Overview
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center (NYHP/CUMC) offers a broad-based cardiothoracic educational experience. The adult cardiac experience encompasses routine coronary artery bypass and valve surgery. In addition, the experience covers all current surgical treatment options for end stage heart disease, including heart and heart-lung transplantation, left ventricular assist device implantation, transmyocardial laser revascularization, and high-risk reparative surgery. We have one of the busiest heart transplant and mechanical assist device programs in the nation. Finally, our Minimally Invasive, Robotic, and Surgical Arrhythmia programs provide our residents with cutting edge training in these exciting areas. The thoracic experience encompasses esophageal and lung surgery, as well as lung transplantation and lung reduction surgery. Our residents are exposed to a wide variety of pediatric cardiac cases. The pediatric program is one of the busiest on the East Coast and presents one of the most technically challenging and diverse experiences in pediatric cardiac surgery. The Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery is actively involved in research and encourages residents to become involved in research projects. Residents are also encouraged to become involved with teaching and public speaking. We consider it important to teach residents to read the literature with discrimination, and present patients or papers orally with confidence. Given the breath of conventional clinical experience as a well as the active programs involved with newer technologies, the residents are prepared not only for conventional cardiac and thoracic practices but also for the changes in the decades ahead.
Program applicants have the choice of a two-year straight clinical or a 2 1/2 year research and clinical track. The latter consists of 6 month of research or a clinical surgical electrophysiology/interventional cardiology fellowship followed by 2 clinical years. Please note that participants who choose the 2 1/2 year track are appointed as non-accredited clinical fellows during the six months prior to the start of the residency. Appointment as a accredited resident of the Graduate Medical Education Staff begins after completion of the clinical fellowship. This allows the program to concentrate on one chief resident every 6 months.
Training takes place entirely at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, which is one of the oldest and largest medical institutions in the United States. The medical center is the teaching hospital for the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; consequently residents will interact with house officers of multiple specialties as well as medical students. The current facility, the Milstein Hospital Building, was built in 1989. It is an 708 bed hospital with 39 operating rooms. There are 66 cardiothoracic beds, 37 cardiothoracic & surgical ICU beds and 4 dedicated operating rooms. Currently under construction, The Vivian & Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2009. Located between the exiting Milstein Hospital Building and the Herbert Irving Pavilion, the Heart Center is an expansion of our existing, internationally recognized cardiac programs and it will create additional OR, ICU, recovery, imaging and conference center capacity, as well as provide a coordinated, user-friendly patient experience. The Children's Hospital Building (CHONY) opened in 2003. It is a stunning, state-of-the art facility with 186 beds, 78 ICU beds and 8 operating rooms that provide medical and surgical care for children. There are 14 cardiothoracic beds, 14 cardiothoracic ICU beds and 2 dedicated operating rooms.
The proximity of the Columbia University Medical School offers easy access to library and research facilities for all residents and faculty. The Health Sciences Library is located in the Hammer Building on the medical center campus. The Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library serves Columbia University's schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and public health, as well as other health care, instructional and research programs at the Columbia University Medical Center and the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Research laboratories, directed by members of the full time faculty, are actively engaged in on-going projects related to cardiovascular physiology, pharmacology, immunology, atrial fibrillation, interventional procedures and the surgical treatment of end-stage heart disease.
Dr. Craig R. Smith, Calvin F. Barber Professor of Surgery, Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Chairman of the Department of Surgery, is the Program Director. Dr. Michael Argenziano, Associate Professor of Surgery, Director of Minimally Invasive & Arrhythmia Surgery and Director of the Cardiothoracic Research Lab, is the Associate Program Director. Dr. Mathew Williams, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of the Hybrid Cardiac Interventional Program, is the Assistant Program Director.
Each year, the Adult Cardiac Section performs 1,300 open heart cases at the medical center. 28% of the adult operations are coronary artery bypass procedures, 58% are aortic and valve operations and the remainderare heart transplants and device insertions. We perform between 80-100 heart transplants and approximately 65 device insertions each year. This makes us the largest heart transplant and device implantation program in the country. Residents, for the last 10 years, have met the UNOS transplant certification requirements upon completing the program. In addition, NYPH/CUMC runs one of the few Thoratec left ventricular assist device training programs in the world; this is not only a demonstration of the program's international reputation but also an opportunity for residents to meet surgeons from other programs. The hospital functions as a tertiary referral center and an acute care facility for a large inner city population, and consequently the case mix is skewed towards unusual and complex problems.
Our Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery Program is one of the largest in the country, performing over 150 procedures each year. Recent accomplishments of this program include completion of the first robotic, totally closed chest open heart and coronary bypass procedures in U.S. history. The NYPH/CUMC team teaches several courses in minimally invasive and robotic surgery, and is at the forefront of new technology development.
The NYPH/CUMC Surgical Arrhythmia Program is one of the busiest and most respected in the country. We perform over 80 atrial fibrillation operations per year, teach clinical courses, and run a productive atrial fibrillation research laboratory. In fact, many of the currently available atrial fibrillation ablation devices were developed or tested in our laboratories. Our combined interests in atrial fibrillation and minimally invasive surgery led to the development of a robotically assisted, closed chest procedure for atrial fibrillation, which is now being performed at our center.
The Hybrid Cardiac Interventional Program, under the direction of Dr. Mathew Williams, is a unique program that combines surgical cardiac interventional techniques for patients with cardiac disease. Procedures include Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement, Mitral Valve Repair and Hybrid Coronary Revascularization. Dr. Williams was the first cardiothoracic surgeon to receive dual training in interventional cardiology. He has performed numerous hybrid procedures and was the first cardiothoracic surgeon in the United States to perform aortic valve replacements in three ways, via traditional approach, transapical approach and transfemoral approach. In addition, Dr. Williams is one of the Columbia site investigators for the PARTNER (Placement of AoRtic TraNscathetER Valve Trial. Dr. Craig Smith is the National Co-PI.
The General Thoracic section of the program offers an equally broad experience. Under the director of Dr. Joshua Sonett, the section of General Thoracic Surgery performs over 1200 cases per year exposing the residents to a wide range of benign and malignant diseases of the lung, esophagus and mediastinum. Active programs in lung transplantation and lung volume reduction surgery reflect a major commitment to end-stage pulmonary disease.
The Pediatric Cardiac Section, directed by Dr. Jan M. Quaegebeur, has acquired an international reputation for providing one of the broadest ranges of pediatric cardiac surgical training in the Northeast. Performing approximately 500 pediatric cardiac operations each year, Drs. Quaegebeur and Chen have a particular interest and expertise in the care of neonates with congenital heart disease. In addition, residents are provided with exposure to our busy Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic, a new and developing field in Cardiothoracic Surgery. An additional advanced fellowship in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery is now being offered to those interested in pursing a career in this specialty.
