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It is my pleasure to welcome you to the cardiothoracic fellowship at Weill Cornell Medicine. Our program was first established in 1989 and has been accredited since 2007, one year after the ACGME awarded accreditation to cardiothoracic fellowships nationwide. Over the last 30 years, our program has produced numerous graduates that are amongst the leaders in the specialty of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology today.
Our mission is to train world-class, versatile cardiothoracic anesthesiologists who are experts in perioperative medicine and echocardiography. Our fellows receive a comprehensive and rigorous curriculum rich with a broad variety of clinical and educational experiences that primes them for excellence in both academic and non-academic settings, as well as success in certification through the National Board of Echocardiography in Advanced Perioperative Transesophageal Echocardiography (PTE).
Fellows in our program join a diverse and dynamic cardiothoracic anesthesiology team that is rich with clinical, educational, and research experience. Collectively, our additional expertise ranges from critical care medicine, to pediatric anesthesiology, heart and lung transplant, perioperative ultrasound, echocardiographic and clinical research, and applied education theory. Our faculty are also diverse in representation, coming together from many cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, and identities for the common goal of delivering expert, compassionate care of the highest caliber to all patients with cardiothoracic conditions.
Our 12-month fellowship provides a structured, mentored approach to learning and progressive independence. Our internationally-renowned surgeons and cardiologists perform a broad range of routine, complex, and cutting-edge procedures, providing abundant clinical exposure to our graduates in their path to independent practice. We also partner with intramural and extramural departments to provide our fellows opportunities to broaden their clinical horizons and pursue their academic interests, including the Division of Cardiology at Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Thank you for your interest in our program, and I invite you to explore further as we describe our fellowship in more detail in the sections below.
Shanna S. Hill, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology
Program Director, Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Fellowship
Number of Positions: 3
Duration of training: 12 months
A two-year commitment in partnership with our Anesthesiology Critical Care fellowship is available.
All required rotations take place at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, the affiliate hospital of Weill Cornell Medicine. Attending physicians are faculty of Weill Cornell Medicine, the medical school of Cornell University. The hospital is located at 525 East 68th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.
Our fellowship consists of 9 months of mandatory clinical activity, comprising of:
Up to 2 months of elective time is available. Fellows are encouraged to tailor their electives according to their interests, and assistance will be offered to facilitate successful achievement of their learning objectives. Prior fellow elective experiences include:
Our fellows have responsibilities that develop clinical, professional and administrative skills that are key qualities for the future cardiac perioperative leader.
Our caseload provides a comprehensive, robust and immersive experience in perioperative echocardiography. Fellows typically perform 160-300 unique echocardiographic examinations over a 12-month period (and a proportionately greater number of echo reads), easily surpassing the required numbers for Advanced Perioperative TEE certification. Fellows have protected time to participate in our echo didactic program, which is comprised of:
Our fellowship provides a comprehensive and rigorous curriculum that encourages a structured, mentored approach to independent learning. A brief summary of the fellowship learning objectives includes:
Our fellowship provides immersive clinical experiences for a broad variety of cardiothoracic conditions, including:
All fellows are provided office space, computers with internet access and dedicated server file-share access. There is ample space for academic study and collaboration. On-call evening meals are provided by the department.
Licensure and Membership fees to the ASA, IARS, SCA and NYSSA are supported by the department.
Graduate staff rate for PGY-5 level trainees for the academic year 2019-2020 is $91,276, with 4 weeks paid annual leave.
In order to take advantage of a mostly home-call system, fellows are encouraged to live on the Upper East Side - although many choose to live elsewhere in New York City, commute, and stay in call rooms when working overnight. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital does manage several modern apartment buildings within the neighborhood, though many fellows secure great, affordable rentals on the Upper East Side independently.
Graduate Staff Housing Packet, including rental rates: Housing Packet
All fellows receive key textbooks in cardiothoracic anesthesiology and perioperative echocardiography at the start of the year:
They also have access to a physical library with an essential collection of cardiac anesthesiology and echocardiography texts, as well as an exhaustive online repository via the Weill Cornell Medicine Samuel J. Wood Library.
Fellows are also provided academic days in addition to their protected education time to pursue their scholarly activities. A $900 educational stipend is also provided for all fellows, in addition to departmental support for presenting original work at academic conferences.
Fellows have access to a transesophageal and transthoracic echocardiogram simulator, located in the fellow’s office for ease of access. In addition, fellows have access to specialty task trainers for advanced airway management as well as a high-fidelity simulation via the Skills Acquisition and Innovation Laboratory (SAIL) of Weill Cornell Medicine.
Fellows are welcome to join regular faculty and resident development sessions held by the Weill Cornell Anesthesiology. Topics range from academic planning, career promotion, financial planning and teaching skills.
The health and wellbeing of our fellows is paramount, and both formal and informal resources are provided to our fellows to ensure their physical, psychological and social needs are fulfilled. Institutional resources for wellbeing include:
Please view our faculty page.
To qualify, an applicant must have attended medical school followed by successful completion of four or more years of residency training in anesthesiology in an ACGME accredited program.
According to our hospital GME policy, we are only able to accept J-1 or O-1 visas at this time. We do not sponsor H1-B visas.
Special consideration will be made for exceptional applicants who are interested in completing our Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology fellowship and our Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine fellowship in sequence. Candidates interested in being considered for acceptance to both programs should present their formal application using the steps below and send a separate letter of intent to anes-programs@med.cornell.edu.
This program participates in the San Francisco Match (SF Match). SH Match provides the Central Application Service (CAS), which distributes applications to training programs. The use of CAS is mandatory, and assures that applications are uniform, complete, and distributed in an orderly fashion.
Please complete your application in two steps:
Projected timeline for applications for the 2021-2022 academic year application season:
SFA Match Registration begins: November 9, 2020
Application deadline: April 15, 2020
Interview period: January 11 - May 15, 2020
Rank lists due: June 1, 2021
Match results: June 14, 2021
Shanna S. Hill, MD
Program Director, Cardiothoracic Fellowship Program
Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology
Director of Anesthesiology Fellowship Education
Phone: 212-746-2902
Email: scsykes@med.cornell.edu
June M. Chan, MB BS, FANZCA
Associate Program Director, Cardiothoracic Fellowship Program
Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology
Assistant Director of Residency Education
Phone: 212-746-2468
Email: juc9063@med.cornell.edu
Marlene Augustine
Program Administrator
Department of Anesthesiology
Weill Cornell Medicine
525 East 68th Street, Box 124
New York, NY 10065
Office: 212-746-2785
Fax: 646-962-1920
Email: anes-ctfellowship@med.cornell.edu