Mission
Curriculum
Faculty
Facilities
Contact Info
Mission
The mission of Cardiovascular Imaging training at UVa is to be at the leading edge of new technology but with an abiding interest in using new technology to understand mechanisms of heart disease, physiology, and pathophysiology. Specific goals are:
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to provide competence in technical aspects of imaging
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to provide competence in cardiac physiology and pathophysiology
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and to develop and study innovative methods of imaging. TOP
Fellowship Curriculum
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Each fellow spends a minimum of 2 years in the training program. In certain cases the training will be 3 years. Fellows either select in-depth training in one modality or training in more than one modality. Fellows have the ability to work either in the experimental or clinical imaging laboratory, or both.
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All MDs working in the clinical imaging laboratories should be able to administer contrast agents or drugs, or both. Foreign MDs participating in clinical studies must have passed the credentialing requirements of Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. Fellows in the clinical laboratories also participate in obtaining informed consent for IRB approved clinical studies.
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All MDs who desire high level expertise in one or more modalities of clinical imaging need to perform enough examinations in order to qualify as a director of clinical and research laboratories at their institutions. Fellows finishing two years of this program should attain the requirements for level III CO-CATS; with this experience, they should be able to direct an imaging laboratory.
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In addition to the modality-specific training that they will acquire from their mentors (supervisors), each fellow has formal training in biostatistics from the Department of Health Evaluation Research. They also undergo intensive methodologic training by PhDs in the various modalities. In this regard, they have one-to-one interactions with Denny Watson in nuclear physics; with Fred Epstein, in the physics of MRI; with Sasha Klibanov, in methods of labeling ligands for targeted imaging.
Weekly sessions are held on physiology and pathophysiology, role of imaging in various disease processes, management of patients based on imaging parameters, and outcomes analysis. A bi-monthly laboratory meeting is held to present work in progress and receive feedback. -
Each fellow is evaluated by faculty in the Cardiovascular Imaging Training Program who have had direct contact with the fellow. Counseling/guidance/feedback are provided to each fellow twice a year during a one-on-one meeting with the fellow's supervisor and director of the program . Areas of weakness are identified and approaches to address these weaknesses are suggested at these evaluation meetings. Fellows also evaluate the program in general and the supervisor and other mentors in particular.
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At the end of the training, the principal mentor (supervisor) and the director of the training program will certify that the requirements at a particular level of skills have been met. The levels of skills needed, are determined a priori for each individual fellow depending on their training needs as well as the skills they have already obtained. A certificate of completion of fellowship training in Cardiovascular Imaging is awarded to each fellow at the end of the training period. TOP
Faculty and Staff
The Physician-Scientist Faculty consists of professionals from various areas within the University of Virginia Health systems. Please click on the name(s) below for more information such as research descriptions and publications listed in pubmed. TOP
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434-924-5728 |
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| Jeffrey Holmes, MD | 434-243-6321 | jwh2t@Virginia.EDU |
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434-243-9495 |
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434-924-8510 |
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434-924-8649 |
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Cardiovascular |
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434-924-2134 |
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| Director of Cardiac Imaging Training Program |
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434-982-4270 |
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Co-Director of Cardiac |
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434-243-0736 |
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434-924-2765 |
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434-982-1414 |
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434-243-2784 |
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434-243-9773 |
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434-982-3366 |
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434-982-3366 |
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434-924-9416 |
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804-982-0211 |
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434-982-4270 |
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434-924-2060 |
Facilities/Resources
Laboratories: The laboratories are presently distinct for the multiple imaging modalities, but will be consolidated in the MR4 research building as of 2007. Presently, the nuclear and echocardiographic laboratories are housed in Cobb Hall. These laboratories include A) A newly renovated state-of-the-art 500 sq. ft. sterile operating room for surgery on the chronic canine model. This operating room is equipped with an ultrasound machine, a gamma camera and a fluoroscopy unit. B) A newly renovated 500 sq. ft. nonsterile operating room for acute canine experiments using ultrasound. C) A newly renovated 1,200 sq. ft. non-sterile operating room for nuclear imaging equipped with a 2-head gamma camera. D) A 300 sq. ft. microscopy laboratory. E) A 500 sq. ft. wet laboratory for chemistry, histology, and in-vitro studies. The cardiovascular MRI facilities include a dedicated research 1.5T Siemens Avanto scanner housed in the UVA Main Hospital for use with clinical and animal studies. A second research scanner, a 1.5T Siemens Sonata is housed in the MR4 research building. Two clinical 64-detector Siemens CT scanners will be available for use.
Clinical: Except for MRI and CT, all other clinical studies are performed in the Heart Center, which is on the 2nd floor of the University of Virginia Hospital. There are 3 nuclear cardiology suites, 6 echocardiographic examination rooms, as well as preparation and exercise/other stress rooms. All these facilities are adjoining the EKG and cardiac catheterization laboratories as well as the operating rooms. The MRI and CT facilities are one floor below and are state-of-the-art facilities. The pediatric cardiology laboratories are also in the Heart Center.
Animal: We have a fully certified vivarium in the basement of MR4 with a fully qualified staff. Animals for all experiments are transferred from there. A full-time vivarium employee takes care of the animals that are also examined by the study team.
Computer: Imaging processing PCs and advanced systems (Sun, Silicon Graphics, Siemens) that are used for automated data acquisition, data entry and analysis, graphics, word-processing, etc and administrative support are available in each major laboratory.
Office: All of the prospective mentors have offices associated with the imaging laboratories. The offices of the trainees will be associated with their principal mentor.
Ultrasound: There are 5 dedicated state-of-the-art systems available for imaging of small and large animals. These systems are from Philips (Sonos 5500), Acuson (Sequoia), ATL (HDI5000), Toshiba (PowerVision 700), and GE (Vivid 5). These systems are permanently lodged in the experimental laboratories. For clinical studies we have 3 systems dedicated to research: 2 Sonos 5500 (Philips) and 1 Sequoia (Acuson).
Nuclear Cardiology: A Siemens single head SPECT scanner is located in the experimental laboratory. This camera has been adapted to allow multi-pinhole imaging with high resolution and sensitivity. A second dedicated high resolution microSPECT camera system is also located in the experimental laboratory. The microSPECT camera has a 10cm field-of-view and is based on a solid-state detector consisting of a Hamamatsu position-sensitive photomultiplier tube bonded with a pixelated array of 1mm x 1mm square scintillator crystals. High resolution parallel hole and 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mm single pinhole aperatures are available. The current spatial resolution of the camera is approximately 1-1.5 mm. Three triple-head scanners are located in the clinical laboratory. Each has its own computer. In addition, all the quantitative analysis is performed off-line using custom-designed software.
MRI: Animal and clinical studies will be performed on the dedicated research 1.5T Siemens Avanto scanner housed in the UVA Main Hospital. This is an actively shielded super-conducting magnet (1 ppm homogeneity over a 50cm DSV, 60cm clear bore, 150 cm long); whole-body gradient system (45 mT/m peak gradient strength, 0.2ms minimum rise time from zero to full strength) with multiple coils and 32 independent receiver channels and complete cardiovascular software. A physiological monitoring and gating system (In Vivo Medical Systems, Orlando, FL) with ECG, blood pressure and pulse oximetry will be available in the MR suite and a Spectris (Medrad, Indianola PA) contrast power injector is available for use.
CT: Two 64-detector scanners (Siemens Sensation 64), will be available for clinical coronary angiography.
Microscopy: The microscopy laboratory has a state-of-the-art microscopy system Askioscp 2F (Zeiss) with multiple excitation/emission fluorescent filters, a high-resolution CCD video camera (C2400, Hammamatsu), a digital camera (Nikon), a photodiode coupled to a PC for microvascular velocity measurements, a videotimer, 3-plane micromanipulation systems, stereoscopic dissection microscopes, vibration-free tables, video recorders, dissection platforms, a superfusion apparatus, and microsurgical instruments.
Biochemistry and Pathology Laboratory: This laboratory has sonication equipment, lyophilizers, a particle electrozone sensing/counting apparatus, a Coulter counter, a UV spectrophotometer, a spectro-flurometer, a gas chromatograph, an evaporative light scattering detector, a fluorescent microplate reader, gradient HPLC and LPLCs, centrifuges, water baths, refrigerators, scales, gamma counter, and chemicals. There is also a histology station with several light and fluorescent microscopes.
Other Equipment: Blood gas analyzers, gamma well counters (for measurement of radiolabeled microspheres and tissue isotope activity), respirators, surgical equipment, infusion and withdrawal pumps, scales for tissue weight measurements, etc. We also have Oxyspot (Harvard Instruments) for measuring in-vivo oxygen tension in the beating heart, and a rotating viscometer (Cole Parmer). TOP
Contact Us
Thank you for visiting the Cardiac Imaging section of the Physician-Scientist Training Program's Website. Click on the application image to apply to our program or the brochure for brief overview of our program
Application Brochure
Please direct all questions/correspondences to:
The University of Virginia
Physician-Scientist Training Program
409 Lane Road, Bldg MR4 room 6010
Box 801394
Charlottesville, Virginia 22908
Attn: Tia D. Scott
or contact us via telephone, fax, or email:
Office (434) 982-3366:
Facsimile (434) 244-7576
PSTP@Virginia.edu
