent in the independent operation of an advanced non-invasive cardiac imaging service and the conduct of clinical research. Specifically, well before the end of the fellowship, our trainee should be an expert in the acquisition, processing and interpretation of cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography studies (CT) and have gained experience as the principal investigator in a clinical research project.
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is a major ischemic cardiovascular disease referral centre with an active electrophysiology program. Our service performs more than a 1000 cardiac MRI and CT studies per year and is rapidly expanding. In addition to the Schulich Heart Centre and Sunnybrook Research Institute, our hospital is attached to a Regional Cancer Centre, is Canada’s largest regional trauma centre and also provides a host of services as a busy general adult hospital.
Clinical: In-depth case review occurs daily during readout sessions and throughout the week during a variety of multidisciplinary activities. One of our program’s major strengths is our close ties with our clinical and scientific colleagues, we attend weekly cardiology and cardiovascular surgery rounds and several times a month participate in joint conferences, grand rounds and other activities.
Research: With a large selection of mentors and a host of potential projects, over the course of the year our fellow is expected to present at least one abstract at an international meeting and complete one paper. This objective is easily met or exceeded through the support of our clinical faculty and collaboration with our clinical and scientific colleagues.
Technology: We have 3 clinical MR scanners (2 GE 1.5T, 1 Philips 3.0T) and 3 research MR scanners (GE 1.5T, GE 3T and a hybrid GE 1.5T-angiography suite). There are 4 clinical CT scanners including three 64-detectors GE and 1 research CT scanner (320-row Toshiba). We have a large range of post-processing options with 4 GE Advantage workstations, 1 Philips ViewForum and TeraRecon Aquarius software installed throughout the department.
Consistent with our education and academic objectives, our fellow’s time is divided into 80% clinical and 20% research. Experiences are tailored to individual needs. Our fellow meets a mentor at least twice a month in order to identify personal objectives, facilitate learning and evaluate progress.