Fellowship Education
Welcome to the University of Colorado
Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Programs!
We are honored to welcome you to our fellowship program! The University of Colorado is an amazing place to become a skilled clinician and leader in cardiology. When I journeyed 2,000 miles across the country to begin my own fellowship here, I could not have predicted how profoundly the training program would influence my professional journey.
The mission of our fellowship is to support our trainees in becoming excellent, compassionate, and diverse clinicians who will become leaders in cardiovascular medicine. Our faculty and fellowship program are committed to enhancing our trainees’ skills, fostering their development in complex patient management and medical decision-making, introducing cutting-edge technologies and research, promoting our fellows’ research and professional development goals, providing engaging didactic and hands-on education, and creating a safe and inclusive environment to collaborate, train, and work.
Our fellowship program provides tailored training experiences to accommodate the individual goals and aspirations of our trainees. All of our fellows become excellent general cardiologists, but everyone also develops adjunct areas of expertise and potentially additional subspecialty training. This ability to tailor training path is reflected in our rotation design with core experiences in cardiac ICU, consultative care, non-invasive imaging, cardiac catheterization, and electrophysiology comprising the first year of training, with opportunities to build more specialized experiences in the second and third years of general cardiology fellowship. Examples of ways that our fellows can personalize their professional development during that time include:
- Clinician-Educator Development:
- Engagement with trainees in the classroom and clinical settings from the medical school to fellowship stages of training
- Ability to participate in medical education development programs:
- Support and enthusiasm from our program leadership for novel educational curricular design projects
- Subspecialty Advancement:
- Early opportunities to actively participate in coronary intervention, cardiac electrophysiology and interventional
- echocardiography procedures
- Clinical rotation to develop independent skills as a community practice general cardiologist and imager
- Ability to obtain nuclear and CT certification during general fellowship
- Internal ACGME-accredited subspecialty fellowships in:
- Adult Congenital Heart Disease
- Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant
- Cardiac Electrophysiology
- Interventional Cardiology
- Vascular Medicine
- Additional subspecialty fellowship in Advanced Imaging
- Opportunities to train with specialized clinical and research experts in Cardio-Obstetrics, Cardio-Oncology,
- Lipids & Prevention, and Sports Cardiology
- Participation in the American College of Cardiology AIRE Pilot for cardiovascular disease and cardiac electrophysiology programs
- Support for Research:
- All fellows engage in scholarly activities throughout fellowship, particularly on dedicated research blocks.
- This includes participation in clinical, translational, outcomes, quality or educational projects.
- Fellows are encouraged to present and learn at national conferences throughout the year.
- A personalized system of mentorship facilitates early connections with research and professional mentors and supports robust collaboration.
- Advanced Research Training:
- Participation in a Master of Clinical Science training program
- Opportunities to be supported by NIH grants (including T32 training grants) and VA-sponsored research grants.
- Collaboration with the CPC Clinical Research, the Colorado Cardiovascular Outcomes Research group (C-COR) and
- Adult & Child Center for Outcomes research & Delivery Science (ACCORDS), the Colorado Center for Personalized
- Medicine (CCPM), the University of Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI), the Ludeman Family
An innovative feature of our fellowship program stems from our enthusiasm for optimizing medical education. We host monthly Academic Days, which are day-long, protected learning days for our fellows. All fellows come together on campus to participate in a variety of themed didactic, small group, case-based, interactive, and simulation-based educational activities. During these days, all clinical duties are signed out to attendings and APPs, who cover the services and allow our fellows to focus on learning. One Academic Day even involves a fellowship retreat to the Broadmoor Hotel for participation in the local Heart Failure Summit and annual Colorado ACC meeting. Through this curriculum, we also host a professional development series and fellowship meetings. Our faculty are consistently evaluated as being engaged and enthusiastic about teaching our fellows, and we are proud to showcase their expertise in these educational venues.
Our cardiology fellows are the shining stars of our program. A wonderfully talented and diverse group, they were recruited from excellent training programs across the country. They are flourishing in developing their professional identities and career goals. Our general fellowship program leadership, subspecialty leadership, quarterly advisors, division chief, and subspecialty directors are dedicated to creating an optimal environment for learning and providing individualized mentorship.
We believe strongly in adapting support of our fellows to their needs through a system of continual feedback and innovation. In response to fellows’ feedback over the past 10 years, we have instituted new systems of coverage (such as APP coverage of cardiology consults on the weekends and a University hospital night float system), revised our mentorship and confidential reporting structures, and developed and implemented our protected Academic Days curriculum.
Colorado is a wonderful place for our fellows to thrive in their professional development, but also to explore our state’s bustling and diverse neighborhoods, natural beauty, and fantastic outlets for wellness. Our main campus is in Aurora, CO, a city that has hosted skyrocketing growth in overall population as well as in ethnic and racial diversity. Denver and Aurora rank among some of the most diverse cities in the United States and have a wealth of cultural offerings and international cuisine. Being outdoors in Colorado is integral to the local way of life, and the mountain scenery and outdoor activities are unparalleled. Even commuting to and from work with expansive cotton-candy skies over snowy peaks in the distance provides a breath of fresh air and opportunity to reflect. It is a wonderful place to live and train in medicine.
We are excited that you are interested in our fellowship program! We are extremely proud of our trainees, our alumni, and our faculty and staff.
Please explore our website for further information and reach out with any questions!
Alexis Z. Tumolo, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Division of Cardiology, Cardiac Electrophysiology