Residency | Department of Medicine | School of Medicine

Resident Help

The Division of Cardiology offers a three year speciality training program leading to Royal College certification in Adult Cardiology. The program is based primarily at Kingston General Hospital, and additional training in Kingston occurs at Hotel Dieu Hospital and the Kingston Heart Clinic.

Program Highlights

The Cardiology program at Queen's University typically admits two to three trainees per year, meaning that there are seven to eight trainees in total.

Our program places a strong emphasis on clinical cardiology and provides an exposure to acute and chronic cardiovascular disease. Particular emphasis is placed on clinical bedside diagnosis and a critical approach to diagnostic testing. The trainees develop critical appraisal skills as well as consultation skills to provide excellent clinical care to patients.

An outline of the training program is provided below. Each rotation has detailed objectives and evaluations, which can be provided for review upon request.

Number of Months	Rotation
14	Clinical Practice Activities Consultations, Acute Care, Intermediate Care, Ambulatory Care, Community Cardiology Pediatrics and Adult Congenital Heart Disease
6	Echocardiology
3	Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory
3	Electrophysiology and Device Therapy
2	Stress Testing, Ambulatory Monitoring
2	Research
1	Advanced Cardiac Imaging
2	Nuclear Cardiology
4	Elective / Selective Time

Our program provides an exceptional opportunity for Cardiology residents to obtain significant experience in TEE depending on the residents' desires.

The Division of Cardiology is composed of a mix of general Cardiologist and subspecialists, with strong interventional electrophysciology and echocardiography groups. The members of the Division of Cardiac Surgery work closely with the Division of Cardiology, and the surgeons are involved in the teaching of the Cardiology trainees. We also work closely with Pediatric Cardiology and the Cardiac Radiologists.

Admission

Admission to the Cardiology program at Queen's University is through the Medicine Subspecialty Match, coordinated by the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS).

Our program participates in the Cardiology National Interviews held in September. This allows Program Directors and applicants an opportunity to meet on a single day in one location. Programs will adhere to the guidelines of the Medicine Subspecialty Match, agreed to by Canadian Association of Professors of Medicine, the Canadian Association of Internal Medicine Program Directors, the Canadian Associate Deans (Postgraduate Education) and the Canadian Association of Interns and Residents.

The training programs which participate function autonomously, but co-operate in procedures related to trainee selection. This system is intended to facilitate the interview process for both the candidates and the programs. We do offer on-site interviews. If you have submitted an application to us through CARMs, please contact the program office to arrange an on-site interview.

Curriculum and Educational Activities

Queen's Cardiology is a three-year training program, and the length does not exceed the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada's standard.

In addition to the program rotations, we offer the following educational rounds:

Educational Round	Frequency
Academic Half-Day	Weekly
Cardiac Imaging Rounds	Weekly
ECG/ Intracardiac Device Rounds	Weekly
Cardiac Case Rounds	Weekly
Journal Clubs	1-2 times per month in the evening
Bedside Teaching	Twice a month in small groups
Teaching Opportunities	2 rounds per week delivered by the Cardiology residents for the junior housestaff
Retreats	Twice per year
CanMEDS Topics	Integrated into half-day curriculum and through PGME sessions
Mock written/graphics exams	At least once per year
Mock OSCE	Once per year
Graphics	Integrated into academic half-day series

The first year Cardiology residents take part in the ICU summer half-day series as a review of cardiac critical care medicine. A summer half-day series has also been designed for Cardiology exam preparation for the senior Cardiology residents. These are resident-driven guideline based sessions which are facilitated by topic experts.

Each resident is expected to complete a research project and submit for presentation and/or publication. The research aspect of the program is supervised by a Clinical Scholar, who will meet with the residents to ensure that projects are progressing as expected, and provide assistance when required.

Research

Research and scholarly activity is a mandatory part of our program. The program acknowledges the longitudinal reality of successful research so that if a resident’s project will benefit from a half day per week for a prolonged period of time all efforts will be made to free the resident from clinical duties during lab rotations if it will be a significant benefit to the research. The Research Supervisor makes this decision and recommendation as needed.

Individual Attendings support residents with mentorship and assistance in designing, conducting, analyzing a study and preparing it for publication submission. Financial support is available by application within the university and within the cardiac program. The Research Supervisor is aware of these opportunities and encourages the residents to apply as he sees fit.

Residents are required to complete a project during their training for presentation at a national or international meeting. Residents with a particular interest in research often develop it further through the formal mentorship program and from the informal mentoring that frequently occurs. When this interest is seen, like-minded faculty members make efforts to identify and support the work throughout training and try to direct the resident to the appropriate career training choices.

Training Sites

Primary Training Site - Kingston Health Sciences Centre (Kingston General Hospital and Hotel Dieu Hospital Sites)
Community Site - Kingston Heart Clinic or Belleville (accommodations provided in Belleville)
Nuclear Cardiology - Additional rotation in nuclear cardiology for additional number of cases is provided at Toronto Western Hospital

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