Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship

Nicklaus Children's Hospital is proud to have an ACGME accredited Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Program. The fellowship is a three-year training program with two fellows per year. The Heart Institute at Nicklaus Children's Hospital has an outstanding faculty of 16 cardiologists, 7 cardiac intensivists, three dedicated pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists, three cardiac surgeons, and 16 dedicated nurse practitioners that participate in training the fellows.

The cardiac catheterization program, led by Dr. Lourdes Prieto, performs over 300 cardiac catheterizations a year with a strong emphasis on interventional procedures. The cardiac surgical program is led by Dr. Joseph Forbess and performs close to 200 open-heart cases a year.

Nicklaus Children's Hospital prides itself in utilizing collaborative and innovative surgical and interventional strategies to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients with simple and complex congenital heart disease. US News and World Report recognizes Nicklaus Children's Hospital,  among one of the top pediatric cardiology and heart surgery programs in the United States. Nicklaus Children's Hospital is the largest freestanding children’s hospital in Florida and the pediatric teaching hospital for the Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.

Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Curriculum

Program Goals

The goal of the fellowship program is to graduate well-rounded pediatric cardiologists able to provide the highest quality of care to patients from infancy through adulthood. The fellowship is a three-year program divided into 24 months of clinical rotations and 12 months of research. In addition, fellows receive a robust clinical experience rotating through our dedicated 34 bed cardiac-intensive care unit/inpatient floor, ambulatory offices, electrophysiology lab, non-invasive imaging lab and a state-of-the art hybrid catheterization lab. Non-invasive imaging includes TTE (2D and 3D), TEE, fetal echo and cardiac MRI.

The objectives of the fellowship program are to train our fellows to:

  • Be well-versed in all aspects of cardiology (cardiac anatomy, cardiac physiology, non-invasive cardiac imaging, cardiac catheterization, electrophysiology, cardiac critical care medicine, inpatient and outpatient cardiology)
  • Be empathetic professionals that use a patient centered approach
  • Find a career in cardiology that excites them and pushes them to innovate the field

The program’s educational content includes an extensive curriculum filled with interactive lectures and conferences as well as block rotations in non-invasive imaging (echocardiography and cardiac MR), cardiac critical care medicine, cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology, inpatient cardiac service, ambulatory clinics and research. In all of the clinical areas, the fellows are supervised by faculty which allows the fellows to have progressive autonomy through direct and indirect supervision. The faculty and fellows both regularly evaluate the program and each other to help improve the program. As a referral tertiary care center, the fellows are exposed to a large volume of cardiac patients with a varying mix of pathology and complexity. The Research Institute provides the infrastructure for research support including regulatory function and IRB. The GME provides the institutional support for the educational activities such as the common fellowship curriculum, faculty development, Grand Rounds and other hospital wide conferences that supplement the division-specific conferences.

Program Design

How to Apply

Applications should be submitted through the ERAS system.