Our Campus

Facilities

Inpatient training takes place at the University of Tennessee Medical Center (UTMC), a tertiary referral center and Level-I Trauma Center serving the entire East Tennessee region. During the consultative and critical care rotations, the fellow treats inpatients with the entire range of cardiovascular disorders. During the required and elective rotations, the fellow receives extensive training in electrocardiography, exercise stress testing, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, and diagnostic cardiac catheterization. Higher level training is available in any of the above subspecialty areas at the fellow's request and with program director approval. Ambulatory training takes place in the Heart Lung Vascular Institute, which adjoins the hospital. There the fellow evaluates cardiovascular disease patients in a private practice setting and follows the fellow's own panel of patients in a continuity clinic. Throughout the fellowship, the fellow works closely with a research mentor on a research project of the fellow's choosing. The fellow is provided with six months of dedicated research time during the third year of the fellowship to complete the research project.

Center of Excellence

The Heart Lung Vascular Institute is one of the medical center's six Centers of Excellence. Each center is dedicated to providing comprehensive care to patients and expert commitment plays a critical role in the hospital's ongoing success.The Heart Lung Vascular Institute brings together expertise in clinical care, teaching and research. Patients receive exceptional healthcare combined with patient-centered care, premier technology and extensive patient/community education in one convenient outpatient facility.

Program Strengths

• The fellowship program is an integral part of the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine Department of Medicine program that has been in existence since 1956, with continued full accreditation since its inception. The UTGSM program has over 170 residents and fellows training in 10 ACGME accredited core residency programs and four ACGME accredited subspecialty fellowship programs.

• UTGSM provides fellows with an excellent support system, including nursing, pharmacy, library, laboratory, nutritional support, social workers, consultative support from subspecialists, and an excellent Resident Assistance Program. The University of Tennessee Medical Center(UTMC) has state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic facilities with an electronic medical record system, the CoPath pathology information system, and the PACS radiology information system.

• UTGSM is minutes away from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, main campus and has the resources of this large institution at its disposal. UTGSM has a close working relationship with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, located in Memphis. Teachers and researchers at UTGSM collaborate and share facilities with colleagues at the prestigious University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

• UTGSM draws patients from a large geographic area in East Tennessee, southeast Kentucky, northwest North Carolina, and western Virginia. University of Tennessee Medical Center is a Level 1 Trauma Center, with three helicopters providing transport of critically ill patients, including numerous acute myocardial infarction patients. Due to the tertiary referral nature of the university program, a large number of patients with a broad spectrum of clinical pathologies are available for both clinical experience and research studies.

• The fellowship faculty practice, University Cardiology, is located in offices connected to the hospital and is part of the University of Tennessee Medical Center's Heart Lung Vascular Institute. The large University Cardiology practice sees over 200 patients daily from all over the East Tennessee region and neighboring states.
  
  
• The fellowship faculty physicians have trained at some of the best training programs in the country, including Baylor, Johns Hopkins, Brown, University of Michigan, Boston University, Emory, LSU, Harvard, Tulane, Southwestern, Vanderbilt, and University of Pennsylvania. All faculty members are board-certified in cardiovascular disease. In addition, there are faculty members board-certified in interventional cardiology, nuclear medicine, and electrophysiology and pacing.
  
  
• The volume of cardiovascular procedures performed annually at UTMC, in both the hospital and clinic, is substantial, with more than:
  
  
  • 24,775 of echocardiograms (1,349 TEE's)
    
    
  • 2,607 cardiac catheterizations (778 PCI's)
    
    
  • Structural interventions include: 
    
    
    • 113 TAVR's
    • 18 MitraClip
    • 15 Watchman
      
      
  • 779 cardioversions
    
    
  • 867 devices
    
    
  • 74,677 ECGs
    
    
  • 5,260 stress tests (50/50 inpatient PET/outpatient SPECT)
    
    
  • 493 of electrophysiological studies