Director
Bruce Usher, M.D., Professor of Medicine

Length of Program
Three-year program following successful completion of Internal Medicine Residency.

Application Requirements
 Completed application
 Curriculum Vitae (CV)
 Personal Statement
 3 Letters of Reference
 Pass USMLE Step 3 Exam (or COMLEX step 3) before entering  program, provide documentation
 All documentation must be in by Jan. 1 to be considered a candidate for July 1, the following year (18 months).
  Adult General Cardiology Fellowship Application*
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*We participate with NRMP. Anyone who applies with us must register with them also.

Contact Us
Bruce W. Usher, M.D., Director, Cardiology Fellowship Program
Attn: Paulette Okurowski
Program Coordinator
Medical University of South Carolina
ART
MSC 592
Charleston, South Carolina 29425
Office: (843) 876-4807
Fax: (843) 876-4809
E-mail: cardfell@musc.edu

About the Program
The Cardiovascular Fellowship Training Program of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston invites applications for training in clinical cardiology and in cardiovascular research. Appointments in either or in a combined program are available for three to four year training periods.

The clinical program offers a broad experience in cardiology with particular emphasis in the following areas:

• Bedside cardiovascular physical diagnosis and graphic techniques including electrocardiography, Holter monitoring and treadmill stress testing
  
• Diagnostic electrophysiology, Pacemaker, ICD implantation and ablation procedures
  
• Echocardiography-combine M-Mode and 2-Dimensional, conventional and color flow Doppler Transesophegeal Echocardiography
  
• Nuclear cardiology including nuclear angiography and nuclear stress testing
  
• Coronary care techniques including electronic pacing and use of Swan-Ganz catheters, thrombolytic therapy
  
• Cardiac catheterization including hemodynamic evaluation of myocardial and valvular function, cineangiocardiography, coronary arteriography
  
• Interventional procedures – percutaneous coronary angioplasty and balloon valvuloplasty, coronary and peripheral stent insetion, electrophysiology, permanent pacemaker insertion
  
• Pre and post operative management of cardiovascular surgical patients, especially those undergoing heart surgery and heart transplantation
  
• Cardiac Rehabilitation for the post myocardial infarction and the post operative cardiac surgical and vascular surgical patients
  
• Adult congenital heart disease
  
• Preventive cardiology
  
• Women's cardiac health issues
  
• Clinical research
  
• Basic research – Molecular Biology

Patients with cardiologic problems are referred from the entire state of South Carolina. Approximately 3,000 diagnostic and therapeutic heart catheterizations are performed each year. Patients may be referred to the cardiac clinics or admitted to one of two teaching hospitals utilized in the training program. The Medical University Hospital and the Veterans Administration Hospital are both full service hospitals with well equipped invasive and noninvasive laboratories.

Research is an integral part of the program. One of the three years or portions of each of the three years can be in cardiovascular research. A broad range of research opportunities are available. The Cardiology Division Research Program in hypertrophy and congestive heart failure is set up to study this problem at all levels from molecular biology, the intact heart and cells from experimental models of diseases, to the study and treatment of heart disease in our community.

Current research in the Cardiology Division includes in part:

• Studies of the molecular biology of the signal which initiates the gene process that underlies cardiac hypertrophy
  
• Studies of functioning myocytes
  
• Studies examining how increased cardiac loading causes cardiac hypertrophy
  
• Studies of isolated functioning myocytes removed from the overloaded and failing heart to define the contractile abnormality of the heart muscle cells
  
• Studies of heart catheterization data from patients with valvular heart disease to describe the defects in human cardiac muscle function in the overloaded heart
  
• Studies of new pharmaceutical compounds, particularly in congestive heart failure
  
• Epidemiologic studies within the Charleston Heart Study, a long-term population study
  
• Studies of the optimization of defibrillation waveform, biventricular pacing and non-invasive risk stratification.

The stipends are available to U.S. citizens or permanent residents are flexible, depending upon experience. The starting date is July 1 of each year.