Cardiology Fellowship

Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC

Providing excellent care for babies, children, and adolescents with heart problems is a complex task. It involves pediatric cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, nurses and professionals in other health-related disciplines working cooperatively to provide the best possible care to optimize outcomes. It is in this setting that you will begin your fellowship career in pediatric cardiology. Our goal is to prepare fellows for careers in academic medicine. This includes not only caring for patients, but also influencing the future practice of the field through teaching and research.

Director’s Statement

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC’s Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Program provides a comprehensive training program for fellows interested in leading the field of pediatric cardiology. Educational opportunities are tailored to suit the needs and interests of each fellow. The clinical service is staffed by 19 pediatric cardiologists and includes a dedicated pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) and a world renowned heart and heart-lung transplant program. The fully developed didactic educational program covers the breadth of general and subspecialty pediatric cardiology with multiple, weekly conferences for fellows. Furthermore, a broad range of research opportunities are available from the basic sciences to clinical trials. The program is currently funded for seven fellows.

The objectives of the program are to:

• Enable the trainee to become competent in all diagnostic and therapeutic areas of clinical pediatric cardiology so that he/she is capable of acting as a consultant.
• Familiarize the trainee with methods of clinical and basic investigation and with the skills to undertake a research project.

The program allows trainees with interest in sub-specialty areas of pediatric cardiology to become skilled in at least one of the following:

• Cardiomyopathy and Cardiopulmonary Transplantation Medicine
• Advanced echocardiography (including fetal and transesophageal studies)
• Interventional Catheterization
• Cardiac Critical Care (including ventricular assist devices, ECMO)
• Electrophysiology
• Exercise Physiology
• Preventative cardiology (including hyperlipidemia and obesity)
• Adult Congenital Cardiology

For trainees interested in a career in basic science investigation, opportunities include:

• Developmental cardiovascular biology
• Myocardial/mitochondrial energetics
• Regenerative tissue engineering
• Mechanical assist device engineering and prototype testing
• Transplantation immunology
• Experimental advanced imaging (e.g. computational modeling, molecular contrast echocardiography)

Thank you for your interest in our pediatric cardiology fellowship program.  I hope we can help you in your search for the best education and training program to suit your needs.

Mark DeBrunner, MD
Fellowship Program Director, Pediatric Cardiology
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Meet the Heart Institute Faculty