Advanced Intensive Postoperative Care Fellowship

Advanced Intensive Postoperative Care Fellowship – 2024/25

This Fellowship provides a chance to gain experience in the postoperative management in adult cardiovascular surgery, as well as a wide exposure to minimally invasive and other advanced techniques in cardiovascular surgery. The successful Fellow will have the opportunity to attend existing relevant courses held at the world-renowned Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at Hospital Clinic de Barcelona (University of Barcelona), and attend symposia, Wetlabs, Congresses, Heart Team meetings, multidisciplinary meetings and simulations.

Education

Fellowship Overview

There is the prospect of engaging in research or participating in the scientific production of the department leading to potential publication in peer reviewed journals.

The academic part of the Fellowship will be delivered via seminars, lectures and individual lessons (provided by the staff surgeons) for the following topics and their postoperative management:

Temporary mechanical circulatory support (paracorporeal devices)
Mechanical circulatory support (implantable devices)
Preparation of the system. Structural components and function
Clinical application of therapy
Heart and heart-lung transplantation
Pulmonary hypertension. Acute pulmonary embolectomy. Chronic disease. Pulmonary tromboendarterectomy
Transcatheter valve implantation
Percutaneous approach to mitral valve, perivalvular leaks and LAA appendage occlusion.
Atrial fibrillation surgery. Ablative energies
Surgery for concomitant AF ablation
Aortic arch and thoracoabdominal aorta surgery
Surgery for adult congenital heart defects
Postoperative management of GUCH
Surgical treatment of infective endocarditis
Complex mitral valve repair (and minimally invasive approaches)
Advanced cardiorespiratory resuscitation (specific for cardiac surgery)
Low cardiac output status management
Mechanical ventilation. NIMV and IMV. ARDS treatment. Nitric oxide management
Transthoracic echocardiography
Transesophageal
Tracheostomy and fibrobroncoscopy
Renal replacement therapy options
Epicardial pacing after cardiac surgery

You will be offered the opportunity to attend relevant existing courses held at the University of Barcelona during the Fellowship period. Examples include:

Master of Mitral Valve Repair (if it coincides with the fellowship)
Classes for a Master’s Degree in Advanced Cardiovascular Surgery and Critical Care Management (if it coincides with the fellowship)

You will also be encouraged to engage in a research project or participate in the scientific production of the Department.

Funding

The Fellowship includes a generous financial contribution of up to €16,600 towards living and travel costs for the four-month placement. EACTS will subsidise the cost of your attendance at the EACTS Annual Meeting (the largest cardiothoracic meeting in the world).

Successful Fellows will also receive one-to-one support from the EACTS Fellowship Adviser throughout, to ensure you get the most out of this Fellowship.

“I submitted my application at the beginning of the fifth residency year, the last year of my training. It seemed a logic step to go abroad, acquire new skills and find new perspectives on how to approach cardiac surgery cases differently. It is one of the most prestigious fellowships in cardiac surgery and no one from Latvia has ever received it, so it was a great challenge for me to apply and be the first.”
vido Janis Bergs, Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia

Application and Selection

In order to apply for this fellowship there are some essential criteria you must meet:

Be an EACTS member with up-to-date membership payment
Be in the last year of training or within the first four years after completing training (specialty degree)
Be fluent in English
Have attended EACTS Academy courses in the past
Have attended EACTS Annual Meetings in the past
Be involved in critical care or plans to do so, including having the potential to lead the postoperative care of patients in the current/future work environment
Have reasonable baseline knowledge of critical care

Applicants who possess the following desirable criteria would be of particular interest:

To be able to speak Spanish
Possibility of applying the knowledge and abilities acquired during the fellowship in home practice
Have the potential to disseminate knowledge to residents and fellows

In order to complete your application, you must submit the following documents*:

Letter of interest detailing the way in which you meet the application criteria, your career aspirations along with your how you are in a position to apply the skills and knowledge obtained during the Fellowship in your own centre
Curriculum Vitae (CV), including pertinent publications
Summary of operative experience
Letter of support from current supervisor

*Please ensure that all documents submitted are written in English, and that they are submitted either as word documents or PDF. We do not accept images or handwritten applications. We are unable to provide advice or guidance about visa applications, so please ensure that you understand the visa requirements before applying for this Fellowship.

Evaluation and Feedback

There will be MCQ and Clinical case-based assessments at the end of this fellowship.There will be periodic meetings with the fellowship director to ensure feedback from the trainee.At the end of the fellowship, the fellows will produce a full report (2000-2500 words) on their experience.