MDE 8224: Consultative Cardiology

Dr. Arthur Labovitz and Faculty at TGH, Dr. Fabio Leonelli and Faculty at the James Haley VA Hospital and Dr. Mazhar Afaq at the Bay Pines VA Hospital (Tampa)

Dr. Larry Jacobs (LVHN)

At TGH and T-VAH: This elective offers an opportunity to develop skills in the evaluation of patients referred for cardiology consultation at the VA and Tampa General Hospital. The students will participate in the evaluation of patients referred for cardiology consultation and will assist with the integration of the general medical data base with data gathered by both noninvasive (electrocardiography, ambulatory electrocardiography, stress testing) and invasive hemodynamic techniques, where indicated. This course allows the student to interpret a large number of electrocardiograms under the supervision of the attending staff. Staff attending review will provide individual instruction. Attendance at various other weekly Cardiology Department teaching conferences is required.

Evaluation

The faculty will make performance evaluations from data derived from clinical discussions and didactic presentations by the student.

At BP-VAH: This rotation will consist of direct exposure to clinical care of patients in the inpatient and outpatient settings. A low student to instructor ratio will facilitate a nourishing learning environment. Students will evaluate patients with all categories of cardiac disease, and cardiac history taking and examination skills will be honed. Additionally, students will be involved with interpretation of studies including echocardiograms, Holter monitoring, and stress examinations. Students will be given the opportunity to enhance their EKG interpretation skills and become familiar with the cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology laboratories. Per student preference, exposure to other cardiac imaging modalities including nuclear cardiology, cardiac MRI, and cardiac CT can be provided. Students will be provided with a schedule of subjects as an outline for reading.

Evaluation

Each student will be asked to complete a cardiology subject syllabus with the clerkship director. This will consist of 10-15 minutes mini-lectures provided to the student(s) several times per month. Each student will make one PowerPoint presentation on a subject decided upon at the beginning of the rotation.