Vascular Medicine Training Program - Letter to the Applicant

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine offers a vascular medicine training program for individuals who desire to be clinician-investigators in the field of vascular medicine.  This training program, funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, prepares trainees to become national leaders in vascular medicine as practitioners, clinical investigators, and educators.  This manual provides an overview to Northwestern’s vascular medicine training program. 

Northwestern’s vascular medicine training program provides three years of training and financial support for trainees, employing the National Institute of Health’s K12 mechanism.  The first year of the program will consist of clinical training in vascular medicine in both the inpatient and outpatient setting.  The second two years focus on the development of the trainee as a clinical investigator in vascular medicine.  Training during the first two years includes coursework necessary to obtain a Master’s of Science in Clinical Investigation at Northwestern University.

Clinical training prepares trainees for the inpatient and outpatient comprehensive care of the vascular medicine patient.  The clinical curriculum also prepares the trainee for the American Board of Vascular Medicine certification examination in Vascular Medicine. Our clinical curriculum is flexible to accommodate trainees with particular expertise, needs, and interests.  Clinical rotations include inpatient vascular medicine, stroke unit, hematology, the non-invasive vascular laboratory, vascular pathology, and a two-month ambulatory block of outpatient vascular medicine.  Trainees also have their own longitudinal vascular medicine clinic.     

Opportunities for clinical investigation in vascular medicine include epidemiology, functional outcomes, biomarkers, vascular imaging, clinical trials, and vascular biology.  Early in the training program, trainees select a primary and at least one secondary research mentor.  During the second and third years of the program, trainees will write research proposals for extramural funding under the guidance of their mentors and an assigned grant review subcommittee.
         
Northwestern’s vascular medicine training program provides opportunity for training by some of the leading experts in vascular medicine, vascular surgery, cardiovascular epidemiology, vascular imaging, and more.  We hope you will consider joining us if your career goals coincide with our program’s offerings.

Mary M. McDermott, MD
William Pearce, MD