The University Interventional Cardiology faculty is a premier academic group in the Vermont and
Northern New York State area that offers cutting edge interventional cardiovascular therapies and
participation in ongoing clinical trials. The University Interventional Cardiology faculty is proud to
have treated the first patient in the United States with intracoronary gene therapy and the first
patient in the New England area with a paclitaxel coated stent.
Education:
The University Interventional Cardiology faculty offers one of only two ACGME accredited
interventional cardiology fellowship training programs in Maine, New Hampshire and
Vermont. Our focus on clinical care, research, education and training combined with our
thorough quality assurance program creates a dynamic academic and professional
environment in which we are able to train the next generation of leading interventional
cardiologists in coronary, endovascular and structural heart interventions as well as advanced
diagnostic modalities such as optical coherence tomography.
In addition to clinical and procedural mentorship, our educational program includes a series of
core faculty lectures combined with carefully selected didactic and interactive presentations with
nationally prominent Visiting Professors of Interventional Cardiology. Our interventional
cardiology fellowship program emphasizes multidisciplinary approaches to research, education
and patient care as demonstrated via ongoing research and clinical collaborations with cardiac
surgery, vascular surgery and nephrology.
Our group has had in integral role in the development of national paradigms for interventional
cardiology education. We are consistent faculty members at the leading national interventional
cardiology meetings and our faculty has also led the American Heart Association Interventional
Cardiology programming.
Research
As a University tertiary care group, we treat patients with a broad spectrum of cardiovascular
disease, both common and complex. The mortality rates (approximately 1.0%), emergency
coronary bypass surgery rates (<0.5%) and major bleeding complication rates (approximately
1.0%) for our complex tertiary care population of cardiovascular interventional patients is among
the lowest in the New England Region. But, our complex referral patient population lends itself to
development of even better approaches, technologies and pharmacologies for interventional
therapy. Thus, we are constantly offering cutting edge new approaches designed to demonstrate
new and improved quality, safety and efficacy.
Our faculty holds investigator initiated and multicenter trial related grants across a broad
spectrum of interventional cardiology practices. We are helping to lead national research efforts
in the prevention of acute kidney injury after cardiac catheterization, steering the Heart Team
approach to left main stenting, and leading national investigations into patient compliance with
dual antiplatelet therapy after drug eluting stenting. Our site is actively involved in research in all 3
key ares of current practice—coronary diagnosis (optical coherence tomography) and intervention
(next generation drug eluting stents); endovascular therapies (next generation stents, renal artery
interventions and inflammation); structural heart interventions (Heart Team approaches to aortic
valve disease). Through these ongoing projects, our faculty will continue to maintain national
prominence and leadership in research, publication and device development.