Welcome

The McMaster interventional cardiology group performs 8,000 procedures per year including approximately 3,000 percutaneous coronary intervention and 800 interventions for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. It is one of the highest volume programs in North America and offers the full range of interventional services, including complex and high-risk PCI, chronic total occlusion PCI, septal ablation for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, percutaneous hemodynamic support, intracoronary physiology assessment, basic and advanced intracoronary imaging, evaluation and treatment of pulmonary hypertension and percutaneous aortic, mitral and tricuspid valve intervention. McMaster is recognized as the leading centre in Canada for optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging.

Approximately 5-8 Canadian and international trainees are enrolled in the program. Over the course of the program, fellows will be trained to become fully competent practitioners in all aspects of the discipline of interventional cardiology. The fellows will also have the ability to focus on specific areas, including CT coronary angiography, intracoronary imaging, mitral/tricuspid or aortic percutaneous intervention, chronic total occlusion PCI or clinical research. There is a possibility of an additional year of training in each of these areas.

All fellows have the option of enrolling in the Health Research Methodology program at McMaster with an interventional cardiology faculty member serving as their academic supervisor. Acceptance into this program is on a competitive basis.

Certification Outcome

The successful completion of the fellowship will grant a Fellowship McMaster Certification and an Area of Focused Competence diploma from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Entry Requirements

The fellowship program is designed for current residents or recent graduates of a recognized Canadian or international general cardiology residency program or equivalent. Recent graduates are required to submit an application form and comply with McMaster University Postgraduate Medical Education requirements for residents and fellows.

Application Deadline

May 1st of the year prior to starting date (i.e., 14 months prior to a July 1st start date)

Last day for accepting applications:

Rolling, until positions filled

Goals of Training

The goals of the program are to:

• Provide high-quality clinical training in interventional cardiology and develop competent and independent practitioners in the field of interventional cardiology
• Provide a broad didactic educational experience in interventional cardiology via a core curriculum lecture series and case review sessions with faculty
• Provide exposure to clinical investigation in interventional cardiology by promoting hypothesis generation and exploration using existing interventional cardiology databases at McMaster University.  We expect an abstract submission with a presentation at a national or international meeting with the intent of
• publication in a peer-reviewed journal
• Promote technological advancements in the field through participation in clinical trials of novel devices and pharmacotherapies for use in percutaneous cardiovascular interventions
• Promote an environment of self-evaluation and practice improvement through participation in quality improvement conferences and quality improvement programs

Length of Training

2 years

Funding

In general, 2 trainees will be supported by internal fellowship funds at McMaster University. These positions are competitive. All other positions will be filled by candidates who have funding already secured from their home institution, country or external funding agency. Documentation of funding is mandatory for all trainees prior to commencing the program.

Curriculum Highlights

The 24-month training program is divided into 4-week blocks (1 block = 4 weeks).

The total is 26 blocks.

• Diagnostic cardiac catheterization and interventional cardiology catheterization
  • 14 blocks
• Interventional Ambulatory Care (Longitudinal PCI clinic over 2 years)
  • 2 blocks
• Research in CV Medicine
  • 2 blocks
• Elective service (additional research, IC structural heart disease, CT coronary
• angiography)
  • 8 blocks
• Vacation (can be taken anytime during the 24-month training program)
  • 2 blocks

Supervision & Feedback

The assessment will involve a combination of direct workplace-based assessment & in-training evaluation of performance in the cath lab and CT. A case logbook must be submitted, reviewed and signed off by the program committee for fellowship completion.

Associated Programs