The division of Cardiac Surgery at Phoenix Children’s Center for Heart Care, includes three full-time, board-certified cardiac surgeons, all of whom have extensive experience in congenital cardiac surgery including congenital heart surgery procedures in adults. This one to two-year training program will provide introductory to advanced training in congenital heart surgery. The twelve-month program is dedicated to peri-operative management of congenital cardiac disease, didactic teaching in surgery, and graduated operating room experience allowing for a progression of responsibility in the intraoperative and postoperative management of patients. The advanced, 24-month program is aimed at fellows who expect to primarily practice pediatric cardiac surgery. The goal being to provide trainees with sufficient experience to perform most congenital heart procedures as an independent surgeon, particularly with procedures involving those in the neonatal age group.

Curriculum

Call responsibilities will be assigned in the 24-48 bed Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, averaging 1 in 3 nights. Trainees will be required to attend patient care management conferences weekly and will regularly meet with Cardiac Intensivists for instruction regarding peri-operative stabilization and management of patients. Trainees will participate in one-hour didactic teaching sessions conducted by the Cardiac Surgery Attending. In addition, trainees will spend one week every 2 months rotating in the ICU to learn in depth about postoperative management.

In the twelve-month program, the trainees will have the opportunity to undertake a number of surgical procedures as the operating surgeon while directly supervised by an attending staff surgeon, in a progressive fashion. It is expected that trainees will complete at least one research project during the 12 months and submit it for publication.

Application

To be considered for a fellowship position, we require:

Three (3) letters of recommendation
Personal statement outlining goals for training and future plans


Documents and correspondence should be addressed to:

Daniel A. Velez MD
Fellowship Program Director
Division Chief, Cardiac Surgery
Co-Director, Center for Heart Care
Dvelez [at] phoenixchildrens.com (Dvelez[at]phoenixchildrens[dot]com)