Heart Failure/Heart Transplantation

Mission

The mission of the UF Health advanced heart failure program is two-fold. We strive to deliver state-of-the art, patient-centric, compassionate care, and to impart the highest level of training for achieving this mission to our heart failure fellows. We accomplish this by offering comprehensive evaluation to each patient, with a complete spectrum of multidisciplinary services that allows focus on every aspect of the patient’s disease process. Our priorities include early involvement in the care of patients with heart failure, improving survival and quality of life, reducing hospitalizations, optimizing patient selection for advanced therapies, including cardiac transplantation and left ventricular assist device (LVAD) placement, and consistent involvement in major national and international clinical trials. In pursuing this mission we hope that patients and providers in our institution and all surrounding medical communities feel empowered to overcome the disease burdens of heart failure by seeking out our willing service.

heart-failure-team
From left: Mohammad Al-Ani, MD, Alex Parker, MD, Juan Aranda, MD, FACC, Juan Vilaro, MD, Mustafa Ahmed, MD, make up the UF Health Heart Failure team.

Accredited with the ACGME, we have one Heart Failure/Heart Transplant Fellowship position available. Applicants must be completing or have completed a Cardiovascular Diseases Fellowship Training Program from an ACGME Accredited Institution. We accept all Visas. This one-year advanced fellowship program is sharply focused on the evaluation and management of patients with heart failure, particularly those in need of advanced therapies such as transplantation or mechanical circulatory support. Fellows will work at the main hospital affiliate of the University of Florida, Shands Teaching Hospital. Our institution has had an established heart transplant program for over twenty years and is also a high volume center for advanced heart failure therapies including multiple modalities for temporary and durable mechanical circulatory support. The heart failure/heart transplant fellow will be trained over the course of one year to have integral responsibilities in a large multidisciplinary heart failure team that include:

  • Managing an inpatient service of advanced heart failure syndromes, including perioperative management of heart transplant and left ventricular assist device recipients.
  • Outpatient evaluation and management of patients with advanced heart failure syndromes, heart transplantation, and left ventricular assist devices.
  • Performing a large number of diagnostic right and left heart catheterizations, endomyocardial biopsies, as well as intra-aortic balloon pump and percutaneous ventricular assist device placement.
  • Active participation in a robust research program with a focus on device and stem cell therapy trials

We have a proud history of placing trainees into excellent clinical and academic practices across the country and abroad.  Our recent graduating fellows have accepted positions at the following institutions:

  • University of Florida College of Medicine
  • University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Temple University School of Medicine
  • The Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute
  • King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thailand
  • Orlando Health Heart Institute
  • Western Kentucky Heart and Lung Associates

For consideration, please complete the application below and return to our Fellowship Coordinator Dori Romrell. Include your current CV, three letters of recommendation (one from current PD) and a small photo. For further questions you may contact our Program Director Juan Vilaro, MD.

Heart Failure Fellowship Curriculum

Apply Through ERAS

The University of Florida Heart Failure Fellowship accepts applications through ERAS to its training program from July 1 (when match opens) through July 31. Invitations to interview are typically extended mid August with subsequent interview dates scheduled from early September through mid October.

For Heart Failure Fellowship Application please submit the following via ERAS:

  • Common application form
  • Personal goals statement
  • 3 Letters of recommendation (one from current program director)
  • USMLE transcripts
  • ECFMG status report (foreign medical graduates only)
  • Wallet-sized color photo

For further questions, you may contact our Fellowship Coordinator Dori Romrell.