Announcing a new EAPCI fellowship programme for 2017

Announcing a new EAPCI fellowship programme for 2017

Martine Gilard, Chair of the EAPCI Fellowship Committee

Gabor G. Toth, Chair of the EAPCI New Initiatives for Young Interventionalists Committee

Thanks to a joint effort of the New Initiatives For Young Interventionists Committee and the Fellowship Committee of the EAPCI, we are pleased to announce a novel grant platform to be launched in 2017, called the μFellowship programme.

This programme will supplement our regular long-term fellowships, nomen est omen, offering a short but intensive stay in one of the carefully selected centres of excellence in a given technology such as intracoronary imaging, fractional flow reserve, bifurcation PCI, CTO procedures, transcatheter aortic valve replacement, mitral valve interventions or left atrial appendage closure, etc. The programme is dedicated specifically to young interventionists who are at the early stages of their learning curve in one of the targeted procedures.

The goal of the μFellowship is to boost the candidates’ exposure to the selected procedure over a period of a few weeks. Even if this will be mainly observational, it will provide a good kick-start to the programme in their home institution. This latter possibility is even supported – as an option – with a few days visit by a proctor, also covered by the grant. There is no need to add that the networking potential of this programme is massive.

An ideal candidate is defined as being less than 45 years old, having little or no experience with the selected technology and having limited training opportunities in their home institution. Of course, candidates must have the realistic goal of continuing to perform the procedure and complete the learning curve in the home centre, after the fellowship ends.

We believe that with these special features the μFellowship programme is ideally suited to candidates who did not previously have the chance to apply for the conventional long-term fellowship grants, due to either professional or family commitments. Accordingly, with the initiation of the μFellowship programme we have the opportunity to reach and support more young interventionists, allowing the EAPCI to answer effectively another unmet need of the “young” community.

Martine Gilard, CHU Brest, Brest, France

Gabor G. Toth, University Heart Center Graz, Graz, Austria