Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology - Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Fellowship (U.S.)

Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Fellowship (U.S.)

All anesthesiologists obtain either a M.D. or D.O. degree prior to entering post-medical school graduate medical education. After satisfactory completion of an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or American Osteopathic Association (AOA) accredited one year internship in either internal medicine or surgery and a three year residency program in all subspecialties of Anesthesiology, formal advanced training in Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology is available via a one year fellowship..

The first Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology fellowship was formed at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1971. Since then, Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology has become an ACGME approved fellowship (2007), and there are 58 ACGME accredited programs for current academic year(2011–2012).

This fellowship consists of at least eight months of adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology, one month dedicated to transesophageal echocardiography, one month in cardiothoracic intensive care unit and two months of elective rotation which includes inpatient or outpatient cardiology or pulmonary medicine, invasive cardiology, medical or surgical critical care and extracorporeal perfusion technology.

Fellows are offered the opportunity to participate in clinical research and encouraged to present at national or international conferences after completion of a research project. The arenas of research can be as diverse as neuroprotection, myocardial protection, blood conservation strategies, and port access surgery.