Newswise — Just in time for Valentine’s Day and American Heart Month, Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine has received initial accreditation from the national Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for its first University-sponsored fellowship. The FAU Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship will be based at Tenet HealthCare system’s Delray Medical Center (DMC), a member of the FAU College of Medicine Graduate Medical Education (GME) Consortium.

This new FAU Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship is a subspecialty of internal medicine and will complement the existing residency programs at FAU: internal medicine (launched in 2014); general surgery (launched in 2016); emergency medicine (launched in 2017); psychiatry (launches in July); and neurology (launches in July). The fellowship launches in July, and the three-year program will include two fellows per year for a total of six fellows.

Brijeshwar S. Maini, M.D., the regional medical director of Interventional Cardiology and Transcatheter Therapy at DMC and a professor in FAU’s Department of Integrated Medical Science, is the director of the new fellowship program. Sachin S. Sule, M.D., FAU’s Internal Medicine Residency program director, and an associate professor of Integrated Medical Science in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, is responsible for providing supervision and guidance to ensure compliance with accreditation standards.

“We are very proud to establish the first fellowship program for FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine in collaboration with our outstanding partners at Delray Medical Center,” said Phillip Boiselle, M.D., dean of FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. “Heart disease remains the number one cause of death in the United States, and approximately 92 million American adults are living with some form of cardiovascular disease or the after-effects of stroke. Training the next generation of cardiologists is critical to addressing the immense and growing need for this specialty both locally and nationally.”

Cardiology fellows will have the opportunity to train alongside top physicians and other clinicians in the field. The program will include rotations in DMC’s high tech cardiac intensive care unit and cardiac care step-down units, the cardiac catheterization lab and the electrophysiology lab. In addition, fellows will be able to train in DMC’s new endovascular suite, which provides state-of-the-art advanced technology for various procedures including angioplasty and stenting and endovascular aortic aneurysm repair.

“Our state-of-the-art facility, exceptional physicians and clinicians, and cutting-edge technology and programs we offer at Delray Medical Center will provide unparalleled clinical training throughout the three years of fellowship,” said Mark Bryan, CEO of Delray Medical Center. “Working together with our colleagues at Florida Atlantic University, we will ensure that the FAU Cardiovascular Disease fellows leave as the most qualified and best trained cardiologists this region and our nation has to offer.”

DMC is a 535-bed acute care community hospital and a Level I Trauma Center serving communities in south Palm Beach County. The hospital has achieved recognition from Florida Blue as a Blue Distinction® Center for Cardiac Care. In addition, the hospital earned the “Get With the Guidelines - Heart Failure and Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Awards” from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

FAU’s GME programs are spearheaded by Lee Learman, M.D., Ph.D., senior associate dean for graduate medical education and academic affairs. He also serves as the designated institutional official responsible for all residency and fellowship programs sponsored by FAU’s College of Medicine as well as the recruitment of founding program directors for planned GME programs.

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About the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine:

FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine is one of approximately 150 accredited medical schools in the U.S. The college was launched in 2010, when the Florida Board of Governors made a landmark decision authorizing FAU to award the M.D. degree. After receiving approval from the Florida legislature and the governor, it became the 134th allopathic medical school in North America. With more than 70 full and part-time faculty and more than 1,300 affiliate faculty, the college matriculates 64 medical students each year and has been nationally recognized for its innovative curriculum. To further FAU’s commitment to increase much needed medical residency positions in Palm Beach County and to ensure that the region will continue to have an adequate and well-trained physician workforce, the FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine Consortium for Graduate Medical Education (GME) was formed in fall 2011 with five leading hospitals in Palm Beach County. In June 2014, FAU’s College of Medicine welcomed its inaugural class of 36 residents in its first University-sponsored residency in internal medicine and graduated its first class of internal medicine residents in 2017.

 

About Florida Atlantic University:

Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU’s world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU’s existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.