|  |  |
Vocational Training
Cardiology
Supervising Committee
Specialist Advisory Committee (SAC) Cardiology.
Definition of Specialty
Cardiology is a branch of internal medicine concerned with prevention, investigation
and therapy of and research into diseases involving the cardiovascular system.
General Principles of Training
The aim of the program is
to produce in a minimum of 3 years full time advanced training, competent physicians
trained in clinical cardiology who are capable of recognising a patient's essential
problem and able either to address that problem themselves or to direct the patient
to another appropriate person.
Successful completion of this broad prescription
allows a diverse approach to the award of the FRACP but does not indicate competence
as an independent operator across the range of specialised procedures such as
transoesophageal echocardiography, stress echocardiography, coronary angiography,
coronary angioplasty, diagnostic and therapeutic electrophysiology, implantation
of permanent pacemaker electrodes and generators and implantable defibrillators,
congenital heart disease in adults and children or medical aspects of cardiac
transplantation.
It must be realised that the completed training program
does not necessarily qualify the trainee to perform any of the specified procedures
as an independent operator but solely ensures a basic experience. Reporting results
of tests requires a greater expertise than may be gained by core training alone.
- At least 2 years full time experience in cardiovascular medicine
is required, with an emphasis on diagnosis and patient management.
-
At least one year of core cardiology training must be undertaken in
Australia
or New Zealand.
- Trainees are required to become conversant with
all diagnostic procedures available with their strengths, limitations and appropriate
application, with the relevant literature and with research activities in the
cardiovascular field. They are not expected to become expert in all branches
of cardiology or in all invasive or non invasive techniques.
- It is
desirable that training be undertaken at more than one institution to enable trainees
to acquire a sufficient breadth of experience.
- At least 6 months of core
training should be in an institution that performs adult cardiac surgery and PTCA
in order to gain experience in indications for these procedures; appropriate patient
selection; familiarity with these interventions; and post intervention care including
complications, their diagnosis and management.
- Knowledge of electrophysiology,
radio frequency ablation techniques and their application must be obtained. This
should be in an institution that uses these diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
- If the trainee is not working primarily in an institution in which adult
cardiac surgery and electrophysiology and ablation are undertaken, programs and
reports must indicate, with supervisory endorsement, how this experience has been
gained.
- Advanced trainees transferring to the SAC in Cardiology,
or those with the FRACP wishing to undertake post FRACP training in cardiology,
will need at least 2 years of additional supervised and accredited training in
core cardiology. The amount of training additional to this will be determined
by the amount cross accredited from other disciplines.
- Approved
training programs must be carried out in accredited hospitals (public or private).
- Any training undertaken during the year in which trainees sit and pass
the examination will be regarded as non core (subject to the usual conditions
- see Accreditation of the
Year in which the Examination is Passed (Conditional Year of Training) in
the generic section).
[ Table
of Contents ]
|  |
