Program Objectives

The following overall objectives must be met by each trainee by the conclusion of the program:

  1. All trainees must be adept at obtaining a history and performing a complete cardiovascular physical examination. They must be familiar with psychological factors and their impact on cardiovascular diseases and the importance of preventive and rehabilitative management in cardiovascular medicine.
  2. The trainee must become well educated in pathogenesis, pathology, epidemiology, natural history, diagnosis, and management of cardiovascular disease including coronary atherosclerosis, valvular disease, cardiomyopathy, congenital heart disease, arrhythmias, hypertension, pericardial disease, infective endocarditis, pulmonary heart disease, cardiac trauma, cardiac tumours, and cardiac complications of systemic disease.
  3. The trainee must be adept in the management of patients requiring cardiovascular intensive care and must be an expert in the techniques of advanced cardiac life support.
  4. The trainee must be well versed in out-patient management of the cardiac patient and exhibit expertise in all age groups from adolescence to old age.
  5. The trainee must be an expert in 12-lead electrocardiographic interpretation and skilled in the interpretation of exercise and ambulatory electrocardiograms.
  6. The trainee must have experience in right and left heart catheterizations with this experience emphasizing interpretation of pressure recordings, analysis of hemodynamics, angiographic interpretation, and understanding of indications for coronary angioplasty and valvuloplasty.
  7. The trainee must have experience in the performance and interpretation of M-mode, two-dimensional, and Doppler echocardiograms.
  8. The trainee must know the general principles, indications for, and limitations of nuclear cardiovascular investigations, and understand the principles of radiation safety. The trainee must have experience supervising and interpreting these examinations.
  9. The trainees must be knowledgeable of the indications for permanent cardiac pacing and the long-term management of the pacemaker patient.
  10. The trainee must understand the indications for and principles of invasive electrophysiologic testing.
  11. The trainee must complete a minimum of one scholarly activity project. This must include the development of a hypothesis and a means to answer that question, the implementation of the project, the analysis of results, and the formulation of these results into a form suitable for submission to a scientific forum for presentation.
  12. The trainee must attend and participate in regular cardiology conferences, seminars, journal review activities, multidisciplinary conferences, and lectures by visiting professors.
  13. The trainee must participate in medical education through presentations at rounds and seminars, teaching during ward rounds, and supervision of junior residents and medical students.
  14. The trainee must undergo biannual evaluations which will assess their progress towards meeting the overall objectives for the program as well as the specific objectives of each rotation. Trainees will be evaluated on their intellectual abilities, technical skills, interpersonal skills, judgment, and clinical acumen. Participation in an annual examination modelled on the Royal College Comprehensive Objective Examination in Adult Cardiology is also required.

The Adult Cardiology program at the University of Alberta is organized to allow each trainee to meet these objectives to the best of their ability. Trainees seeking to become an expert in any particular technical skill will require additional supervised training in that area following the guidelines of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. The core training program is strongly based on clinical cardiology and is designed to expose the trainee to a broad range of acute and chronic cardiovascular diseases. We emphasize accurate bedside diagnosis, appropriate use of diagnostic tests, and application of general cardiologic principles to each individual case with an appreciation of the uniqueness of each patient. We provide exposure to nearly all methods of invasive and non-invasive testing in cardiology. Finally, we require participation in scholarly activity by trainees as a means to develop critical thinking and an inquisitive attitude toward current problems in cardiovascular disease.