Cardiology Fellow Research Training Pathways

As the major academic medical center in Arizona, the University of Arizona incorporates research as an integral component of modern cardiovascular training. Depending on the fellow’s interest, multiple avenues of investigation can be pursued, ranging from clinical and population-based studies to bench research in NIH-funded laboratories. In addition to a minimum protected research time of three months provided to all fellows, we have developed individualized, funded research options for highly motivated fellows interested in academic careers.

Full year of dedicated research training:
Fellows may pursue an additional year of dedicated research, under the mentorship of one of our many basic research or physician-scientist faculty. The timing of the research year is flexible and can occur at any point during the training program, for a total of four years.
 
Jeffrey Tran, MD, began his Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship training in July 2020 and will be mentored by Dr. Nirav Merchant for an NIH-T32 funded research year to begin in July 2021. He Jeff Tran, MD, is a cardiovascular disease fellow pursuing the research training pathway at University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center recently spoke with Dr. Julia Indik about his research and career goals. His research will focus on development a data management system to improve patient data extraction for clinical research. He plans to combine his research and clinical careers and has a particular interest in structural heart disease. "The T32 setting and faculty support have set me up for success," said Dr. Tran.

Watch Drs. Tran and Indik Discuss the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship and research pathway.

Keng Pineda, MD, PhD, a 2018 Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship Graduate, continued to work as a clinical and research fellow with Jil Tardiff, MD, PhD J.R. Exequiel "Keng" Pineda, MD, PhD, an alumni of cardiovascular disease, research training pathway and interventional cardiology fellowships at University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center before starting his Interventional Cardiology fellowship . They began developing novel analytical approaches to computational modeling of structure and dynamics of the cardiac thin filament, a basis for designing new small molecule-based therapeutics for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Dr. Pineda's research was awarded first place at the Arizona Chapter of the American College of Cardiology Annual Meeting. Dr. Pineda joined as faculty in July 2020.

 Watch Drs. Pineda and Indik discuss the research fellowship. 

 

 

Enhanced third year research training
Fellows who wish to have an enhanced research experience may seek to employ further elective time as research. This can achieve up to an additional six months of research time, if desired.
 
  • Imo Ebong, MD, a 2018 Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship Graduate, worked with Dr. Jennifer Cook, in investigating relationships between menopause and heart failure.

Our goal is to individualize your research experience.
Please contact us if you wish to discuss research options in more detail.