Weill Cornell Medicine clinical training for cardiothoracic fellows is distinguished by the expertise of our faculty and the volume of clinical exposure. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center has one of the largest aortic surgery centers in the country performing approximately 300 open thoracic aortic aneurysm procedures annually. We offer exposure to an exceptional breadth of cases across the cardiac operating room, cardiac catheterization suite, and electrophysiology laboratory.

Our annual case volume includes:

• > 1000 cardiac surgical cases requiring cardiopulmonary bypass
• > 350 structural heart procedures (transcatheter aortic, mitral, or tricuspid valve interventions)
• > 100 high-risk open descending thoraco-abdominal aortic aneurysms
• ~2000 electrophysiology cases (ablations, device implantations and extractions)
• XX thoracic nonvascular surgery

Our fellowship is an echo-centric program that features cutting-edge technology, daily hands-on instruction, and a comprehensive, high-impact echocardiography education experience.

ACGME-accredited Fellowship in Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology

Number of Positions: 3
Duration of training: 12 months

A two-year commitment in partnership with our Anesthesiology Critical Care fellowship is available.

Setting

All required rotations take place at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, the affiliate hospital of Weill Cornell Medicine. Attending physicians are faculty of Weill Cornell Medicine. The hospital is located at 525 East 68th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.

Fellowship Structure

Fellowship Rotation

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:

• Clinical anesthesiology electives
• Anesthetic care for heart and lung transplant
• Pediatric cardiac anesthesiology
• Thoracic anesthesiology
• Regional anesthesiology
• Anesthetic care for electrophysiology procedures
• Vascular anesthesiology
• Liver Anesthesiology (including transplants)
• Other clinical electives:
• Transfusion Medicine
• Critical care medicine
• Advanced heart failure cardiology
• Perfusion
• Echocardiography electives:
• Perioperative echocardiography and POCUS
• Transthoracic Echocardiography
• Structural Heart Echocardiography
• Non-clinical electives:
• Education and Simulation
• Clinical Research

Clinical Setting

Our fellowship provides immersive clinical experiences for a broad variety of cardiothoracic conditions:

• Open cardiac surgery, including
• Coronary revascularization
• Valve repair and replacement
• Surgery of the thoracic aorta (ascending, arch and descending), including open repairs
• Pulmonary thrombectomy
• Pericardiectomy
• Heart Transplantation
• Surgery for advanced heart failure, including short-term and durable ventricular assist devices (VAD), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) devices, Impellas, and intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation devices
• Adult and pediatric congenital heart surgery
• A wide variety of surgical approaches, including off-pump, robotic and minimally invasive surgery
• Thoracic surgery, including
• Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and lung resection, including single port approach
• Robotic thoracic surgery
• Esophageal surgery
• Tracheal and airway surgery
• Interventional Cardiology, including
• Hybrid surgical procedures
• Catheter-based interventions including valve implantation and repair (e.g., trans-vascular valve replacements of all heart valves, balloon valvuloplasty, percutaneous valve repair, valve-in-valve procedures), septal reduction, and closure of acquired and congenital cardiac defects (e.g., paraprosthetic valve leaks, congenital defects such as ASDs and VSDs), aortic interventions
• Electrophysiologic procedures, including simple and complex arrhythmia ablations, rhythm device implantation, device extractions, and atrial appendage closure.

Responsibilities

Our fellows have responsibilities that develop clinical, professional, and administrative skills that are key qualities for the future cardiac perioperative leader. 

• Clinical
• Fellows perform about one-third of their cases as the primary trainee provider, and the remainder alongside a resident, building both the autonomy for practice and supervisory skills essential to academic careers or leadership roles.
• Fellows are always under the supervision of an attending anesthesiologist, with conditional independence conferred progressively throughout the year.
• Professional
• Fellows represent the Division of Cardiac Anesthesiology as consultants both within the Department of Anesthesiology and to other specialty services within the hospital, including cardiology, gastroenterology, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and emergency medicine.
• In addition, there are opportunities to teach and mentor Weill Cornell Anesthesiology residents and medical students in their learning and development.
• Administrative
• Fellows involved in creating their own schedules have input into their daily assignments. 

Perioperative Echocardiography

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:

• August-October Echo Boot Camp
• Echocardiography simulator
• Formal didactic lecture program: These are regular 30–60-minute sessions that are held throughout the year, with topics spanning the echocardiographic curriculum.
• Self-guided TEE study curriculum 
• Bi-monthly formal echo Rounds
• Regular echo reading sessions
• Yearly participation in the New York City-wide echocardiography conference, which brings together all New York City cardiothoracic fellowship programs.
• Attendance at the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists Echo Week
• Echo board review in the final months of training prior to the NBE exam

Structured Learning Activities

Didactics and Education

• Anesthesiology Grand Rounds. These are held every Monday morning with participation from all members of the Department of Anesthesiology, with presentations from national and international experts in anesthesiology, critical care, and related specialties.
• Cardiac Anesthesiology Conference. Held monthly on Tuesday morning, conference topics include M&M, case discussion, echocardiography review, evidence-based and guidelines updates and quality and performance improvement.
• High-Fidelity Simulation. These are held by simulation-trained faculty in the Skills Acquisition and Innovation Laboratory (SAIL) of Weill Cornell Medicine
• Clinical Cardiac Anesthesiology Didactics. In the first quarter, an intensive lecture series designed to establish foundational knowledge to new fellows for successful transition into clinical duties. After the intensive period, the lectures settle into 1-2 didactic sessions per week pertinent to clinical care of the cardiac patient in addition to scheduled echocardiography didactics. The range of topics includes critical care, electrophysiology, cardiac catheterization, among others.
• Echo didactics. TEE specific lectures start in August/September in a “boot camp” type structure and then are integrated with our didactic curriculum. We have bi-weekly echo conference for review of echo exams by topic, as well as weekly echo reading sessions to supplement intraoperative readings. We have a POCUS curriculum utilizing live models and have a number of echo-related elective offerings.
• Journal Club. These are held 8-9 times per year. Fellows are expected to present articles of their choice, with mentoring from cardiac anesthesia faculty and invited faculty with statistical and research expertise.
• Interdisciplinary conferences. Fellows are encouraged to attend conferences and lectures held in conjunction with cardiothoracic surgery, critical care medicine, pediatric cardiology and congenital cardiac surgery, and with general and subspecialty cardiology.
• Quality and Performance Improvement (QPI) Bootcamp. Held in the first quarter, this provides the background and structure to guide the initiation and success of fellow QPI projects for the year.
• POCUS Workshops. Instruction and practice on live models for heart, lung, and GI systems.

Education communications. We provide supplemental guidance to assist with organizing your learning and providing appropriately timed focus. These efforts include:

• Self-guided study curriculum for cardiac anesthesiology and echocardiography for the first quarter of the year.  
• Medical knowledge and clinical skill acquisition guidance throughout the year, beginning with basic cardiac, clinical and technical skill acquisition on a weekly/bi-weekly basis, progressing later to monthly/bimonthly goals reflective of individual goals and progressive autonomy expectations.
• Didactic sessions for board review, including both the NBE Advance PTExAM and the ABA Cardiac Anesthesiology exam. We also offer oral/applied exam practice sessions in the winter/spring months.
• Fellows’ choice topic review at the end of the year.

External Conferences and Opportunities

• Fellows receive protected time to attend the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists (SCA) annual meeting and the SCA Echo Week. Support is provided for attendance to both.
• Fellows are also encouraged to attend additional academic conferences related to our subspecialty, including those specific to critical care and cardiology. Financial support is available if the fellow is presenting original work.

Research and Scholarly Activity

Fellows are required to participate in scholarly activities during their fellowship. Examples of scholarly opportunities for fellows include:

• Joining in active ongoing trials and research projects in cardiothoracic anesthesiology and critical care
• Developing an independent idea or project with department and/or institutional research support from the Department of Anesthesiology,
• Submitting peer-reviewed articles, and authoring textbook chapters,
• Presenting at a range of regional and national academic conferences. Meetings featuring our fellows in previous years include the New York City Echocardiography conference, the Postgraduate Assembly (PGA) of the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists, and the annual meetings of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, American Society of Echocardiography, and the International Anesthesia Research Society. Support can be provided for such activities.

Our fellowship provides a comprehensive and rigorous curriculum that encourages a structured, mentored approach to independent learning. A summary of the fellowship learning objectives includes:

Patient Care

Clinical Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology

• Consult on cardiac and thoracic patients preoperatively and learn independent assessment and preparation of patients for cardiothoracic anesthesiology, including evaluating anesthetic risk and strategies to minimize perioperative morbidity and mortality.
• Develop expertise in:
• Monitoring and optimizing cardiac physiology during the perioperative period with consideration of patient’s disease processes for open, minimally invasive, and trans-vascular procedures, including emergency procedures
• Managing critically ill patients in the perioperative period
• Pain management for cardiothoracic surgical procedures
• Technical skills including placement of invasive monitoring (including central venous and pulmonary artery catheters, spinal drains, and complex arterial access), advanced airway management (including bronchoscopy, lung isolation techniques and advanced ventilation methods), and critical care procedures (including POCUS, and circulatory device management).

Perioperative Echocardiography

• Acquire expertise in perioperative echocardiography, applied across a wide variety of surgical cases and clinical situations.

Medical Knowledge

Gain knowledge expertise in:

• A broad range of simple, complex, and emergency cardiac and thoracic conditions, and their surgical management
• Functional cardiovascular and respiratory assessment, including diagnostic investigations 
• The principles of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary support and basic management of mechanical circulatory support devices.
• The perioperative management of critically ill patients.
• Advanced cardiac and pulmonary resuscitation.
• Invasive and non-invasive approaches to ventilatory support.

Systems-Based Practice

• Lead interdisciplinary cardiac care teams in all clinical situations spanning the operating room, interventional cardiology, interventional radiology and the intensive care unit.
• Engage in quality improvement and care optimization projects for cardiothoracic surgical patients

Practice-Based Learning and Improvement

• Apply the fundamentals of conducting clinical research.
• Supervise, teach, and evaluate personnel, both medical and paramedical, involved in the care of cardiothoracic surgery patients.

Professionalism

• Lead and mentor anesthesiology residents in the perioperative care of cardiothoracic surgical patients

Interpersonal and Communication Skills

• Represent the cardiothoracic anesthesia team in multidisciplinary management of patients with complex cardiothoracic conditions
• Develop expertise in communicating with patients, families and health care professionals in routine and challenging clinical contexts.

• Each fellow is matched with a mentor that best suits their individual goals, learning styles and ambitions for their fellowship and beyond.
• The supervisory attending physicians provide daily formative assessment verbally, and summative evaluations are performed quarterly and after each non-cardiac OR rotation on a confidential online system. Fellows have access to their individual evaluations through this system.
• Fellows review the program quarterly and the faculty bi-annually and are invited to program evaluation meetings to give feedback and actively influence programming and other systems processes.
• The Fellowship Clinical Competency Committee meets quarterly to review, discuss, and aggregate performance feedback. Following this meeting, each fellow will meet with the program directors and their faculty mentor to receive feedback in-person.
• At the end of the year, a written summative evaluation is provided to the fellows and discussed with the program directors.

General

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.

Salary

Graduate staff rate for PGY-5 level trainees for the academic year 2026-2027 is $135,660, with 4 weeks paid annual leave.

Housing

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 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: 2026 Housing Packet

Education

All fellows receive key textbooks in cardiothoracic anesthesiology and perioperative echocardiography at the start of the year:

• Kaplan’s Cardiac Anesthesia
• Clinical Manual and Review of Transesophageal Echocardiography by Joseph Mathew, et al.
• Perioperative Two-Dimensional Transesophageal Echocardiography: A Practical Handbook by Annette Vegas.

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.

Simulation

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.

Career Development and Mentoring

Fellows are welcome to join regular faculty and resident development sessions held by Weill Cornell Anesthesiology. Topics range from academic planning, career promotion, financial planning, and teaching skills.

Wellbeing

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:

• Physical Health
• NYPBeHealthy is a comprehensive wellbeing program for NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Their services include personalized wellbeing coaches, biometric screening, physical fitness, healthy eating, mindfulness, meditation, and yoga programs. Their service also provides confidential counseling to both you and your family.
• Psychological Health
• CopeNYP is a free urgent counselling program for all employees of Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Up to 4 counselling sessions are provided free of charge.
• HouseStaff Mental Health Services: Weill Cornell Department of Psychiatry offers completely confidential, short-term care at no cost with up to 8 sessions free.
• Workforce Health and Safety: Also offers confidential counselling for the individual or groups.
• Social Health
• Financial Advice: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital a retirement counselling service for employees via Prudential Financial services.
• Back-up Family Care: NewYork-Presbyterian provides subsidized child and adult/elder care services via Bright Horizons.
• Social Support: The Residency Support Council provides social outreach and support within the Department of Anesthesiology.

Qualifications. An applicant must have attended medical school followed by successful completion of four or more years of anesthesiology residency training 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.

Application. 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 ensures that applications are uniform, complete, and distributed in an orderly fashion. Register online via the SF Match website. 

Projected timeline for applications for the 2027-2028 academic year application season:

SF Match registration begins: November on sfmatch.org
Application deadline: March 15 on sfmatch.org
Interview period:  January - April 30
Rank lists due:  June on sfmatch.org
Match results:  June on sfmatch.org
Fellowship Training Start Date:  July-August 2028

Cardiac Anesthesiology / Cardiothoracic Critical Care Medicine

Diana Khatib, MD, Program Director
Rowaa Ibrahim, MBBCh, Associate Program Director*
Meghann Fitzgerald, MD, Chief, Cardiac Anesthesiology
Maria Betances Fernandez, MD*
June Chan, MB BS FANZCA
James Coleman, MD, MA*
Christopher Folgueras, MD*
Natalia Girardi, MD*
Shanna Hill, MD, Director of Fellowship Education
Marguerite Hoyler, MD*
Linja Jia, MD**
Adam Lichtman, MD, FASE
Lisa Rong, MD, Director of Perioperative Echocardiography
Olga Rozental, MD, PhD
Crystal Rui, MD*
Jennifer Saluck, MD
Liang Shen, MD, MPH**
Mark Slomovits, MD
Julia Sobol, MD, MPH**
Ankur Srivastava, MD*
Jordan Stefko*
Sheida Tabaie, MD**
Matthew Thimm, MD
Maria Walline, MD, Director of Congenital Cardiac Anesthesiology
Lucas Wheat, MBBS

* Cardiac Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine
** General Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine

Thoracic Anesthesiology

Hugh C. Hemmings, Jr., MD, PhD, FRCA, Chairman
Matthew Murrell, MD, PhD,  Chief, Thoracic Anesthesiology
Richard Boyer, MD, PhD
Eric Brumberger, MD
Daniel Cook, MD
Julian Fessler, MD
Jaideep Malhotra, MD
Andrew Milewski, MD, PhD
Julia Scarpa, MD, PhD

Pediatric Anesthesiology

Ariel Anderson, MD
Maria Walline, MD

Learn more about our faculty