Program Overview

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Fellowship in Advanced Cardi Anaesthesia

The Department of Cardiac Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine offers a two-year fellowship program in Advanced Cardi Anaesthesia. The program is designed to provide colleagues with the skills, knowledge, and routine to independently and autonomously provide anesthetic and intensive care services to patients in the subspecialties of cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgery.

Advantages of the Fellowship

The fellowship offers several advantages, including:

• The opportunity to acquire the additional qualification in intensive care medicine
• The chance to learn transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography, including relevant certifications
• The opportunity to work in a multidisciplinary team with a flat hierarchy
• Involvement in the clinical routine of the operating theatre, PACU, and intensive care unit from the outset
• Further development opportunities at a hospital with academic options
• The chance to work at a modern hospital with excellent infrastructure
• The opportunity to work at a heart centre with a national centre function

Requirements for Application

The requirements for application include:

• Acquisition of the specialist qualification in anaesthesia within the last 3 years
• CME certificates of continuous further training
• Completed or ongoing doctorate
• Command of German at C1 level
• Command of English at B2 level

Fellowship Programme

The fellowship program is designed as on-the-job training, supplemented by curricular teaching units. The training content relevant for cardioanaesthesiologists is taught in a clinical context. The fellow works full-time, and payment is based on the collective agreement for specialist physicians.

Curriculum

The curriculum includes:

• Training in the operating room with a focus on advanced hemodynamic monitoring and management
• Preoperative evaluation and optimisation of cardiac surgery patients
• Anaesthesiological care in the context of standard procedures in the cardiovascular spectrum
• Early post-anaesthesiological care and pain therapy of uncomplicated and fast-track surgical procedures in the PACU
• Participation in an ACLS provider training course according to AHA guidelines
• Participation in a GCP basic course
• Comprehensive theoretical and practical training in transesophageal echocardiography

Faculty

The faculty includes:

• Klinikdirektor: Prof. Dr. Benjamin O'Brien
• Stellvertretender Klinikdirektor: Dr. Matthias Hommel, MBA
• Fellowship Direktor, Kardioanästhesie: Dr. Dirk Eggert-Doktor, DESA
• Fellowship Direktorin, Intensivmedizin: Dr. Michele Ocken
• Fellowship Direktor, Echokardiographie: Dr. Alexander Mladenow
• Fellowship Faculty / Trainer: Oberärztinnen und -ärzte der Klinik

Synopsis of the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Programme

The program includes:

• Month 1: Familiarisation with IT infrastructure, local standards, SOPs, and instructions
• Month 2: Continuation of familiarisation, rotation in cardiac surgery, and start of active participation in internal training
• Month 3: Coronary surgery, intensification of TEE training, and start of participation in shift/on-call duties
• Month 4: Aortic valve surgery
• Month 5: Interventional and non-thoracic aortic procedures
• Month 6: Mitral/tricuspid valve surgery
• Month 7: Minimally invasive heart surgery
• Month 8: CIED procedures and interventional catheter procedures
• Months 9, 10: Mechanical support procedures and complex redo and multi-valve surgery
• Months 11, 12: Complex aortic and thoracoabdominal aortic surgery
• Months 13-24: Thoracic transplantations, echo-guided catheter-interventional procedures, and pulmonary thrombendarterectomies

Elective Focus

In the second year of training, the fellow can choose an 'elective focus' to gain intensive experience in certain aspects of cardioanaesthesia, including:

• Catheter-based interventional therapies for structural heart disease
• Mechanical circulatory support, assist devices
• Aortic surgery including neuromonitoring
• Perioperative care, fast track, ERACS in the PACU
• Minimally invasive surgical procedures