Adult Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology Fellowship

Didactic Curriculum 

During every weekday in July and August, fellows attend a multidisciplinary, introductory lecture series for advanced housestaff on cardiology.

On Friday mornings before Grand Rounds, the cardiothoracic section holds a weekly didactic session primarily geared toward fellows and attending physicians. Fellows are actively involved in preparing some of these lectures (two to three a year). The lecture series also includes journal club, echo rounds and quality management conferences.

The Department of Anesthesiology Grand Rounds is held on Fridays at 7 a.m. This forum is dedicated to lectures from the department’s various sections, as well as quality improvement initiatives and visiting professorships. Fellows will present at Grand Rounds once during their fellowship. With the guidance of a faculty mentor, fellows will choose and research an appropriate advanced topic in cardiothoracic anesthesiology.

Scholarly Activity 

Fellows will participate in scholarly activity during their fellowship year. Typically, this involved a case report or case series submission to a peer-reviewed journal. There are also opportunities for fellows to join or design an IRB-approved research study.

The Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists' Annual Meeting takes place each spring. Fellows are expected to prepare and submit either an abstract or a case report for presentation at this conference. The department will grant funding for fellows to attend the meeting.

Fellows are also expected to perform a quality improvement project at some point during the year. This project is open-ended and aims to improve an aspect of the intraoperative experience for fellows or residents on rotation.

Duty Hours, Learning Environment & Moonlighting

• Clinical responsibilities from Monday through Friday will begin at 6:30 a.m. and continue through 5 p.m., subject to the demands of the service. 
• Fellows will have one nonclinical day per work week, on average.
• Pager call is 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., Monday through Friday. 
• Pager call on weekends is from 7 a.m. to 7 a.m. the following day.
• With rare exceptions, there should always be a fellow assigned to home beeper call.
• The fellow team is responsible for making the call schedule. 
• If the fellow comes into the hospital on call and stays past 10 p.m., they will have no duty the next day, except in exceptional circumstances. 
• Each fellow will have two weekends per month, free from any call obligation.
• There is no in-house call for fellows.

During cardiothoracic OR rotations, trainees reliably average one non-clinical day per week for educational and academic pursuits. All past fellows have resultantly presented posters at the SCA’s annual meeting; several of these projects have progressed to peer-reviewed publication. Fellows also use this time to work on QI projects and peer-reviewed journals. As part of attending mentorship, each fellow is also expected to research a novel and advanced cardiothoracic topic for presentation at the department’s grand rounds.

Fellows assigned to research rotations will not have fixed duty hours but will be subject to the same 80-hour per week limit, with at least one day off per week, averaged over four weeks. Time spent on research activities and in the hospital during weekend call will all be counted in determining total duty hours.

Moonlighting will not be permitted during the first three months of fellowship to allow for smooth integration into and undivided attention to the cardiac ORs. After three months, paid internal weekend moonlighting on the OB and ICU anesthesia service will be permitted. These moonlighting shifts must not interfere with scheduled rotation or call duties on any rotation.

The fellowship provides extensive training experience in multiple McGaw-affiliated care settings.

Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology

Fellows work closely with core faculty to provide intraoperative care for cardiac and thoracic surgeries. About 80 percent of cardiac cases are complex, including valve repairs, CABG with Maze procedures, heart transplants, VADs and ECMO. Most cases are single-covered by an attending, though fellows may also assist when attendings cover both cardiac and non-cardiac ORs.

Fellows spend 50–60 percent of their time supervising residents, guiding them through safe anesthetic practices and remaining involved throughout the case. For the rest, fellows act as primary housestaff. Peer-developed guides support learning and consistency in cardiac case management.

Transesophageal Echocardiography

TEE proficiency is a core skill for cardiothoracic anesthesiologists. Fellows gain hands-on experience during CT rotations and a dedicated month on the Echocardiography Service, working alongside anesthesiology and cardiology attendings to master 2D and 3D imaging techniques.

Daily, a designated Echo Attending oversees intraoperative TEE interpretation and reporting, with fellows actively assisting. Additional opportunities include acquiring and interpreting TTEs in the ICU or the Echo Lab. All fellows attend the SCA Comprehensive Review & Update of Perioperative Echo, a five-day course fully funded by the program. Since 2007, all graduates have passed the NBE’s PTEeXAM.

Pediatric Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology

At Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, fellows gain experience in pediatric cardiac anesthesia, managing complex congenital cases under expert supervision. Didactics and hands-on training cover cardiovascular development, congenital defects, and single-ventricle physiology, with additional TEE exposure from pediatric cardiologists.

Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit

A month in the 23-bed CTICU at Northwestern Memorial Hospital provides insight into postoperative care. Fellows collaborate with anesthesiology residents, surgical teams and critical care faculty, many of whom also specialize in cardiothoracic anesthesiology, to consult on post-op cardiac patients.

Blood Bank & Perfusion

This rotation includes two weeks each in the Blood Bank and Perfusion Services. Fellows learn about blood products, testing and storage, then gain hands-on experience with cardiopulmonary bypass, often assisting with one to two cases per day.

Elective Rotations

Fellows have two elective months to tailor their training. Options include additional time on core rotations or a structured research block.

In addition to McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University benefits and wellness resources, Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology fellows receive:

• $700 education fund for professional development (e,g., board fees, books or a tablet)
• Membership in the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists (SCA)
• CME time and funding to attend the Basic & Advanced Comprehensive Review and Update of Perioperative Echo training
• Fellows who present at the SCA annual meeting will receive three days of funding to attend
• Dedicated office space with desktop computer
• Opportunity for weekend OB Anesthesia call moonlighting pay ($100/hour)

• Michael Ault, MD
• Robert Barnes, MD
• Kiran Belani, MD
• Vivian Doan, MD
• Charles Hogue, MD
• Dinesh Kurian, MD
• Choy Lewis, MD
• Sawyer Naze, MD
• Lakshmi Nemani, MD
• Aaron Reynolds, MD
• David Rudnick, MD
• Saadia Sherwani, MD, MS
• Hak Wong, MD

All Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology fellowship positions are filled through the San Francisco Match. Please register and apply at the San Francisco Match website.

To be considered for a Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology fellowship position, candidates must be eligible for certification or fully certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology before fellowship training begins.

Candidates must have taken USMLE Step 3 and obtain a temporary or permanent Illinois Medical License before starting their fellowship training. Licensing information and application can be found at the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulations website. To apply for a permanent license, the applicant must already have taken the USMLE Step 3. Please be aware that it may take up to 60 days to process and grant an Illinois license.

For more information, contact Northwestern's Office of Graduate Medical Education:

McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University
420 E. Superior St.
Suite 9-900
Chicago, IL 60611
312-503-7975