We welcome international participants who wish to engage in one-on-one clinical and surgical observations, shadow staff involved in departmental administrative functions, and discover best practices and operational strengths of Cleveland Clinic.

Observational Opportunities

Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute

Catheter ablation for cardiac arrhythmias

Participants will observe the workflow of complex atrial or ventricular arrhythmia management, from assessment and scheduling of patients to observing cases of complex ablation procedures including SVT, atrial fibrillation, VT and epicardial VT ablations. Participants will also attend weekly electrophysiology conference where staff present the best EP cases of the week.

Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices

Participants will observe the workflow of CIED implantation, from assessment and scheduling of patients to observing cases of implantation or extraction of all devices. Devices include pacemakers, ICDs and biventricular pacemakers, defibrillators, leadless pacemakers and subcutaneous defibrillators. Participants will be exposed to device clinic and heart failure resynchronization clinic for non-responders to CRT.

Cardiac Resynchronization

Therapy and Heart Failure Clinic Participants will observe a novel care pathway approach for the management of patients receiving biventricular device for resynchronization therapy. The observers will shadow in a dedicated multidisciplinary CRT heart failure clinic, where an algorithmic approach is used to maximize patient outcomes and improve CRT device response rates.

Interventional Cardiology

  • Coronary Intervention
    Participants will observe advanced coronary interventions, such as rotational atherectomy, interventions with mechanical support and CTO interventions, as well as outpatient encounters and catheter lab procedures. Participants will also learn about the process of evaluation and decision making.
  • Structural Heart Intervention
    Participants will observe procedures such as TAVR, MitraClip, paravalvular leak closure, ASD and PFO closure, WATCHMAN device and more. They will observe outpatient encounters and catheter lab or hybrid operating room procedures. Participants will also learn about the process of evaluation and decision making.

Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation

Participants will observe how a comprehensive preventive cardiology program (cardiology, endocrinology, nutrition, exercise, psychiatry) and is set up and maintained and how a busy cardiac rehabilitation program is maintained. Participants will see how we monitor and maintain overall high quality programming for a complex patient population.

Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery

Participants will observe virtually every type of cardiac surgery including elective or emergency surgery for heart valve disease, aortic aneurysm, coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, heart failure, Marfan syndrome and other less common conditions; as well as surgical treatment of diseases of the lung and esophagus, including lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung failure, esophageal cancer, Barrett's esophagus, achalasia, thoracic outlet syndrome and hyperhidrosis.

Vascular Surgery

The program, which is observational in nature, is designed to reveal the best practices followed by our department in providing general care of vascular patients as well as the perioperative care of some of our most complex vascular patients.

Learn more about the Preceptorship Program, including how to apply.