Facilities and Resources
There are three acute care hospitals in Calgary, all of which include a cardiology ward and Coronary Care Unit. The majority of training takes place at the Foothills Medical Centre, which is located in the Northwest sector of the city and is adjacent to the medical school and the Health Sciences Library. The recently completed Health Research Innovation Center (HRIC) provides close proximity to state-of-the-art research facilities including wet and dry labs. The 5 major research institutes are housed in this building which promotes a multidisciplinary approach to health care.
Trainees also complete a number of core rotations at the Peter Lougheed Centre. This site offers an excellent ward/CCU experience. This centre recently underwent extensive renovations and newly designed cardiology inpatient facilities were opened in 2010. The echocardiography laboratory was reconfigured and has been incorporated into the newly designed space adjacent to the inpatient wards. This site offers an excellent educational experience for inpatient rotations, echocardiography training, and specialized outpatient clinics focusing on Adult Congenital Heart Disease and Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.
Research opportunities for trainees are extensive. Residents entering the program are assigned a research mentor whose function is to provide support and guidance as the trainee develops a focus of investigation. The APPROACH (Alberta Project for Outcome Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease) data-base which is a Calgary initiative first developed in 1995 facilitates clinical outcomes research. More than 150,000 patients are now registered in this data-base which evaluates health, economic and quality of life. See AHFMR Research news
Participation in already-established projects is welcomed. Residents are also encouraged to initiate smaller projects which can be completed in a 3 year time-frame. Trainees are expected to participate in the research competition at ACC Lake Louise beginning in the second year of cardiology training
City-wide Resources
The Department of Cardiac Sciences provides clinical services to the populations of southern Alberta and selected regions of western Saskatchewan and eastern British Columbia. Staff includes 55 adult cardiologists, 6 cardiac surgeons and 2 dedicated device surgeons. There is a close working relationship with the 7 intensivists who attend in the CVICU as well as 8 cardiovascular anaesthetists.
The Foothills Medical Center is a quaternary care referral center for Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery. It currently operates approximately 1,000 beds. It is physically attached to the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, the Health Research Innovation Centre and the Undergraduate Medical School. The cardiac facilities include:
- A 22 bed Cardiac Intensive Care Unit with capabilities for both mechanical ventilation and intra-aortic balloon pump support and mechanical circulatory support.
- Two cardiology wards with a total of 68 beds, many of which are monitored.
- An eight bed post PCI unit dedicated to patients following interventional procedures.
- A dedicated 12 bed cardiac surgery intensive care unit.
- Four cardiac catheterization laboratories with computerized systems for data acquisition, analysis and reporting.
- An electrophysiology laboratory where all catheter-based procedures are performed. This facility was recently renovated and now includes biplane cardiovascular system and the EP Navigator 3D System.
- A dedicated operating room for device surgery.
- 2 operating rooms for cardiac surgery.
- An echocardiography laboratory equipped for routine transthoracic echo-Doppler studies, as well as transesophageal examinations, dobutamine stress studies, pericardiocentesis, myocardial biopsies, and re-synchronization studies.
- A Nuclear Cardiology Laboratory which includes two cameras with SPECT capability.
- Dedicated CT angiography clinical and research program.
- Stephenson Cardiac MRI facility
- An exercise laboratory with three computerized treadmills.
- ECG laboratory with Holter monitoring and Event Recording.
- An electrophysiology center including pacemaker clinic, ICD and biventricular pacing program.
- An excellent cardiac rehabilitation program (CWIC-Cardiac Wellness Institute of Calgary) based at the newly renovated Talisman Center
Current Volumes
Date for 2009 are as follows:
| Procedure/clinical service | Volume |
|---|---|
| In-patient discharges | 15,835 |
| In-patient consultations | 5,393 |
| ECG interpretation | 175,155 |
| Exercise Stress Tests | 5,285 |
| Holter Monitor interpretation | 10,489 |
| Echocardiographic studies | 15,177 |
| Nuclear studies | 2,395 |
| Cardiac Catheterization | 6,012 |
| Percutaneous Coronary Interventions | 2,283 |
| Pacemaker implantation | 699 |
| ICD implantations | 301 |
| Cardiac surgical procedures | 1,021 |
| Cardiac MRI examinations | 1,995 |
Summary of Training Facilities
- Foothills Medical Centre
- Peter Lougheed Centre
- Rockyview General Hospital
- Alberta Children's Hospital
- Cardiac Wellness Program (cardiac rehabilitation) at the Talisman Centre
- High River Hospital (rural cardiology)
- University of Calgary Medical clinic (for ambulatory cardiology clinics)
