Electrophysiology Education
Education and research are pillars of the Aurora Cardiovascular Services clinical cardiac electrophysiology (EP) program. The program’s commitment to education dates back more than 20 years when only the second generation of electrophysiologists was being trained at only a few locations throughout the world. One of them was Sinai Samaritan Hospital, now Aurora Sinai Medical Center, which accepted its first two trainees in 1987 under the direct mentorship of Masood Akhtar, MD.
Since 1995, the cardiac electrophysiology fellowship program has been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and has trained more than 70 electrophysiologists practicing throughout the United States, South America, the Far and Middle East and Europe. The fellowship program has grown over the past two decades and now accepts three fellows/trainees every year into a two-year comprehensive and rigorous electrophysiology training program.
Caregiver and patient education is another important focus of our educational offerings and activities in the form of conferences for physicians, nurses and patients.
Our annual symposium, the AF/VT/VF Summit, is attended by local and international physicians alike and hosts a preeminent faculty of world-class clinical electrophysiologists and basic science researchers who comprise an unsurpassed roster of authorities in the field of EP. The faculty present current data, findings and discoveries pertaining to the most important cardiac arrhythmias—atrial fibrillation (AF), ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF). Aurora physicians actively participate in this meeting and continue to provide expert cardiac electrophysiology care to the patients of Milwaukee, the state of Wisconsin and from all of over the United States, as well as the world.
An equally important dimension of our educational priorities is to continue to inform and educate our local nonphysician caregivers who create an integral network and are the foundation to care delivery, both within and outside the Aurora system. The “Care for Patients with Arrhythmias” nursing conference is an especially important and popular conference that aims to frame cardiac electrophysiology disease presentation, diagnosis and treatment in the context of nursing knowledge, priorities and directives to enhance care delivery and the overall patient experience.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, educating our patients is a vital priority for Aurora Cardiovascular Services and the clinical cardiac electrophysiology service staff. Our physicians and nurses have created a program called Patient Education Day that considers the disease process from the patient perspective and attempts to remove much of the mystery that veils these conditions through a conference open to our patients and the public. At the conference, our team describes electrophysiology conditions in a simplified manner, facilitated by small round-table breakout sessions where patients can interact directly with caregivers in a one-on-one, question-answer forum. We feel these efforts promote increased patient understanding and involvement and open communication across the “great divide” that often poses barriers between patients and their caregivers—ultimately improving care delivery across the Aurora system.
As important as education is to furthering electrophysiology care, such expertise would be significantly compromised were it not for a continued commitment to research. The electrophysiology staff actively participates in clinical research in all the most important areas of clinical cardiac electrophysiology care—from drug trials to investigational devices and tools to new approaches to arrhythmia treatment. The group has authored nearly 300 original manuscripts, reviews, book chapters and books, and presented more than 250 additional research abstracts.
This research effort is advanced by all members of the electrophysiology staff and this underpinning is extended to the fellowship level where all trainees are required to participate in research with a high level of involvement that produces important and relevant clinical data worthy of publication. Our physicians employ the newest technologies—from robotics to virtual reality—to advance the frontier of electrophysiology care further and bring it home to our community, here at Aurora Health Care.