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
[email protected]
Message from the Director of the Department of Cardiology at Westchester Medical Center
Program Overview
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 45 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 Curriculum and Schedule
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.
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.
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.
Current Fellows
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Imran Aziz – C.M.H. Lahore Medical College
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Elie Flatow – Touro College of Osteopathic Medici
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Ryan Mahoney – Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
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Chirag Mehta – Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
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Kateryna Strubchevska – O.O. Bogomolets National Medical University
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Manuel Urina Jassir – Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Bogota Facultad de Medicina
- Amro Aglan, MBBCh – Lahey Hospital, MA
- Haris Patail, MD – University of Connecticut, CT
- Jay Patel, DO – Westchester Medical Center, NY
- Juhi Ramchandani, MD – Indiana University, IN
- Chirag Shah, MD – Indiana University, IN
- Vishnu Venkatesh, MD – University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX
- Nathaniel Abittan, MD – Jacobi Medical Center, NY
- Swati Chand, MBBS – Rochester General Hospital, NY
- Liana Michaud, DO – Westchester Medical Center, NY
- Yasser Radwan, MBBCh – Michigan State University – Sparrow Hospital, MI
- Avisha Shah, MD – Westchester Medical Center, NY
- Damien Smith, MBBS – Medstar Health – Georgetown/Washington Hospital Center, MD
Program Alumni
- Mahmoud Ahmed, MBBCh – Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship William Beaumont Hospital, MI
- Sameer Bahl, MD – Attending Physician Fresno VA Medical Center, CA
- Subrat Das, MBBS – Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship Westchester Medical Center, NY
- Yeraz Khachatoorian, MD – MPH Advanced Imaging and Cardio-Oncology Fellowship Yale New Haven Hospital, CT
- Shazli Khan, MD – Advance Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship Columbia University Medical Center, NY
- Tanya Sharma MBBS – (Chief Fellow) Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Lenox Hill Hospital, NY
- Ameesh Isath, MD – Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship Brigham and Women’s Hospital, MA
- Arjun Kanwal, MD – Private Practice Falls Church, VA
- Uzair Mahmood, MD – (Chief Fellow) Critical Care Cardiology Fellowship Stanford University Medical Center, CA
- Dikshya Sharma, MD – Private Practice Louisiana
- Eric Sun, MD – Private Practice Purchase, NY
- David Weininger Cohen, MD – Faculty University of Miami, Miami FL
- 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
- 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
- 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 Heart Fellowship Houston Methodist Hospital, TX
- 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
Our Clinical Locations
Westchester Medical Center
Westchester Medical Center shares its leafy campus with New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY, approximately 20 miles north of New York City. It is a Level 1 Trauma and Burn Center and a major hub for specialized care referrals. Here, we take care of patients from a very large catchment area stretching from the northern border of New York City to the Catskill Mountains.
WMC has a pediatric hospital (Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital) with eight dedicated pediatric operating rooms as well as many other non-operating room anesthetizing sites, including MRI, radiation and nuclear medicine, and endoscopy. The Ambulatory Care Pavilion, which opened in July 2019, added many anesthetizing locations, both OR and Non-OR.
Construction is underway on the 128-bed state-of-the-art WMC Critical Care Tower, a $220 million project that when completed will span 162,000 square feet over five floors. Our caseload includes a full profile of cardiac, interventional pulmonary and thoracic, complex orthopedic, neurosurgical and solid organ transplant interventions, to name the busiest services. We have a large heart failure and ECMO referral program. Trauma orthopedics and surgery provide our residents a great variety of “open” cases. Residents participate in minimally invasive and robotic interventions in gynecologic-oncology, urology, colorectal, endocrine and thoracic surgery, as well as complex cardiac and neurological endovascular interventions, both pediatric and adult. The Acute and Chronic Pain Management care rotations cover both the pediatric and adult inpatients and outpatients, including complex consultations for patients in the Burn ICU.