Testimonials - Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship
William Yang, MD
Class of 2023
"My co-fellows and faculty are amazing people who facilitate a productive and supportive learning environment. I could not ask for better colleagues and lifelong friends!"
Manoj Racherla, MD
Class of 2023
"Maryland provides one of the best clinical training experiences in the country. When you graduate, you will feel confident managing a vast array of pathology. I grew more as a clinician during the past 3 years than any other part of my training - and I'm grateful for every moment!"
Karan Desai, MD, MPH
Class of 2022
"You will leave cardiology fellowship at UMMS having seen every possible aspect of cardiology. The program is structured to give you one of the most comprehensive clinical training in the country."
June Park, MD, MA
Class of 2021
"Even as a first year you are encouraged to run rounds on the inpatient cardiology service and you have a lot of autonomy in the decision-making."
Conversation with a Featured Alumni
Brian Clark, MD
Chief Fellow, 2019
Current Location: General Noninvasive Cardiologist at the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, VA
How did training at Maryland’s program prepare you for your current career?
"Training at UMMC absolutely gave me the foundational skills I needed to do well in my current position as an Assistant Professor at an academic institution. The environment at UMMC is very supportive, but also encourages autonomy, which has helped me tremendously in becoming confident as an independent practitioner. Additionally, there was a heavy emphasis on teaching and practicing evidence-based medicine at UMMC. These skills I developed over my training have served me well in my role here as a non-invasive cardiologist in terms of teaching medical students, residents and fellows as well as in my clinical practice and administrative roles. Furthermore, I received amazing training in reading and performing echocardiograms as well as nuclear cardiac imaging studies as well. I was able to get board certification in these disciplines and feel confident and comfortable with teaching fellows how to read and perform these studies at my current institution."
On Individualized Training
"Working with experts in various disciplines in cardiology during training gave me an amazing understanding of all areas in this specialty, even if they were not going to be part of my primary practice. When I realized that my career would be in non-invasive cardiology I was able to modify my schedule during the latter half of my training to reflect my interests. This allowed me to spend more time in the echo and nuclear labs honing my reading skills, and in the procedural areas performing TEEs during structural interventional cases. I was also able to spend time in specialty outpatient clinics as well in order to gain more experience managing complicated hypertension, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension, advanced heart failure, and preventive cardiology patients."
Why UMMC?
"Having completed my internal medicine residency at UMMC and working as an advanced heart failure hospitalist at UMMC gave me reassurance that the training I would receive would be superb. Even as a resident I recognized that the complexity and variety in clinical training that I would receive would prepare me for my career in general cardiology anywhere in the country. Furthermore, the attendings and fellows were the perfect combination of intelligent, hardworking, welcoming and kind. Even though I interviewed at other great cardiology programs in the country, UMMC felt like the best environment for me to get the most out of my training experience."
On Friendships
"One of the best parts about my training experience was the close bonds that I developed with my attendings and the fellows in my class. The attendings and mentors that I had the privilege to work with were so humble, insightful, down to earth, approachable, and easy to talk to. We were able to talk about anything from cardiology to world news, and they were extremely supportive of me during each step of the way through training. I also had great relationships with my co-fellows, which made this difficult 3 years of training much more manageable. We joked around and supported each other in so many ways during training and we still keep in touch with each other on a regular basis, which is something I truly value beyond my time in the program."