Dear Prospective Fellow

Thank you for your interest in the cardiology fellowship program at Lehigh Valley Health Network. Graduate medical education is a valued tradition which began more than a half-century ago at our hospital.

Lehigh Valley Health Network is very aware of its responsibility to prepare physicians for the healthcare challenges of a system that is in transition. We hope you will find in this information the answers to your questions regarding our graduate medical education opportunities.

We offer a three-year fellowship that provides outstanding opportunities for clinical and academic learning, with an emphasis on bedside teaching. The fellowship was accredited without citation on May 21, 2007 by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Education. The first class of four first year cardiology fellows began the fellowship on July 1, 2007. We expect to reach our full complement of 12 fellows by July 1, 2009.

Cardiology Fellows function as junior attendings under the supervision of the 16 member full-time cardiology faculty. Faculty in all cardiac subspecialties are represented including specialization of the faculty in CT coronary angiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, lipid management , congestive heart failure, echocardiography and transesophageal echocardiography, electrophysiology including arrhythmia recognition, devices and SVT, aflutter, WPW and atrial fibrillation ablation, and interventional cardiology including investigational devises and peripheral vascular disease.

Lehigh Valley Health Network is a major clinical campus of the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. This affiliation strengthens our medical education programs. Each year, the hospital provides elective and required rotations in more than 20 subspecialties for medical students preparing for their postgraduate training.

One of the largest health networks in Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley Health Network meets the medical needs of the population of the Lehigh Valley, eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey. Our physicians and healthcare professionals treat patients whose illnesses range from the simple to the most complex. This patient mix provides an ideal clinical environment for the education of medical students and physicians-in-training. Unlike a university hospital where a few medical subspecialties may be emphasized at the sacrifice of broad clinical education experience, our diverse patient population offers a variety of primary, secondary and tertiary care learning opportunities. In many ways, our hospital merges the resources and benefits of both community hospitals and large academic medical centers.

The challenging nature of Lehigh Valley Health Network's medical education programs is supported by a progressive Department of Medicine and a dedicated faculty of teaching physicians. These doctors, whose efforts focus primarily on patient care and post graduate training, are also active in clinical research.

Modern facilities and state-of-the-art equipment underscore the hospital's priority of offering the best environment in which to learn, work and provide medical care. With a national reputation for quality and patient safety and recognition with many national awards makes the institution ideal for medical education.

The program is contained within a high volume regional heart center (Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest) with the lowest 30 day mortality for myocardial infarction in 2007 for Medicare patients (Source: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). LVH’s cardiac program has been consistently ranked (past 6 years) by US News and World Report as one of the top cardiac programs in the U.S... Cardiac volumes are impressive. For fiscal year 2008 (7/1/07 to 6/30/08) there were over 3700 diagnostic coronary catheterizations, 1385 interventional coronary patient procedures, including 800 device implantations, 1,315 electrophysiology procedures, 812 open heart surgeries, 4,000 echocardiographic procedures, 81,000 electrocardiograms and 2,700 nuclear stress tests performed at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest. There is a strong research tradition with 11 active, 5 pending research protocols within the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

In addition to quality postgraduate training, fellows receive a generous and innovative benefits package which equals or exceeds the compensation offered by most other teaching hospitals.

On behalf of the Division of Cardiology at Lehigh Valley Health Network, we wish you success as you prepare for your career as a cardiologist.

Sincerely,

Larry E Jacobs, MD, FACC
Program Director
Cardiology Fellowship
Lehigh Valley Hospital

Michael Rossi, MD, FACC
Chief of Cardiology
Lehigh Valley Hospital

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