The Brown Fellowship program in Cardiovascular Disease is an ACGME-accredited, 3-year, academically and clinically rigorous program. The main objective of the Program is to teach the trainee the clinical knowledge, procedural skills, clinical judgment, professionalism and interpersonal skills that are required as a outstanding specialist in cardiovascular diseases. This training will prepare our fellows to function not only as highly competent cardiologists, but also as either subspecialists in a clinical area or investigators in the field of cardiovascular research. Separate accredited fellowship programs in Interventional Cardiology and Electrophysiology are offered to highly qualified graduates of this and other cardiology fellowship programs.
The Brown University Division of Cardiology provides a dynamic, diverse, and intellectually rich environment for fellows in training. The Division is nationally recognized as a leader in diagnostic imaging, interventional cardiology, and electrophysiology. Major clinical activities of the Division include a very active clinical consult service, coronary care units, and cardiac catheterization, interventional and electrophysiology services. A full range of state-of-the art cardiac imaging services are also provided, including echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, cardiac CT, cardiac MRI, and cardiac PET.
The Division encompasses three hospitals, each with slightly different patient populations and philosophies. Rhode Island Hospital is a 719 bed multi-specialty university hospital providing primary, secondary, and tertiary care. The adjacent 257 bed Women and Infants Hospital is an integral part of the complex and provides neonatal, maternal, and gynecological services for most of the state. The Miriam Hospital is a 247 bed community based tertiary referral center specializing in cardiovascular disease. The Providence VA Hospital is a 160 bed facility which offers trainees experience in independently managing patients with the full range of cardiovascular disease, with an emphasis on advanced atherosclerosis. All hospitals are major affiliates of Brown Medical School. Fellows receive an appointment at Brown as an Assistant Clinical Instructor, and have free access to university facilities and libraries. Faculty members in the Division of Cardiology hold appointments at Brown Medical School. There are a wide range of faculty interests, from entirely clinical to full-time research.
Research. Research activities are integral to the Division of Cardiology and to the training program. Clinical research occurs in all major areas of cardiology. The Division is involved in many clinical trials, serves as the core imaging lab for several studies, and has access to several databases from national trials and registries. There is an active animal research laboratory, which serves basic and translational research projects within the Division. The Brown Cardiovascular Research Center is dedicated to basic research in cardiology, and to the training of fellows in the basic sciences. Research is currently focused on molecular mechanisms of arrhythmias, myocardial hypertrophy, and heart failure. A variety of basic research related to cardiovascular medicine also occurs outside of the division, and is available for interested fellows. The Brown Program in Public Health can provide training resources for fellows with an interest in Public Health and/or outcomes research.
We are pleased to announce that the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has awarded a T32 grant to fund the CardioPulmonary Research Training Program. This program is co-directed by Gideon Koren, MD, director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at Rhode Island Hospital and professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University and Sharon Rounds, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the medical service at the Providence VA Medical Center. The NHLBI grant funds research training for between four and eight MD and/or PhD post-doctoral fellows each year, for the next five years. For more information, please refer to the T32 website: http://www.brownmedicine.org/cardiopulmonary.
Program Duration. The core fellowship program includes 6 fellows per year for a minimum of 3 years. Most of the required rotations are done in the first 2 years of the program, leaving the 3rd year as a largely elective year to focus on research and level II or III training. Thus, a total of 24-27 months of training are dedicated to mastering the core skills in clinical cardiology. The remaining time can be dedicated to advanced training in research, cardiac imaging, catheterization, or initial training in electrophysiology or interventional cardiology. Fellows anticipating a career in basic cardiovascular research will generally have a minimum of two years of research training. Trainees interested in a career in clinical electrophysiology or interventional cardiology will have an additional fourth or fifth year of training.
Philosophy. The entire Brown faculty is highly committed to the educational mission of the program. Essential components of this philosophy include availability of faculty, personal attention to each fellow's goals and objectives, creation of a positive and energetic teaching environment, fostering intellectual inquisitiveness, and a "team" approach to patient care and research.
