The Structural Heart Disease Fellowship at the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine is a one-year program designed to prepare you for independent practice caring for patients with complex valvular heart disease. 

The program supports early career development through:

• Broad exposure to clinical trials
• A strong research environment
• Training focused on emerging structural heart therapies

You'll train at OHSU Knight Cardiovascular Institute and OHSU Hospital, a tertiary referral center serving Oregon and southern Washington, with state-of-the-art facilities for coronary and structural heart disease procedures.

Fellowship objectives

This fellowship provides focused training in structural heart disease decision making and interventions for fellows who’ve completed a core interventional cardiology fellowship.

Through the Structural Heart Disease Fellowship, you’ll develop advanced clinical skills, sound judgment and technical competence. Over the year, you’ll build a foundational understanding of the pathophysiology and clinical evidence that guide structural heart interventions. You’ll accomplish this through focused clinical experience, exposure to research and individualized mentorship.

Fellowship curriculum

Under faculty supervision, you’ll participate in teaching interventional and general cardiology fellows, residents and students. 

You’ll work with several multidisciplinary teams, including: 

• General cardiology
• Interventional cardiology
• Heart failure
• Cardiac electrophysiology
• Cardiac surgery
• Cardiac intensive care

Patient care responsibilities

As a Structural Heart Disease fellow, you’ll have broad exposure to:

• Percutaneous interventions
• Inpatient cardiology and cardiac intensive care
• Advanced heart failure care (including LVAD and transplant)
• Noninvasive imaging
• Electrophysiology
• Adult congenital heart disease
• Outpatient care at the OHSU Center for Health & Healing

Clinical procedural experience

You’ll also gain hands-on experience in:

• Transcatheter aortic and mitral valve interventions (including TAVR and MitraClip)
• Valvuloplasty
• Transseptal techniques
• Intracardiac echocardiography
• Paravalvular leak closure
• PFO, ASD and PDA closures
• Left atrial appendage closure
• CardioMEMS implantation
• Alcohol septal ablation
• Advanced coronary interventions
• Mechanical circulatory support (IABP, Impella, ECMO)

Research

The Structural Heart Disease Fellowship encourages scientific investigation, providing you with opportunities to take part in clinical and basic research to advance understanding of valvular heart disease. 

You’ll gain exposure to a full spectrum of clinical trials, laying a strong foundation for a career developing and advancing innovative therapies and procedures.

As a fellow, you’re expected to complete at least two case reports or, preferably, original research manuscripts in collaboration with faculty. You’ll also develop experience in CT image analysis for TAVR planning and DICOM-based image sharing for clinical and research applications.

Multidisciplinary conferences

All Knight Cardiovascular Institute fellows take part in regular multidisciplinary conferences, research conferences, didactic sessions and KCVI grand rounds.

Structural Heart Disease fellows are required to attend the multidisciplinary heart valve conference and the weekly interventional conference. You’ll analyze various interventional topics through real cases, offering insights into decision making, techniques and advancements in the field. 

You’ll also present cases at morbidity and mortality conferences, participate in heart team discussions, and be encouraged to submit and present research at scientific meetings.

How to apply

To request an application packet, email our education manager, Ana Martin, at plesiaa@ohsu.edu.

Application materials should include:

• Your CV
• USMLE/COMLEX scores
• MSPE
• Three letters of recommendation, including one from your most recent or current program director

Candidates who completed training outside the United States must also submit an ECFMG certificate. Visa sponsorship is not available for this program, except for H-1B visa transfers.

Eligibility requirements

To be eligible for the Structural Heart Disease Fellowship, you must be in the process of completing or have completed an ACGME-accredited interventional cardiology fellowship. 

Important dates

The Structural Heart Disease Fellowship begins July 1. Applications are reviewed upon receipt.

• Vratika Agarwal, M.D.

Current fellows

Meet our current Structural Heart Disease fellow.