Employment Type: Temporary Various
Remuneration: As per State Award
Hours Per Week: 38
Requisition ID: CAM28739
Where you'll be working
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
What you'll be doing
Sydney Local Health District is seeking a highly motivated Provisional Fellow to join the Structural Heart and Acute Heart Failure Programs at RPA Hospital in an exciting integrated combined Fellowship position.
The Structural Heart Program at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH) is NSW largest public hospital Structural Heart Program performing over 150 of the full spectrum of transcatheter valve interventions each year. RPAH is also a state referral centre for acute heart failure and mechanical circulatory support (MCS), manageing more than 60 MCS cases a year. Fellowship training is centred around the clinical diagnosis, investigation and management of adult patients with complex valvular heart disease and heart failure. Candidates can expect to develop a complete understanding of the indications and case selection for a full spectrum of transcatheter valve therapies and actively participate in patient screening, counsel, investigation and clinical inpatient and outpatient management as well as program audit activities. Such patients have co-existent heart failure (HFrEF or HFpEF) and so candidates will be trained to manage both chronic and acute heart failure in these patients, with the opportunity to participate in the diagnosis, investigation and management of non-valvular acute heart failure including cardiogenic shock and MCS.
Candidates are expected to have strong cardiology experience and ideally having completed Fellowship training in clinical cardiology or cardiothoracic surgery. Opportunities will exist in a modular fashion for suitable candidates to explore additional formal training and experience in structural and heart failure echocardiography, cross sectional imaging (e.g. cardiac MRI) and limited structural heart interventions to gain TAVI ACOR accreditation (if from an interventional background). Accommodation may be made to maintain pre-existing interventional or surgical skills where required. The structural and heart failure programs have an active and robust clinical trials and research arm and candidates will be required to engage in the programs research activities. Importantly, there is scope and desire to tailor the position to best reward a suitable candidates year of clinical study.
What you will be doing:
The RPA Hospital Structural Heart Fellowship program has been designed to further increase the skills and knowledge of candidates in clinical and research aspects of Structural Heart Disease and Acute Heart Failure management. Fellowship training is centred around the clinical diagnosis, investigation and management of adult patients with heart failure and valvular heart disease in liaison with allied specialties. Candidates can expect to develop a complete understanding of the indications and case selection for a full spectrum of transcatheter valve therapies and actively participate in patient screening, counsel, investigation and clinical inpatient and outpatient management as well as program audit activities. Opportunities will exist in a modular fashion for suitable candidates to explore additional experience in structural heart echocardiography, cross sectional imaging and limited structural heart interventions (to gain TAVI ACOR accreditation, if from an interventional or surgical background). In addition, candidates will be engaged as a Fellow in the Acute Heart Failure service, learning diagnostic biochemical, pathology and imaging techniques as well as the implementation of pharmacological and mechanical therapeutic modalities, coordinating morning rounds, and participating in acute/emergent MDT processes for case selection.
Objective of the Structural Heart and Acute Heart Failure Fellowship
1. Training in the assessment and medical management of patients with structural heart disease and/or acute heart failure presentations
2. Obtain further skills in structural heart imaging including transthoracic echocardiography, transoesophageal echocardiography (including interventional TOE) and CT cross sectional imaging
3. Obtain further understanding of clinical decision making and assessment with respect to acute heart failure (pharmacotherapy and mechanical circulatory support), and transcatheter heart valve procedures including transcatheter aortic valve implantation and TEER procedures etc.
4. Gain insight and experience into Acute Heart Failure and Structural Heart Disease clinical trials, research and publication.
5. Obtain experience in TAVI, TEER and MCS ECMO and Impella procedures (where pre-existing experience/competence in interventional cardiology procedures or cardiac surgery)
The Department of Cardiology and the Structural Heart Program and Acute Heart Failure Services at RPAH
Candidates will work under the auspices of the Department of Cardiology of RPAH. This Department offers comprehensive cardiology service delivery across all subspecialities including interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, cardiac imaging (echocardiography, CT, MRI etc), genetic heart disease, adult congenital heart disease, acute heart failure and mechanical circulatory support.
Established in 2009, the Structural Heart Program at RPAH is centred around a highly interdisciplinary Heart Team with close collaboration between Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Radiology, Geriatrics, Vascular surgery and other relevant sub-specialities. The program provides Heart Team assessment and management of often complex patients with Structural Heart Disease, particularly valvular heart disease. The Program includes a leading, high volume Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) service that is part of the NSW Health Statewide TAVI service. The program provides a comprehensive range of state-of-the-art transcatheter structural heart interventions including transcatheter mitral and tricuspid valve interventions. The Structural Heart Program has a strong commitment to fundamental, translational and clinical research and is one of very few such Programs to be supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). The Program is often involved in multiple significant clinical studies of novel approaches and device therapies for transcatheter treatment of valvular heart disease.
The Acute Heart Failure Service is part of the Statewide ECMO program and participant in the ESCAPE-CS cardiogenic shock trial. Operating as a multidisciplinary service incorporating Cardiology, Intensive Care, Cardiac Anaesthesia, and Cardiac Surgery services it constitutes half of the State ECMO retrieval program and has a robust internal MCS program as well. Lead by a core of cardiologists charged with identifying and supporting cardiogenic shock and severe heart failure states within the hospital its has grown in scope and prestige in recent years to be a fully fledged clinical program supporting high risk PCI and cardiac surgery, the NSW wide tertiary referral service and more recently a community based ECMO initiation trial. Led by leading cardiology researchers it has a strong reputation for research productivity and performance.
Where you will be working:
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH) is the principal teaching hospital of the University of Sydney. RPAH is also one of Australia's leading quaternary referral hospitals, providing an extensive range of diagnostic and treatment services. Its surgical specialities include cardiothoracic, obstetrics and gynaecology, surgical oncology, colorectal, hepatobiliary, vascular, neurosurgery, liver and kidney transplants.
What we can offer you:
- Supportive, collegiate and diverse work environment
- Ongoing professional development and career opportunities
- Salary packaging and fitness passport for eligible staff including utilizing SLHD gym facilities
- Wellbeing, advocacy, mentorship and support opportunities exclusively for medical staff through SLHDs multifaceted workplace program MDOK.
Sydney Local Health District's vision incorporates NSW Health Core Values and a commitment to equity, health improvement, timeliness and efficiency, recognising that evidence-based service delivery requires highly skilled and valued staff supported by research, education and state-of-the-art technologies.
Our strategic priority under this vision is our commitme nt to excellence in Patient and Family Centre Care. Staff are supported to ensure patients, their families and carers are considered as partners in care to achieve optimal patient outcomes and best possible healthcare experience.
