Advocate Christ Medical Center Adult Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program

History

The Cardiovascular disease fellowship program at Advocate Christ Medical Center (ACMC) had its inception in the year 1978 under the leadership of Dr. Hugo Cuadros. It was a stand alone fellowship program until the year 2001 when the fellowship was merged with the University of Illinois at Chicago cardiology fellowship program and that partnership continued until the year 2022, when the two fellowship programs split up into their constituent parts.

The cardiology fellowship program at ACMC is an ACGME accredited fellowship program accepting two cardiology fellows per year.

Several of our esteemed faculty members including our current Program Director, Dr. Muhyaldeen Dia are alumni of the ACMC Cardiology fellowship program.

About the Program
The Cardiovascular Disease fellowship program aims to provide fellows with exceptional training in clinical cardiology, with exposure to the state-of-the-art treatments. Advocate Christ Medical Center provides the highest level of cardiac care with the Advocate Health network in Illinois.

Please see the Advocate Christ Medical Center fact sheet for current hospital stats. Advocate Christ Medical Center cares for patients with the highest acuity providing a rich learning experience for the trainees. With dedicated critical care specialists available throughout the day and night, this also results in close collaboration across multiple teams to facilitate the best learning for our fellows and great outcomes for our patients.

Thus, the fellowship program provides academically and clinically rigorous training experience and offers the benefits of an academic institution in terms of its broad referral base and the personal and one on one attention of a community institution. There is constant one on one supervision of the fellows with a high faculty to fellow ratio.

The fellowship ensures that the fellows have the necessary tools to achieve proficiency in all of the 6 ACGME core competencies and the success of the program stems from the close interaction of the fellows with the faculty.

With all the cardiac subspecialties represented within the institution, including advanced heart failure, structural interventional cardiology, adult congenital heart disease, the fellows receive all their training at our institution without having to seek out rotations at other centers to further their learning.

Our interventional and electrophysiology teams perform the most complicated procedures on the sickest patients. The center is always evolving and developing innovative programs and is currently developing the women and heart clinic, the sarcoid clinic and setting up the renal denervation program.

The program puts a strong emphasis on clinical research. Fellows are encouraged to initiate their own independent research projects but also have access to all the ongoing trials within the department as well. Our fellows have made presentations at the national meetings and won awards for their presentations at local chapter meetings.

Fellows also benefit from close interaction with the residents in our extremely competitive internal medicine residency program and are provided with the opportunity to mentor them.

With easy access to both the city of Chicago and the suburbs, the fellows enjoy an excellent quality of life with some fellows choosing to live in the city and others, in the suburbs.

Previous graduates from the program now serve in leading positions in academic centers throughout Chicagoland and all over the USA.

Program Administrators
Dr. Muhyaldeen Dia, Program Director
Dr. Shermeen Memon, Associate Program Director
Dr. Rashmi Raghuvir, Associate Program Director

Conferences

The fellowship training program conducts several conferences weekly. These are intended to cover survival lectures at the start of fellowship, core cardiology topics and latest advancements in the field of cardiology. Blocks 1 and 13 have limited conferences to accommodate fellowship responsibilities and transition of care. Fellows will be able to participate in the following didactic opportunities throughout their training (for the most accurate schedule, please refer to the program didactics outlook calendar)

Cardiac Physical Exam
These lectures will be offered at the start of fellowship. They will include simulation education with review of physical exam using audio recordings.

EKG Lectures
Interpret, discuss, and code EKGs in a web-based format resembling the cardiology board examination.

Morning Report
Mandatory daily conference held between 7:30 and 8:30 the cardiology section will review current cases in the hospital. Fellow participation is mandatory. During the month of July, this will be replaced by “survival lecture series”.

Journal Clubs
Critical review and presentation of a recent journal article chosen by a fellow. Held once a month. The fellow will choose a recent, clinically relevant article. He is expected to give a copy of the article to the journal club attending 1 week prior. The fellow should thoroughly analyze article, examining details of data collection, statistical analysis etc. and present during the conference.

Morbidity & Mortality (Fellows)
Critical review of recent cases with adverse outcomes or re-admissions at ACMC. Meeting held quarterly, presented by fellows, involving cardiology and cardiovascular surgery departments.

Pathology Lecture
Hands-on experience with pathology to review slides involving endomyocardial biopsies. Meeting held quarterly.

Congenital Conference
Lecture and/or case review of topics pertaining to congenital pathology.

CCU Conferences
Lectures covering critical care for the fellow on CCU rotation.

Topic Lectures (Attendings)
Throughout the academic year, attendings teach a myriad of cardiology topics in lecture format. This includes the Survival Lecture Series where essential skills and concepts are covered.

Grand Rounds (Internal Medicine)
Internal Medicine Grand Rounds series includes topics in cardiovascular disease. Fellows are expected to attend.

CME Conferences
As additional practice for teaching, fellows are expected to lead weekly CME conferences that enhance their knowledge in cardiovascular disease and supplement interactions with the attendings. While these conferences are normally held on regularly scheduled dates and times, this may be adjusted as necessary to prioritize the attending-led lectures and conferences. If adjusted, these regularly scheduled series (RSS) activities must be approved beforehand to qualify for CME. These conferences include:

ACVI - Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging (Biweekly)
Review and discuss multi-modality imaging of various patients.

CATH Conference (Weekly)
Case presentations by the cath fellow leading to review of coronary angiograms, IVUS/ FFR findings where relevant and management discussion involving fellows and attendings and surgeons, whenever possible. The fellow also presents an interventional topic related to the case.

ECHO Conference (Weekly)
Presented by the echo fellow, echo conference will review several echos each week focusing on key concepts in echocardiography and review topics in the form of lectures, cases, and/or questions delivered by the echo fellow.

Heart Rhythm & ECG (Weekly)
Lectures and cases encompassing various EP topics selected by fellows, this conference will be conducted in conjunction with cardiac EP fellow, with discussion involving trainees and attendings.

Interventional/Structural (Bi-weekly)
Case review involving percutaneous intervention and presentation of an associated teaching topic, followed by case discussion involving fellows, attending and surgeons. This will be run by the interventional fellow and the cardiology fellows will have the opportunity to participate.

AHF (Monthly)
Conference with topic review, with presentations by attendings and fellows and case review.

SIM Lab

Program-Sponsored Conferences
Each fellow will be allotted one (1) specific conference to attend during each PGY-year that will be financially sponsored by the program. Expenses related to this conference (except for dues or memberships) will be covered by the program.

Fellow Teaching Responsibility
Throughout the year, fellows will have opportunities to present to the Internal Medicine residents and medical students rotating with the fellowship on cardiology topics of interest. Supervised by a cardiology attending, this will enhance and refine the fellow’s teaching skills. Fellows are expected to participate in the education and training and provide themselves as a resource for other house staff. The fellow is expected to be a resource for the general concepts of cardiology.

Core rotations

  • Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology
  • Cardiac Cath
  • Cardiovascular CT and MRI
  • CCU Rotation (CVTU)
  • Consult Service
  • Echocardiography (ECHO)
  • Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology
  • Research
  • Transesophageal Echocardiogram/Nuclear Cardiology
  • Continuity Clinic

Elective Rotations
Elective choices: Research (3 months or more); Echo; Advanced Cardiac Imaging; Vascular Imaging, Cath/Interventional/Structural, AHF, EP, Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Pulmonary Hypertension, Amyloid, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, Cardio-obstetrics/Women’s health. Outpatient Cardiology/Subspecialty clinic.

Applications process

Applications for the 2024-2025 Fellowship Training Program will be accepted exclusively via ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service).

Required documents of the ERAS file include:

  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Personal statement
  • Medical school transcripts
  • USMLE, COMLEX or equivalent examination results with dates
  • Three (3) letters of recommendation (including your most recent Residency Program Director) and a minimum of two (2) additional letters from faculty members directly familiar with your recent experience.
  • Recent photo

Application Review and Interviews
The Program Director and Associate Program Directors will review submitted applications. Candidates selected to interview will be contacted and receive invitations to schedule an interview. Applicants will be interviewed by the Program Director and Associate Program Directors and will have an opportunity to participate in a virtual Zoom meeting with current fellows the evening prior to interview.

Interview Months: September - October
Visa Sponsorship: J-1 Visa only
NRMP Program Code: 2117141F2
ACGME Program Code: 1411614002

For additional information regarding salary and benefits, please contact Ruth Mrochen, Program Specialist, Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship.

Advocate Christ Medical Center
4440 W. 95th St., Suite 1126M
Oak Lawn, IL 60453

Ruth.Mrochen@aah.org
Phone: 708-684-5405

CMC-CardiologyFellowshipProgram@aah.org

Advocate Christ Medical Center Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Fellowship Program

History
The Advanced Heart and Transplant Fellowship program was transferred to Advocate Health Care from the University of Illinois at Chicago in July 2024. Fellows trained at Advocate Christ Medical Center previously with UIC as the sponsoring institution, and the only change was the transfer of the program to Advocate Christ Medical Center. Dr. Gregory Macaluso continues his role as the Program Director. The program and the Christ faculty remain the same.

About the Program
The mission of the Advocate Health Care/Advocate Christ Medical Center Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship program is to share the experiences and practices of our award-winning programs and management styles with trainees and to help foster their growth into the next generation leaders in the field.

We strive to provide an outstanding educational opportunity for general cardiology fellows who are interesting in a career in Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology. We remain among the most robust programs nationally who perform ventricular assist device and transplant surgery. We continue to offer cutting edge technology and treatment approaches while utilizing a multidisciplinary disease management strategy. Our program strives to meet our patients medical and non-medical needs, employing a team of nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers and physicians trained in the management of heart failure.

A comprehensive inpatient program allows trainees to witness patients receiving the highest quality, most cost-efficient care. Highlights of the inpatient program include the following:

  • Multidisciplinary approach led by a Heart Failure nurse practitioner in collaboration with Heart Failure physicians
  • Optimization of guideline recommended medical management
  • Access to advanced treatment options
  • Intensive patient education with special emphasis on adherence and self-care management
  • Assure early follow-up after discharge through clinic, home-based visits and telephone support
  • Psychosocial support to patients and family and/or caregiver
  • Management of cardiogenic shock, ECMO and various cardiac support devices
  • Management of transplant patients
  • Management of patients with mechanical circulatory support

In addition to applying the most advanced technology and treatment to patients care, we pursue an active research program in both clinical and translational sciences.

Program Administrators
Dr. Gregory Macaluso, Program Director

Faculty
Muhyaldeen Dia, MD
Vinh Chau, MD
William Cotts, MD
Mohammad Kabbany, MD
James Monaco, MD
Nikhal Narang, MD
Sunil Pauwaa, MD
Jessica Pillarella, MD
Christopher Sciamanna, DO

Application Process
Applications for the 2025-2026 Fellowship Training Program will be accepted via ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service).

Required documents of the ERAS file include:

  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Personal statement
  • Medical school transcripts
  • USMLE, COMLEX or equivalent examination results with dates
  • Three (3) letters of recommendation (including your most recent Residency/Fellowship Program Director) and a minimum of two (2) additional letters from faculty members directly familiar with your recent experience.
  • Recent photo

Application Review and Interviews
The Program Director will review submitted applications. Candidates selected to interview will be contacted and receive invitations to schedule an interview. Applicants will be interviewed by the Program Director

Interview Months: September - October
Visa Sponsorship: J-1 Visa only
NRMP Program Code: 2117159S0
ACGME Program Code: 1591614048

For additional information regarding salary and benefits, please contact Ruth Mrochen, Program Specialist, at Ruth.Mrochen@aah.org. Phone: 708-684-5405