Cardiology Fellowship Program

Message from Program Director

Welcome to the Westchester Medical Center Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program. It is my great pleasure to serve as the Cardiology Fellowship Program Director at Westchester Medical Center, a quaternary referral center set on a beautiful wooded campus in the suburbs of New York City. The Fellowship Program includes the three-year ACGME-Accredited general Cardiovascular Disease program and, for fellows who have completed such training, ACGME-accredited advanced training programs in Interventional Cardiology, Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, and Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation.

We have over 20 outstanding fellows among these programs, including six general fellows/year, one Interventional fellow, two Electrophysiology fellows, and one Advanced Heart Failure fellow. All of our programs emphasize evidence-based clinical training and utilize a full array of state-of-the-art resources. Our fellows are exposed to excellent inpatient and outpatient volumes and a highly diverse patient population (in terms of both socioeconomic backgrounds and pathobiology). We emphasize supportive faculty supervision, integrated didactic instruction, and academic excellence in a highly collegial and close-knit environment. We greatly value our fellows as important contributors to our highly regarded Heart and Vascular Institute, and are very proud of their consistent accomplishments in clinical care, research, and education during fellowship and beyond. Our fellows remain our lifelong colleagues.

I hope that the information on this website provides you with a helpful overview of our training program, details about our current curriculum and objectives for our fellows, the application process, and an appreciation of the many opportunities for professional and personal growth here at Westchester Medical Center. As you consider your choice of Cardiology Fellowship programs, we hope that your individual goals and priorities will find a good fit here at Westchester. As our fellows will tell you, I am always available to them, so if you have any questions about our program please feel free to contact me at any time.

Sincerely,

Howard A. Cooper, MD
Fellowship Program Director, Cardiovascular Disease Training Program
Chief of Clinical Cardiology, Westchester Medical Center
Professor of Medicine, New York Medical College
howard.cooper@wmchealth.org

Message from the Director of the Department of Cardiology at Westchester Medical Center

Program Overview and Highlights

Program Mission and Aims

Mission:

The mission of the Westchester Medical Center Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Training Program is to provide our trainees with the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to enter the academic practice of cardiology, in order to serve the local, regional, and national community with cutting-edge but patient-centered care, as well as to push forward the boundaries of such care through clinical and translational research.

Aims:

Our program aims to provide a broad exposure to acute and chronic cardiovascular diseases, emphasizing accurate ambulatory and bedside clinical diagnosis, appropriate use of diagnostic studies, and integration of all data into a well-communicated consultation, with sensitivity to the unique features of each individual patient. Active participation in research projects provides the fellows with further experience in critical thinking and in evaluating the cardiology literature. The knowledge, skills, and experience realized by this broad training are essential to providing a solid foundation in clinical cardiovascular medicine before trainees focus on more specialized areas, which, for some, may become the dominant feature of professional activity. In addition to providing a broad clinical background with emphasis on pathophysiology, therapeutics, and prevention, our program also highlights the humanistic, moral, and ethical aspects of medicine.

Program History

The fellowship program in Cardiovascular Disease began in July 1980, and since then has steadily expanded in parallel with the degree and complexity of cardiology services offered at Westchester Medical Center. After 40 years of growth, the program is ACGME-accredited for 22 fellowship positions, with 18 general Cardiology fellows, one Interventional Cardiology fellow, two Electrophysiology fellows, and one Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology fellow.

The Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program combines comprehensive clinical training with ample research opportunities, allowing fellows to develop the skills needed for success in both clinical and academic cardiology. The program is structured to allow each fellow to tailor their experiences to their interests by participating in the vast array of cardiology services offered at WMC.

All training takes place at Westchester Medical Center, part of the 652-bed Valhalla campus of the WMCHealth Network, where patients receive tertiary and quaternary care. WMCHealth is dedicated to providing comprehensive cardiovascular care to the 2.4 million residents of the Hudson Valley.

Program Highlights

A few of the many highlights of our program include:

• The Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Program, led by internationally renowned Srihari Naidu, MD, is recognized as a National Center of Excellence for providing comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and accessible care for patients with HCM from all across the United States and around the world. Dr. Naidu and his team perform more alcohol septal ablation procedures than any other program in the nation, and our surgical colleagues are among the handful nationwide who are experts at septal myectomy.
• We are proud of consistently being one of the highest volume Heart Transplant centers in New York State, having transplanted over 375 patients since the inception of our program. In 2022 alone, we performed 39 heart and heart-kidney transplants. Our ECMO and LVAD programs are extremely active, as well.
• We are also one of the few cardiology fellowships in the country to provide specialized inpatient and outpatient care for patients with Pulmonary Hypertension. Our comprehensive program, led by Gregg Lanier, MD, unites all of our advanced resources for the management of this complex and challenging patient population.
• Our Interventional and Structural Heart Disease teams work in brand new cath labs and a state-of-the-art hybrid OR. This highly skilled group performs complex PCI, TAVR, Mitraclip, left atrial appendage occlusion, and PFO/ASD closure using a well-established Heart Team approach.
• WMC utilizes three cutting-edge cardiac MRI suites under the supervision of Anthon Fuisz, MD. Under his pioneering leadership, advanced MRI examinations have become a routine part of care for cardiology patients at WMC. We also have two nuclear cardiology labs under the supervision of Diwakar Jain, MD, one of the cofounders of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC). These labs perform a wide array of perfusion and viability imaging (including PET imaging), as well as specialized amyloid studies. At WMC, cardiac imaging is overseen in its entirety by the Department of Cardiology.
• Our Electrophysiology program performs every conceivable EP procedure, including those available at few other institutions, such as complex VT ablation (including epicardial and Impella-supported); high-risk laser lead extraction; leadless pacemakers, LBBB-area pacing, and subcutaneous ICDs.
• With a degree of collaboration and collegiality seen at few other institutions, our cardiologists work extremely closely with our team of seven cardiothoracic surgeons at multiple levels of patient care. Our fellows are able to have open discussions about patient management with even the most senior surgeons, and are welcome in the OR at any time. The surgeons also participate in our weekly Cath/CTS and Transplant Conferences, offering unique insights into patient care.    
• Cardiology fellows are at the forefront of all general and specialized cardiology services provided at Westchester Medical Center. The fellows are intimately involved in the delivery of these services to patients seeking cardiac care at WMC, often under the tutelage of renowned experts in the field. The strength of the program lies in its ability to expose its fellows to a wide variety of cardiac pathology using the latest procedural and imaging techniques.

Please view our additional program materials below:

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy	Pulmonary Hypertension	Cardio-Oncology
Heart Failure	Valvular Heart Disease

Program Curriculum and Schedule

Curriculum

Our curriculum offers our fellows immense flexibility, with a total of six months of elective time (one month in the second year, and five months in the third year). Fellows have the opportunity to reach COCATS Level 2 in several disciplines during their three-year training program.

Electives

Can comprise any of the core rotations. Other options include Peripheral Vascular Disease / Imaging, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, Interventional Heart Failure, Congenital Heart Disease, Cardiac CT, Cardiothoracic Surgery/Anesthesia, Cardiac MRI or Research.

Outpatient Cardiology

The outpatient continuity practice is a key component of the education of our cardiology fellows. Fellows spend one half-day per week caring for a panel of outpatients that they will follow throughout their fellowship training. The fellows see patients under the supervision of an attending cardiologist, in the same world-class private office facility and within the same practice structure as the attending cardiologists. One-on-one mentoring in a superb environment allows our fellows to develop the skills they will need to practice outstanding patient-centered outpatient cardiology.

Vacation

Each fellow is allotted four weeks of vacation and four personal days during each year of training.

On-Call

Given the high volume of complex and challenging patients presenting to WMC, the fellows elected to replace 24-hour call with a night float system several years ago. First and second year fellows work overnight in two-week blocks, six nights per week, with a total of nine weeks of night float per fellow throughout the course of their training. Saturday nights are covered by a traditional 24-hour call (the on-call fellow has Sunday off). Fellows average 10 Saturday calls over the course of their three years in a very front-loaded schedule. Our newly renovated fellows lounge – with a large common area, individual lockers, and multiple workstations – contains a private call room and bathroom for use by the on-call fellow.

At all times, cardiology faculty members in every subspecialty are available for phone or in-person support.

Research Opportunities

All fellows are expected to formulate and complete at least one research project during the three-year fellowship, supervised by a faculty member of their choice. Formal submission and presentation of the fellow's work in a format suitable for publication is required. Travel is supported for fellows to present their work at regional and national meetings. The Senior Research Mentor for our cardiology fellows is Wilbert Aronow, MD, one of the most widely respected and prolific clinical researchers in the world with more than 2,500 publications, 1,200 abstracts, 200 book chapters, and 20 books. Under his tutelage, our fellows have had tremendous success in the research arena, with presentations at all major national and international venues. In addition, every cardiology fellow in the past 20 years has authored at least 1 PubMed indexed publication during their training, with some fellows publishing more than 50 papers during their tenure here.

Sample Rotation Schedule

 

 

 

Conferences

Current Fellows

Third Year Fellows:

Ameesh Isath, MD Residency: Mount Sinai – Morningside, NY	Arjun Kanwal, MD Residency: MedStar Health, MD	Uzair Mahmood, MD (Chief Fellow) Residency: University of Kansas, KS
Dikshya Sharma, MD Residency: Maimonides Medical Center, NY (Chief Resident)	Eric Sun, MD Residency: Montefiore Medical Center, NY	David Weininger, MD Residency: Mount Sinai - Morningside, NY (Chief Resident)

 

Second Year Fellows:

Mahmoud Ahmed, MBBCh Residency: University of Texas at San Antonio, TX	Sameer Bahl, MD Residency: University of California San Francisco at Fresno, CA	Subrat Das, MBBS Residency: Mount Sinai - Morningside/West, NY
Yeraz Khachatoorian, MD, MPH Residency: Mount Sinai - Morningside/West, NY	Shazli Khan, MD Residency: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, PA	Tanya Sharma, MBBS Residency: University of Arkansas, AR

First Year Fellows:

Nathaniel Abittan, MD
Residency: Jacobi Medical Center, NY

Swati Chand, MBBS
Residency: Rochester General Hospital, NY

Liana Michaud, DO
Residency: Westchester Medical Center, NY

Yasser Radwan, MBBCh
Residency: Michigan State University – Sparrow Hospital, MI

Avisha Shah, MD
Residency: Westchester Medical Center, NY

Damien Smith, MBBS
Residency: Medstar Health - Georgetown/Washington Hospital Center, MD

Program Alumni

Class of 2023

Atul Bali, MD (Chief Fellow)
Interventional Cardiology Fellowship 
Hofstra/Northwell at Lenox Hill Hospital, NY

Dhrubajyoti Bandyopadhyay, MD
Advanced Cardiac Imaging Fellowship 
Massachusetts General Hospital, MA

Akshay Goel, MD
Private Practice
Evanstown, IN

Aaqib Malik, MD MPH
Interventional Cardiology Fellowship 
Westchester Medical Center, NY

Wojciech Rzechorzek, MD
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology 
Columbia University Medical Center, NY

Ravi Shah, MD
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology 
Columbia University Medical Center, NY

Class of 2022

Ahmed Abu-Haniyeh, MD
Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
NYU Langone Hospital - Long Island, NY

Ahmed Hassanin, MD, MPH
Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
University of Arkansas Medical Center, AR

Risheek Kaul, MD (Chief Fellow)
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology
NYU Langone Health, NY

Amanda Lloji, MD
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology
Weill Cornell Medical Center, NY

Parija Sharedalal, MD
Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
North Shore University Hospital & Long Island Jewish Medical Center, NY

Jayakumar Sreenivasan, MD
Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
Yale - New Haven Medical Center, CT

Class of 2021

Syed Adeel Ahsan, MD (Chief Fellow)
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship
Houston Methodist Hospital, TX

Ethan Hoch, MD
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship
Westchester Medical Center, NY

Juan Carlos Ruiz Diaz, MD
Private Practice
Poplar Bluff, Missouri

James Sweeney, MD
Private Practice
Eatontown, New Jersey

Srikanth Yandrapalli, MD
Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
Massachusetts General Hospital, MA
Structural Heart Fellowship, Brown University, RI

Syed Zaid, MD
Interventional Cardiology / Structural Hearth Fellowship
Houston Methodist Hospital, TX

Class of 2020

Jasjit Bhinder, MD
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship
Yale - New Haven Medical Center, CT

Syed Abbas Haidry, MD
Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
Westchester Medical Center, NY
Structural Heart Fellowship
Yale - New Haven Medical Center, CT

Nitin Kabra, MD (Chief Fellow)
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship
University of California, San Diego

Mohammad Karim, MD
Private Practice
Erie, PA

Pratik Mondal, MD
Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
SUNY Downstate Medical Center, NY

Amer Sayed, MD
Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
University of Cincinnati Medical Center, OH

Class of 2019

Prakash Harikrishnan, MD
Cardiology Faculty
Augusta University Medical Center, GA

Mohammed Hasan Khan, MD
Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
Westchester Medical Center, NY

Anna Koulova, MD
Private Practice, CT

Behram Mody, MD
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship
University of California, San Diego

Yogita Rochlani, MD (Chief Fellow)
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship
Montefiore Medical Center, NY

Faculty

The Department of Cardiology consists of 24 full-time faculty members, representing the full spectrum of cardiology endeavors. Many of our faculty members are nationally and internationally recognized experts in their fields; are prominent leaders in specialty organizations; are respected researchers and journal editors; and are sought-after scientific speakers and consultants. The Department prides itself on its many academic accomplishments, including cutting-edge clinical and translational research. At any given time, faculty members are mentoring fellows in clinical trials, big data analysis, and even large animal research. Our faculty are editors of several leading textbooks that are worldwide standards and have been authors of national and international guidelines. Finally, Westchester Medical Center is the editorial site for the publication of the well-respected journal Cardiology in Review.

First and foremost, however, all of our faculty members are superb clinician educators, dedicated to passing on their knowledge to the next generation of cardiologists. In an era of fractured medicine, our Department of Cardiology stands out in that more than 95% of cardiology patients at Westchester Medical Center are under the care of our full-time faculty. For the fellows, this means that nearly all of the clinical volume is “teaching” volume, with bedside education coming from faculty members with whom they have an established bond of mutual respect and trust.

Program Leadership

Julio A. Panza, MD – Director, Department of Cardiology

Howard A. Cooper, MD – Program Director, Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship

Pragya Ranjan, MD – Associate Program Director, Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship

Sei Iwai, MD – Program Director, Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship

Hasan Ahmad, MD – Program Director, Interventional Cardiology Fellowship

Gregg Lanier, MD – Program Director, Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology Fellowship

How to Apply

We sincerely welcome your interest in the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Training Program of Westchester Medical Center/New York Medical College. Here, we emphasize a strong academic foundation in order to produce outstanding cardiologists in both academic and clinical settings throughout the United States.

After being carefully selected, each fellow is intensively trained in an environment that combines rigorous academic and clinical training with the one-on-one direction and collegiality of a dedicated, full-time faculty. Our goal is to train cardiologists who can provide exceptional leadership and compassionate care in a rapidly changing field.

We offer a robust three-year training program in Cardiovascular Disease, as well as the opportunity to pursue advanced fellowships in Interventional Cardiology (one year, one fellow), Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology (one year, one fellow), and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology (two years, one fellow/year).

Our trainees rotate through the standard cardiology core curriculum, plus significant elective and research time during the second and third years. We seek applicants with exceptional clinical and teaching skills as well as the ability to learn in a fast-paced environment.

Please access the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database (FREIDA) for more information on our program.
View our program listing on FREIDA.

Applications

Applications should be submitted through the Electronic Residency Application System (ERAS), which can be accessed using the following link: https://apps.aamc.org/myeras. Applications may be submitted starting July 5, 2023.

Applicants must have completed a residency in Internal Medicine by June 2024.

Please note that our program requires a minimum of three letters of recommendation, including one from the Internal Medicine Residency Program Director.

Interviews

Fellowship programs may begin reviewing applications in ERAS on July 19, 2023. Our program will notify applicants through ERAS as to whether they have been selected for an interview.

Interviews will take place in September/October, 2023, and applicants will be provided with detailed information regarding the logistics of the interview days.

Match

The program participates in the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). Our NRMP program code is: 2157141F0.

The deadline for submitting Rank Order Lists is November 15, 2023, and Match Day is November 29, 2023.

Visa Sponsorship

Westchester Medical Center will sponsor J-1 visas. Sponsorship of H1-B visas will be considered on a case-by-case basis for the most highly qualified applicants and only for those that can secure a visa for the entire three-year program length.

Contact Us

Tracy Curtiss
Academic Coordinator
Department of Cardiology
Westchester Medical Center
100 Woods Road
Macy Pavilion, Suite 100
Valhalla, NY 10595
914.493.6608
Tracy.Curtiss@wmchealth.org

Follow us on Twitter @WMCCardsFellows