Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program

• William Barsoum, MD
• Rodrigo Lago, MD
• Rajesh Shah, MD
• Nipun Arora, MD
• Phillip Anderson, MD
• John Ververis, MD
• Cesar Jara, MD
• Linus Wodi, MD
• Hector Lozano, MD
• Barry Kramer, MD

• Rodrigo Lago, MD
• Jose Arias, MD
• Nipun Arora, MD
• Rajesh Shah, MD
• William Barsoum, MD
• Rohit Batheja, MD
• Phillip Anderson, MD
• Andrew Taussig, MD

• Cesar Bonilla, MD
• Sambit Mondal, MD
• George Monir, MD
• Chandra Bomma, MD
• Usman Siddiqui, MD
• Patricia Guerrero, MD

• Stacy Mandras, MD
• Nirav Raval, MD
• Simon Shakar, MD
• Naveen Bellam, MD
• Pujan Patel, MD

• Cesar Jara, MD
• Hector Lozano, MD
• Marcos Hazday, MD
• Linus Wodi, MD
• Ashkan Ghaneie, MD

• Kevin Accola, MD
• Jorge Suarez, MD

• Cesar Jara, MD

• Matthew Zussman, MD
• Rodrigo do Lago, MD
• Nipun Arora, MD
• Zahid Amin, MD

• Basiem Barsoum, MD
• Hector Lozano, MD

• Marcos Hazday, MD

• Patricia Guerrero, MD

TBA

Program leadership will continuously work optimizing the schedule to maximize clinical experiences.

The schedule is set up of 13 blocks per year consisting of 4 weeks each per rotation.

Pacemaker Clinic will also be available as part of the electrophysiology rotations.

• Invasive cardiology and cardiac catheterization
• Heart valve program and structural heart disease
• Electrophysiology
• Echocardiography and advanced cardiac imaging

• Adult congenital heart disease program

General cardiology/Cardiology consult service

• Rotation coordinator: Dr. Basiem Barsoum, MD
  • One of the strengths of clinical training at AdventHealth Hospital is the remarkable variety and complexity of patients seen during this rotation. Fellows serve as the primary cardiologists on new hospital-wide cardiology consultations and admissions to the cardiac units, cardiovascular observation unit, and cardiac ICU. Although senior staff will provide careful oversight and teaching, the fellow will be the main provider and decision maker for patient care. The patients seen while on service will be expected to be followed as outpatients and form the bulk of each fellow’s practice in the Cardiology Fellows Clinic.

Echocardiography

• Rotation coordinator: Dr. Hector Lozano, MD
  • First year fellows develop proficiency in the performance of diagnostic ultrasound, understanding of basic principles and competence in study interpretation. Fellows will also receive direct instruction from senior sonographers in the performance of the echocardiographic examination during their first rotation.
  • For second year fellows, emphasis is placed on interpretive skills and advanced procedures, such as stress echo studies and transesophageal echocardiography. Level II training in transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography imaging can be completed during elective time and/or during the third year of fellowship.

Invasive cardiology/Cardiac catheterization laboratory

• Rotation coordinator: Dr. Rodrigo Lago, MD
  • Fellows will be lead operators on diagnostic procedures in the AdventHealth Orlando Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, a state-of-the-art suite of six rooms with high-resolution digital fluoroscopy units. A high-volume and wide variety of diagnostic and interventional procedures are performed every year. Since AdventHealth Hospital Orlando serves as the primary hospital for the local neighborhood AdventHealth medical facilities as well as a tertiary referral center for high-risk patients from state, national and international centers, cases are varied and often challenging. Fellows will gain a strong foundation in appropriateness and indications for catheterization, protocols for venous and arterial access, the hemodynamic assessment of cardiac, valvular and coronary function, angiography of coronary and bypass vessels and pre- and post-procedural management. Furthermore, the laboratory has a significant academic structure and has multiple active research protocols which will enable fellows to pursue their research interests.

Electrophysiology

• Rotation Director: Dr. Cesar Bonilla, MD
  • The AdventHealth cardiac electrophysiology laboratory comprises a state-of-the-art facility that provide advanced arrhythmia services. Fellows on this rotation will gain competence in the interpretation of commonly performed electrophysiology studies, manage inpatients with arrhythmias, learn indications for pacemaker and ICD implantation and become experienced in programming and interrogating these devices. Fellows will participate at the electrophysiology laboratory in procedures to diagnose and treat complex arrhythmias. Fellows will also participate with the faculty in pacemaker and ICD placements.

Nuclear cardiology

• Rotation coordinator: Dr. Basiem Barsoum, MD
  • Nuclear cardiology at AdventHealth Hospital provide various types of cardiac stress tests that help to identify and diagnose heart disease. Fellows will learn the integral role of cardiac stress testing in the practice of clinical cardiology, as well as its limitations, by performing and interpreting studies. The second-year rotation will focus on multimodality imaging techniques.

Cardiac imaging

• Rotation coordinator: Dr. Cesar Jara, MD
  • Fellows spend a month rotating through the cardiac CT and cardiac MRI facilities at AdventHealth Hospital Orlando and will be acquainted with these imaging techniques.

Heart failure/Cardiac transplant

• Rotation coordinator: Dr. Stacy Mandras, MD
  • The management of patients with advanced heart failure at AdventHealth Hospital is a multidisciplinary effort with input from physicians and non-physicians alike. Fellows will be integrated into a team consisting of members of the heart failure and cardiac surgery services by caring for patients with advanced disease and participating in meetings discussing transplant status and patient selection for advanced heart failure therapies. Fellows will gain a solid understanding of the management of severe heart failure and pulmonary hypertension, and assessment of candidates for transplantation and mechanical circulatory support.

Adult congenital heart disease

• Rotation Director: Dr. Zahid Amin, MD
  • Fellows will become familiar with the anatomy and physiology and current therapies of patients with congenital heart disease. Fellows will participate in Multidisciplinary adult congenital heart disease meetings and rotate in pediatric cardiology. Fellows will also participate in invasive procedures to diagnose and treat adults with congenital heart diseases in the pediatric cardiac catheterization laboratory.

Vascular medicine

• Rotation Director: Dr. David Varnagy, MD
  • Fellows will spend one month becoming familiar with the evaluation and management of patients with aortic diseases and peripheral vascular disease, including carotid artery disease, peripheral arterial disease, renal artery stenosis, complications of venous thromboembolism, and others.

Cardiac surgery

• Rotation Director: Dr. Kevin Accola, MD
  • Fellows rotating on the cardiac surgical service and cardiac surgery intensive care unit will gain further experience in the pre- and postoperative care of cardiac surgical patients. Fellows will participate in daily morning rounds with cardiac surgeons and cardiac intensivists. They will attend surgical cases in the operating room, to gain an appreciation of the complexity of cardiac surgical procedures and intraoperative management.

In addition to dedicated subspecialty program selective blocks, two additional weeks on the second year and five on the third year are set aside for elective rotations. The third academic year will offer more elective time to pursue research, academic endeavors and/or complete level II training in cardiac imaging or invasive cardiac catheterization.

Outpatient Cardiology Fellows Clinic:

• One of the most valuable aspects of the cardiology program is the opportunity to be the primary outpatient cardiologist for patients across the three years of training. Many of the first encounters a fellow has with these patients will be during their initial inpatient stay, after which they will be enrolled in the fellow’s clinic. It is an opportunity to learn the fine points of the longitudinal management of a range of cardiac problems in ambulatory patients. Added to this is the challenge of evaluating new patients referred to the clinic by other providers. All fellows are assigned one half a day cardiology clinic per week throughout their 3 years of training. In addition to general cardiology, the Program offers subspecialty clinic experience in electrophysiology, interventional cardiology, heart failure, preventive cardiology, adult congenital heart disease and vascular medicine.

Physician Wellbeing: For more information on the many benefits offered across all programs, click here.

Sample Resident Agreement

Eligibility and Selection Policy

AdventHealth Florida as an institution and Orlando as a city have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion and has been at the forefront of promoting diversity and fighting for social justice in many respects. Our Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship program has strong commitment to diversity at all levels. Diversity and inclusion to us means not only considering race/ethnicity/gender and underrepresented groups in medicine and cardiology but also an individual's background and the distance traveled, or hardships traversed when applying to our program. We understand that a workforce of physicians who better understand the culture and customs of patients from all walks of life has a positive impact on patient care, education, and research. The AdventHealth system has a non-discriminatory and diverse approach to recruiting staff and the same criteria is applied to the fellowship program.