Cardiology Residency Program
Clinical Medicine: The Cardiology service at the University of Florida receives cardiology cases three days per week and two attending cardiologists share clinical duty. The receiving day consists of appointments, diagnostic workups, and in-house consultations. Interventional procedures and in-house consultations are performed on non-receiving days. Common interventional procedures include, but are not limited to, permanent pacemaker implantation, balloon valvuloplasty, and device implantation for PDA/shunt occulsion. Cases are shared between the faculty clinician and the resident, with the resident having priority. The caseload in primarily composed of dogs and cats, however, consultations for horses, cows, and other large animals, as well as various exotic species are common. Day emergencies are seen by the cardiology service. Required out-rotations for the resident may include 4 weeks of internal medicine and at least 2 weeks of cardiology at a different institution.
Supervision and guidance in clinical cases by UF faculty cardiologists, self-study, rotations on other cardiology services, monthly cardiology journal club and chapter review, bimonthly ECG rounds and weekly attendance of cardiovascular rounds and conference at Shands UF Medical Center are provided to give the resident training and experience in all areas of cardiovascular medicine, according to the guidelines of the Specialty of Cardiology of the ACVIM.
Teaching: Teaching skills are developed in the clinic and in lectures prepared for fellow residents, faculty members, and veterinary students. Residents are expected to take an active role in teaching veterinary students. Residents participate in a weekly Resident Seminar Series (annual seminar on a topic of research). Electrocardiography rounds are held bimonthly with journal club and chapter review held once monthly. Residents are required to attend pediatric cardiac catherization conference and surgical conference at the College of Medicine (Shands) weekly and are encouraged to spend an elective rotation with the pediatric cardiology service at Shands. Residents will attend the ACVIM meeting annually. Residents will attend at least one human cardiology meeting (American Heart Association of American College of Cardiology) during their residency.
Research: All residents at the UNiversity of Florida are required to complete a research project in the biological sciences. A manuscript on the project must be prepared and submitted to the cardiology faculty in order to complete the residency program satisfactorily. Residents must also present their projects at a national meeting. Intramural funding (up to $2000) is available on a competitive basis in the fall of each year for those residency research projects. Residents compete for these funds by researching literature and writing a proposal. Financial support is available to assist with the costs associated with travel to a national meeting an for miscellaneous academic expenses including literature searches, photocopying and development of a teaching file based on clinical cases.
Interviews are advisable and will be scheduled after all applications have been received.