International Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Fellowship Program

Outline:

A. Eleven months posting in pediatric cardiac surgery, conduct of cardiopulmonary bypass in pediatric cardiac operations and cardiac intensive care.

Training will include:

• Exposure to pre-operative patient care especially in the sitting of critical and emergency situations including safe transport and pre-operative stabilization and intensive care.
• Graded responsibilities in patient evaluation and surgical planning.
• Assisting in surgeries of the entire spectrum of neonatal and pediatric congenital heart diseases.
• Post-operative management of complex congenital heart surgeries and graded responsibilities in the management of post-operative care and emergencies.
• Follow-up and counselling for patients operated.
• Weekly teaching programs include 4 hours per week teaching- 16 hrs/month, 200 hrs/yr. This consists of case presentations, journal discussions, statistical meetings, lectures and seminars. Bedside discussions, ward rounds, clinical grand rounds and inter-departmental meetings i.e clinical-pathological and clinical-radiological meetings are organized regularly. The resident should attend at least 1 national/ international conference and at least 2 other CME programs in the duration of the course. Atlas on paper presentation should be made. The resident must maintain a log of all work done.

B. One month in pediatric cardiology with exposure to patient evaluation and follow-up and imaging techniques including echocardiography, 3D- echocardiography, cardiac CT, cardiac MRI and 3D reconstruction of cardiac morphology to assist in surgical planning. This also includes exposure to cardiac catheterization laboratory

C. One year advanced pediatric cardiac surgery fellowship involving scrubbing for atleast one surgery everyday and atleast twenty surgeries a month. This will include:

• Graded responsibilities in operative management of the entire spectrum of neonatal and pediatric congenital heart surgeries. Graded progress in opportunities to perform independent surgeries or parts of surgeries depending on one’s proficiency.
• Post-operative management of complex congenital heart surgeries and graded responsibilities in the management of post-operative care and emergencies.

Resources:

• The pediatric cardiac team at Amrita involves renowned and dedicated doctors of vast experience in the fields of pediatric cardiology, pediatric cardiac surgery, pediatric cardiac anesthesiology and neonatology.
• Online library resources include access to all national and international journals of repute in the fields of cardiac anesthesiology, cardiac perfusion technology, pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery.
• Wet labs for practicing surgical techniques.
• Cardiac CT, MRI and 3D labs for imaging.
• Catheterization labs.
• Online databank of interesting echocardiograms, CT/MRI’s and cardiac catheterizations.