Training and Education
The Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship is a comprehensive three-year program designed to provide the skills required for a successful leadership career in both academic and clinical practice. The challenging cases, procedural volume, dedicated faculty, and the academic strength of our fellows ensure that our trainees receive a comprehensive education in all aspects of cardiovascular medicine. The core curriculum is designed to provide a strong clinical foundation in cardiovascular medicine in the first year of training. The second and third year experience builds upon that foundation to enhance the scope of knowledge and skills by allowing more time for dedicated electives, research, and supervisory roles. The structure of our fellowship provides the opportunity for each fellow to tailor their experience to their specific interests and goals.
Clinical Sites
744 West 9th Street
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74127-9020
The country's largest single site osteopathic hospital, OSU Medical Center, is located just blocks from the OSU Center for Health Sciences. What began as Oklahoma Osteopathic Hospital by a group of pioneering osteopathic physicians in 1944 has grown to become one of the nation's largest osteopathic health care centers. OSU Medical Center is a flagship hospital in eastern Oklahoma. Licensed for 426 beds, with premier emergency and outpatient programs, it is poised for great outreach and growth in the 21st century. OSU Medical Center is committed to quality patient care. Because the medical center sees a wide variety of high acuity cases, the postgraduate training programs are seen as a critical priority by the medical center staff and administration.
Annually, OSU Medical Center:
- Admits over 13,000 patients
- Experiences over 30,000 emergency room visits
- Experiences over 25,000 outpatient visits
- Performs nearly 3,500 inpatient procedures
Staff physicians have trained at some of the nation's most prestigious medical institutions and have a high regard for their personal role in postgraduate education. Internships and residency positions in many different disciplines are available. OSU Medical Center is significantly involved in clinical training for medical students, nurses, therapists and technicians from several area schools and colleges.
6161 S. Yale Ave.
Tulsa, OK 74136
Saint Francis Hospital was founded by Mr. and Mrs. William K. Warren, Sr. in 1955 and opened its doors in 1960. The hospital originally consisted of a six-story building with 275 acute-care beds and 40 newborn beds.
Saint Francis Hospital, a 1,112-bed tertiary center, includes the region's only children's hospital and level IV neonatal intensive care unit, a 168-bed heart hospital and Tulsa's leading trauma and emergency center.
Rotation Schedule
The cardiology fellowship is a three-year program dedicated to train the fellow to achieve a high standard of clinical competency and procedural adeptness. Due to the distribution and variety of clinical exposure and procedural volumes between our facilities, approximately one third of the fellows time is completed at the base institution (OSUMC) and approximately two thirds of the time is completed at the affiliate hospital (SFH). The fellows have limited exposure outside these facilities for elective rotations in areas of interest or services not supported by either facility.
The base institution, Oklahoma State University Medical Center (OSUMC) is a community based hospital with a smaller volume of patients and procedures, as compared to the affiliate hospital, Saint Francis Hospital (SFH) which is a tertiary referral hospital. OSUMC provides a higher volume of indigent care for the city of Tulsa. SFH is the largest hospital in the state and is the primary referral center for the eastern half of the state and provides a higher and more diverse volume of clinical exposure and procedures, not available at OSUMC. The combined experience of both institutions gives the fellows a broad scope of experience not provided by either hospital alone.
The clinical and procedural rotations are designed to meet requirements as set forth by the ACGME. Procedural training shall adhere to the most current guidelines established for the Core Cardiology Training Symposium (COCATS) as approved by the American College of Cardiology and revised in 2015. (currently COCATS 4).
Procedural Training
All fellows have the ability to achieve the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association level II training in coronary angiography, transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, nuclear cardiology and computed tomography coronary angiography.
Didactics & Conferences
All fellows will participate at conferences including echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, cath conference, guideline conference, board review and grand rounds.
- Clinical Teaching Rounds are precept by an attending every day when possible. The fellows/residents/medical student should discuss in advance with attending to arrange a topic for discussion or a patient for presentation.
- Cardiac catheterization/noninvasive conference reviews clinical interventional cases and is held weekly at Saint Francis. All Fellows are expected to attend this conference and assignments will be distributed to all fellows throughout the year to cover a topic during these conferences.
- Presentation for morning report is to be presented by the Fellow on the third Tuesday of every month. Fellows are expected to prepare a 45 minute presentation on a germane topic.
Noon Conference is usually given daily. Fellows are encouraged to attend.
Attendance at the monthly St Francis Morbidity and Mortality Conference are highly encouraged.
Call Schedule
The cardiology fellow assigned to the In-patient Hospital Service is responsible for taking call as curtailed by the call schedule. It is expected that residents and fellows will share responsibility for weekend and evening call as assigned. Every effort will be made to share the evening and weekend call equitably and to meet residency/fellow guidelines. Any changes in on-call following distribution should be reported to the Chief Fellow who coordinates, publishes and distributes the call schedules.