Cardiac and Thoracic Imaging Fellowsip

Fellowship Programs: Cardiac and Thoracic Imaging Fellowship

HOW TO APPLY/FAQ APPLICATION

Cardiothoracic and Cardiac MRI Fellowship 

The University of Calgary’s Department of Radiology offers up to two, one-year fellowships in Cardiothoracic and one, one-year dedicated Cardiac MRI fellowship at the Stephenson Cardiovascular Imaging Centre. 

Cardiothoracic fellows are provided with dedicated pulmonary and cardiac training. The pulmonary imaging experience is part of a high-volume tertiary care chest referral centre. This includes chest CT performed for a wide variety of pulmonary pathologies including thoracic malignancies, infections, and interstitial lung disease. Opportunity for lung biopsy experience is available. Experience in cardiothoracic imaging will cover the acquisition, post-processing and interpretation of cardiac CT for a variety of indications, the most common of which is evaluation for coronary artery disease. Other types of studies are performed for pre and post surgical evaluation of the aorta, pre-transcatheter and minimally invasive valve repair work-up, adult congenital heart disease, post-thoracic aorta endovascular stent-graft repair follow-up, pulmonary vein ablation evaluation, and left atrial appendage occlusion device planning. At a minimum, trainees will have the opportunity to achieve Level 2 certification. Level 3 training will be dependent on the motivation of the individual. Post-processing is performed on TeraRecon Intuition, GE AW Server, and Circle CVI42. The specific nature of the cardiac component of this fellowship is variable depending on the needs of the trainee. For individuals who have had residency/post-graduate training in cardiac MRI we may offer combined training in cardiac CT and MRI during the one-year Cardiothoracic fellowship.

Cardiac MRI fellows will spend the majority of their experience in the Stephenson Cardiovascular Imaging Centre. This is a unique training environment where there is a high volume of clinical cardiac MRI cases performed with up to 3600 cases being performed between two dedicated 3T MRI scanners per year. Fellows will gain experience in a diverse array of cardiac MRI indications including cardiomyopathies, viability MRI, adult congenital heart disease, stress perfusion imaging, and valvular disease. Fellows will gain experience in advanced image processing and research is encouraged. (http://www.canscmr.ca/trainees.html)

Both Cardiothoracic and Cardiac MRI fellowships are based at the Foothills Medical Centre (FMC) with some exposure to South Health Campus (SHC). These sites are the main tertiary care referral sites for cardiac and pulmonary imaging for southern Alberta and southeastern British Columbia. FMC draws its patients from a population of more than 1.5 million people and performs a wide range of procedures, among them:

  • Cardiac CT and chest CT studies are performed on Siemens Force, GE Healthcare Revolution CT 256 and GE Discovery CT 750 High Definition scanners. 
  • Cardiac MRI exams are performed on two dedicated Siemens 3T MRI scanners (Prisma and Skyra) with 1.5 T access on a Siemens AvantoFit. 
  • Collaboration with clinical pulmonary and cardiac services include weekly pulmonary case rounds and tumour board, biweekly interstitial lung disease rounds, regular clinical-radiological-pathological correlation rounds, biweekly cardiac MRI case-review rounds/journal club, monthly multi-disciplinary thoracic aorta and aortopathy rounds, journal club, and research rounds, among others. 
  • Research is encouraged but not mandatory. Depending on the interest of the trainee, dedicated research time can be provided.  

Information and application

Applications for 2025-2026 fellowships are now closed. We will begin accepting applications for 2026-2027 fellowship positions on April 1, 2024.

Cardiothoraic Fellowship

For more about the Cardiothoracic Fellowship, e-mail radiology.fellowship@ucalgary.ca with attention to: Dr. Zachary Guenther, Program Director.

Cardiac MRI Fellowship

For more information about the Cardiac MRI Fellowship, e-mail radiology.fellowship@ucalgary.ca with attention to: Dr. Mike Bristow, Program Director.

Applications must be submitted through our on-line application form.