Didactics

Our educational program is designed to provide fellows with comprehensive exposure to topics relevant to the practice of cardiothoracic anesthesiology. We achieve this with a combination of didactic lectures, journal club, transthoracic echocardiography (TEE) lectures, TEE case presentations, and patient safety/quality improvement sessions. The educational program is refined and adjusted yearly based on fellows’ feedback and their perceived learning needs to best prepare them for the adult cardiac anesthesiology certification exam.

The didactic program aims to provide fellows with a comprehensive knowledge of topics related to cardiothoracic anesthesiology. Our didactic program is multidisciplinary, drawing on the expertise of faculty from other divisions (such as pain management, neuroanesthesiology, and critical care) and other departments (such as cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery). Fellows’ lectures are held weekly, as well as departmental grand rounds, critical care rounds, and research meetings.

The weekly TEE didactic lecture series was created by Dr. Jack Shanewise, a pioneer and national leader in perioperative transesophageal echocardiography, and is led now by Director of Perioperative Echocardiography Dr. Kurt Hoffmeister. The lectures combine basic TEE knowledge, advanced TEE interpretation, hemodynamic calculations, artifact recognition, and review of interesting cases. TEE case presentations, led by a fellow and moderated by faculty, offer the opportunity to review and learn interesting TEE findings with the group.  ACTA fellows also participate in the Columbia University Ultrasound Program to develop proficiency in performing and interpreting transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS).

Journal club sessions are scheduled throughout the year and are moderated by Dr. Naralys Batista. The purpose of journal club is to critically review recently published articles relevant to the practice of cardiothoracic anesthesiology from peer-reviewed journals.

Patient safety and quality improvement (PS/QI) conferences are presented by ACTA fellows and moderated by Professor of Anesthesiology and Chair of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists Guidelines and Standards Committee, Dr. Bessie Kachulis. PS/QI conferences serve to review systems problems, identify challenges and areas for improvements, investigate solutions, and propose steps for implementation.