The Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Fellowship Program at Thomas Jefferson University is a one-year program that requires fellows to obtain competencies in the six areas as defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), to the level expected of a new advanced heart failure and transplant practitioner.

To qualify, applicants will have completed a minimum of three years of residency training in Internal Medicine and an additional three years of fellowship training in Cardiovascular Disease accredited by the ACGME. Our Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Program was certified by the ACGME in 2012.

The fellow is responsible for patients admitted to the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant inpatient service, as well as for patients referred for outpatient and inpatient consultation and follow-up. Daily inpatient rounds are conducted with an attending Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant specialist. The service is involved in evaluating and managing patients with advanced heart failure, some of whom will be evaluated for cardiac mechanical assist devices and cardiac transplantation to be performed here at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. 

The fellow is integrally involved in the evaluation of these patients and participates in all management decisions. In addition, fellows are required to observe and/or assist in cardiopulmonary exercise studies, mechanical assist device placement, orthotopic heart transplantation, and post-heart transplant right heart biopsies. The fellow is expected to gain a current working knowledge of heart transplantation medicine, including the care of acute and chronic heart failure, use of mechanical assist devices, donor selection, recipient selection, pre- and post-heart transplant hemodynamic management, post-heart transplant immunosuppression, histologic interpretation and grading of biopsies, and long-term outpatient follow-up. The fellow is also required to participate in clinical or basic science research under the guidance of an Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant mentor.