Preventive Cardiology
Preventive cardiovascular medicine, now recognized nationally as one of the major cardiovascular and internal medicine health specialties, has a very proud academic origin and history of success at our University. We are now well poised to accelerate this national impact by facilitating the training of the next generation of national preventive cardiovascular leaders.
The Minnesota Department of Health’s Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention steering committee, states that, “Cardiovascular disease, despite major advances, remains one of the key killers of Minnesotans, as it is throughout both the United States and the world." In 2008, Minnesotans experienced over 54,000 acute heart disease hospitalizations. More than 20% of all deaths in Minnesota are due to heart disease. Minnesotans incurred over $1.7 billion in charges for inpatient hospitalizations due to heart disease in 2007 and more than $360 million due to stroke.
It is known that the population of patients with cardiovascular disease continues to grow, and yet the number of specialists with expertise in preventive cardiovascular medicine is inadequate. Both the American College of Cardiology and NHLBI have recognized the lack of such specialists as one of the greatest cardiovascular manpower shortages (JACC Vol. 44, No. 2, 2004 Fuster et al. 2004:267–71). We note that preventive cardiovascular medicine also serves as one of the critical pragmatic and intellectual anchors to the creation of cost-effective cardiovascular health care delivery, health service research, and creation of accountable care organizations.
Our training program in Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine established a didactic curriculum; clinical rotation schedule, and provides training in:
- Cardiovascular biology
- Clinical epidemiology
- Biostatistics
- Clinical trials
- Outcomes research
- Cardiovascular pharmacology
- Behavioral and psychosocial aspects of cardiovascular disease
- Risk assessment
- Assessment of subclinical atherosclerosis
- Risk factor management
- Disease management
A nationally recognized clinical research program, journal clubs, research conferences, and grand rounds sessions occur on a regular basis.
Training for this program takes place primarily at UMMC Fairview and VA Medical Center. In addition to Dr. Duprez, as Program Director, key faculty members within this program will include Jay Cohn, M.D., Suma Konety, M.D., Alan K. Berger, M.D., and Alan T. Hirsch, M.D. We anticipate that this training program would actively create educational collaborations with all the current cardiovascular subspecialty training programs.
Potential areas of practice for our graduates include directorship of a preventive cardiovascular medicine, hypertension clinic, lipid clinic; directorship of a cardiac rehabilitation program, directorship of a vascular medicine laboratory; investigative concentration in preventive cardiac clinical epidemiology and/or outcomes research; design and carry out clinical trials in cardiovascular disease prevention (primary, secondary and tertiary) phase II, III and IV; establishing new techniques in the early detection of cardiovascular disease.
Eligible candidates are ABIM (American Board of Internal Medicine) certified in Cardiovascular Medicine, or graduates of an ACGME accredited program in Cardiovascular Medicine.
To apply, please send the following application materials to our coordinator, Elizabeth Gorka, at cvfellow@umn.edu, or by mail:
University of Minnesota
Cardiovascular Fellowship Program
Attn: Fellowship Coordinator
Mayo Mail Code 508
420 Delaware Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Faculty
- Daniel Duprez, MD, PhD, FAHA, FACC, FESC, FASH: "My philosophy is to provide outstanding comprehensive care to patients with cardiovascular disease, including a number of emerging technologies available at the University of Minnesota Medical Center-Fairview. My practice combines state-of-the-art therapies, compassion, and effective communication, creating a working partnership that results (overall) in high quality of life for my patients."
- Suma Konety, MD: A graduate of Bangalore Medical College (India), Dr. Suma Konety completed internal medicine training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a general-cardiology fellowship at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. After completing a specialty fellowship in cardiac imaging at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center, Dr. Konety joined the University of Minnesota faculty in 2009.
- Jeremy Van't Hof, MD
Program Director
Daniel Duprez, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine