Our fellow works primarily with a core group of staff specialized in vascular anesthesia and/or perioperative hemodynamic transesophageal echocardiography. This enables the fellow to learn various vascular anesthesia approaches and techniques.
A typical week is organized as such: two-three days of vascular anesthesia (with a mentor), two-three days of independent practice (performing anesthetics for a wide variety of urological, gynecological, orthopaedic, general, and ENT surgeries) and depending on the week, a day of non-clinical time (to work on academic projects). There are no overnight calls during this fellowship but if an interesting case occurs during the late hours or during the weekend, the fellow is expected to come in if available (e.g. for emergency TEVAR ). The fellow has four weeks of vacation per year plus up to 7 days off over the December holiday period. The fellow is also expected to work one weekend every four weeks.
For the echo training, the fellow is responsible for examining the indications for the echo, preparation of the echocardiography machine, and performing the echocardiography under supervision of a certified echocardiographer. The image quality and the interpretation of the findings will be discussed with the fellow during performance of the exam. It is expected that the fellow will produce an echo report at the end of the case. The report will be then reviewed by the supervisor and finalized.
A series of echo tutorials and discussions will be conducted on a regular basis and will focus on:
Physics and basics of the ultrasounds
- Hemodynamics (systolic and diastolic function)
- Cardiac hemodynamic measurement and Calculations
- Valve lesions and impact on hemodynamics
Each fellow is expected to keep a log of all echo cases performed and reviewed during his/her training to assess the fellow's exposure and knowledge.
The fellow is expected to be actively involved in a research, teaching or QI project.