The Division of Perioperative Echocardiography in the University of Utah’s Department of Anesthesiology has offered one-year fellowships in perioperative echocardiography since 2002. This fellowship is under the direction of Dr. Josh Zimmerman, MD, FASE, and continues to be the only opportunity of its kind in the US. Applications for the 2025 academic year can be submitted starting in November of 2024 and fellows will be notified by March of 2025 of their acceptance.
Fellows spend a full year learning all aspects of perioperative echocardiography and point of care ultrasound (POCUS.) This includes extensive training in transthoracic, transesophageal, epiaortic, stress, strain, and 3D echocardiography. It also includes training in lung, gastric, and abdominal ultrasound. By the completion of training, fellows will achieve level 3 training in echocardiography as defined by the American Society of Echocardiography. They will also have the requisite training and number of scans to meet the American Society of Anesthesiologists recommendations for competence in non-cardiac POCUS.
The fellows’ schedule includes two days per week of echocardiography training, two days of work as a faculty anesthesiologist, and one day of academic work and study. Fellows’ clinical work will be at University of Utah Hospital and will include both performing and supervising anesthesia in the operating rooms. As our program is not an ACGME fellowship, fellows are paid as faculty for their clinical work. This also means that fellows must be eligible to obtain medical licensure Utah before their application is considered.
University of Utah Hospital is a tertiary medical center, which performs all aspects of cardiac surgery procedures including coronary revascularization, valve surgery (opened and endovascular), heart failure surgeries, and heart and lung transplantations. Fellows will be involved in imaging for all these procedures and our group performs over 1000 studies per year at University of Utah Health.
The echocardiography laboratory at the George E Wahlen VA Medial Center is under the direction of Drs. Daniel Vezina and Dr. Josh Zimmerman, making it the only anesthesiology-directed echo lab in the country. Its staffing model is 80 percent anesthesiology/20 percent cardiology and fellows spend their time learning from providers in both specialties. Its yearly case volume is approximately 4000 TTE, 500 TEE, and 1000 stress echos.
If you have additional questions regarding this unique opportunity, you may contact the Academic Coordinator Franki Roberts at franki.roberts@utah.edu