Transesophageal Echocardiography - Responsibilities
Although there will be guidance and teaching, the fellow will be responsible for their background learning of TEE. Reading materials and video's will be made available either through handouts or loans to the Echo fellows. The formal echo rotation will be one month in duration and will provide most of the hands on education for the fellow. This will be supervised one-to-one by the Anesthesia echo staff on call for that day. There will also be regular seminars and echo cases throughout the year that will be mandatory to attend. The fellow will be expected to present and interesting case at the end of their echo rotation, with the mentoring of the staff echo-anesthesiologist. Prior to beginning their rotation, the fellow should contact Dr. Heinrich or Dr. Djaiani to discover where equipment is physically kept and further discuss what your responsibilities will be. You are expected to attend all Operating Room cases where echo is involved, except when other clinical duties interfere or by discussion with the staff echo anesthetist involved. The echo fellows will be expected to familiarize themselves with the location of equipment and the proper maintenance and cleaning of the equipment. It is expected that the Fellow will be present for the entirety of the echo study.

Objectives of The Fellowship Program

Our Fellowship program is an internationally acclaimed program with applicants from around the world. Each year from 5-8 candidates are accepted into the Cardiac Anesthesiology Fellowship Program at TGH. The fellow may chose one of two options for their first year of Fellowship.

1)Clinical Fellowship: This involves 100% clinical rotation with five (5) days a week clinical service. At least two (2) days a week will be administering anesthetics for cardiac surgery. Fellows will also be exposed to pacemaker and defibrillator insertions, heart catheterization procedures and percutaneous closure of atrial septal defects. Call will be taken as 24 hour calls in the cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU). Additional weekend cardiac OR call may be required. Fellows will be supervised by staff anesthesiologists with reducing supervision as their clinical year progresses. The fellows at all times will be responsible for their own cases.
2)Clinical and Research Fellowship: This involves 1 day (20%) as research time with the remainder as clinical responsibilities. Our research fellows have an academic focus with a research mentor and are required to participate in research projects. Faculty from within the Department, as well as collaborators from the Departments of Medicine, Surgery, Pharmacology, serve as mentors and offer expertise in a wide range of research topics. The Research Coordinator is Ms. Jo Carroll. Our fellows are encouraged to present their work at national and international meetings with Departmental sponsorship. There is also university and hospital based research rounds and didactic lectures on study design and statistical analysis, grant and manuscript preparation. Fellows can expect an average of 1-2 days per week of cardiac procedures and other procedures as outlined above. Call will be taken as 24 hour calls in the cardiovascular intensive care units (CVICU). Research content is detailed below.