Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship

Overview

The Cardiology Division is built on a strong academic background and includes education activities for medical students, residents and cardiology fellows. Our inaugural fellowship program was in 1981. It has grown steadily over the past decade to become a three-year, fully accredited program with a total of nine fellowship positions. Our fellows rotate at three major clinical sites: Johnson City Medical Center, VA Medical Center and Ballad Health CVA Heart Institute. They also receive outpatient cardiology training in our continuity clinics at the VA Medical Center and CVA Heart Institute, managing patients in the CCU and participating in consultation and admission services. 

Fellows are trained in performing and interpreting diagnostic studies such as EKGs, echocardiograms, stress tests, nuclear imaging studies and cardiac catheterizations. Our fellows gain experience in device implantations, electrophysiology studies and diagnostic peripheral vascular studies. Fellows are exposed to cardiac rehabilitation services and special clinic settings for congenital heart disease and device clinics. Dedicated research time is given to Fellows who are involved in research projects with faculty to publish articles in various Pubmed journals.

Applications for fellows accepted through ERAS.
Contact Carla at (423) 439-8048 or email  hillc@etsu.edu 

Why ETSU? GME Training Facilities Application Requirements

• Video Transcript: ETSU Quillen College of Medicine Cardiology Fellowship Program Director

  [Speaker: Vijay Ramu, MD, FACC]
  Hello. Welcome to tour of our cardiology fellowship program at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee. My name is Vijay Ramu.

  I'm the chief of cardiology and fellowship program director at Cardiovascular Fellowship at Johnson City, Tennessee.

  I'm here to talk about our fellowship program and hopefully working for you guys to come and join us in the near future.

  Our cardiology fellowship program came into existence about three and a half decades back, and it has continued to grow since then.

  Our program is unique in such a way that our fellows are exposed to different hospitals and different sites, which actually promotes their training.

  They work at Johnson City Medical Center, which is a premier institution in the area. It is a level one trauma center, and it is one of the prime places where we have our fellows perform procedures.

  They also get to work at the VA medical center, which is Mountain Home, possibly ranked as one of the most beautiful VA medical centers in the nation.

  Their faculty roster has improved over the period of time. Currently, they have six practicing cardiologist, which has helped our program immensely.

  They have a standing cardiac cath lab and an EP lab at the VA medical center too, which is very unusual if you compare to other VA medical centers.

  In fact, I keep telling all my residents and fellows, your training is very complete when you have some training at the VA medical center. This helps patients, this helps the community and also helps our fellows to deal with different medical systems, whether it is financial part, the pharmacy part, or the educational part.

  It is a different system setup.

  Our fellows are well equipped when they come out because they have seen two different systems, and they are ready to take the challenges of the world.

  Our fellows perform procedures at both places, and VA procedures are complex in nature, and our fellows are well designed to take on complex cases because they handle different systems.

  We also work in different clinical settings and local hospitals, and we are also well integrated with different providers and institutions like Ballad Health system also.

  I hope this information is very helpful for you all in making the right decision and choosing your program.

  Thank you for taking your opportunity and time to learn about our program, and we hope we work with you in near future.

  [Music]

• Video Transcript: ETSU Quillen College of Medicine Cardiology Fellows

  [Speaker: Colin McGuire, DO]
  We rotate at two clinical sites, Johnson City Medical Center at the VA hospital, especially for the clinical aspects and there's no greater place to train for us as a fellow.

  We are exposed to a wide range of pathologies, and we have an abundant amount of procedures that we can undertake with our attending’s that we have a very close relationship with.

  The fellowship is growing, and I'm pleased to say that I'm having a pleasant and wonderful experiences at my time here at ETSU.

  [Speaker: Lalith Namburu, MD]
  I've done my residency and I've loved the community and the training that they offer at our program.

  And I've decided to choose ETSU for my cardiology fellowship as well.

  All in all, ETSU would be a great choice for your cardiology fellowship and all the best for your future.

  [Speaker: Varshitha Kondapaneni, MBBS]
  I'm one month into the program, and I can say I'm already in love with the place in the community here. And so far, it has been a smooth transition from my residency to the fellowship.

  And I can say in the first two weeks when we have the orientation, it was very smooth.

  They kind of organized everything very well to get accustomed to the places here, both at the VA hospital and also at the JCMC. I can say so far, it's it's been a wonderful experience being in the fellowship.

  Attending’s have been very helpful in my transition and I can say, I can call them at any time even during the night when I'm on call, without any hesitation.

  And they'll always welcome to answer any questions that I might have during the rotation.

  [Music]

Clinic

Led by Ballad Health CVA Heart Institute,  Ballad Health welcomes ETSU Health’s adult cardiology specialists to the CVA Heart Institute, provides up-to-date diagnostic and therapeutic heart care for the patients in our region.

This partnership gives ETSU Health’s faculty providers the opportunity to continue overseeing their patients’ care with expertise, while allowing medical students, resident physicians and fellows in East Tennessee State University’s Quillen College of Medicine programs the opportunity to learn and practice within a robust heart institute setting.

Our diagnostic services include:

• General Cardiology
• Electrophysiology
• Echocardiography
• Nuclear Cardiology
• Interventional Cardiology