Letters of interest regarding application to the program and other inquiries should be sent to Dr. Nadia Khan: nakhanubc@gmail.com
Purpose
The intent of this program is to train experts in clinical fields of hypertension, lipidology, obesity medicine and aspects of cardiovascular disease prevention. The metabolic program is not a Royal College fellowship program and the purpose is to provide additional focused training in these areas for future clinical work.
The program can be tailored to the particular goals of the trainee, including providing training to help towards successfully completing international training exams in clinical hypertension, obesity medicine and/or lipidology. It will be the responsibility of the trainee to meet the requirements to sit the exams for the American Society of Hypertension specialist in clinical hypertension, American Board of Obesity Medicine and the American Board of Clinical Lipidology.
For trainees interested in pursuing primarily clinical training where expertise is sought, a 1-year full time metabolic program is available.
For trainees wishing to develop clinical competence in these areas, less than one-year full time program is also available.
Eligibility
The trainees will be either in the 4th, 5th or higher year of their fellowship program in General Internal Medicine, other Internal Medicine subspecialty or Family Medicine or completed FRCPC residency training or primary care requirements in clinical practice in these programs at an accredited Canadian Medical University program.
Program Location
The trainee will be primarily based at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver General Hospital or other UBC-affiliated teaching hospital, or community clinic in British Columbia or other academic teaching hospital in Canada affiliated with our metabolic program.
The Program Provides Training In:
Theoretical and practical aspects of clinical hypertension, obesity, lipidology, including physiology, primary (genetic) and secondary conditions, pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies, and considerations related to special patient populations. Theoretical and practical aspects of cardiovascular (CV) risk reduction including primary and secondary prevention, identification and management of risk factors, methods of risk assessment (clinical, laboratory, genetic, imaging and novel biomarkers), therapeutic lifestyle changes including smoking cessation, and pharmacotherapy in the management of individuals with, and those at risk for, cardiovascular disease (CVD). This includes the management of diabetes, smoking cessation, sleep apnea, investigation using cardiovascular imaging, and stress testing, and other CVD prevention training that the trainee may wish to pursue.
Clinical, translational and basic science research projects related to cardiovascular disease prevention, lipids, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular genetics, hypertension, cardiovascular imaging and cardiac rehab may be available working with expert research mentors within the program.
Duties
- Establish and maintain a longitudinal ambulatory clinic in the Hypertension clinic, Obesity Medicine clinic, or Healthy Heart Program Prevention Clinic with specific focus on lipidology. As the fellow/trainee progresses they will also take on supervision and case review with other trainees in the clinic.
- Participate in other assigned clinics, including smoking cessation, diabetes, primary hyperaldosteronism clinics and others as suitable for the trainee’s career goals.
- Participate in academic rounds and case rounds related to the activities of the training program. In addition to case rounds, this will include review of a specific topic at various times including epidemiology, molecular and physiological mechanisms, clinical trials evidence, therapeutics, assessment tools, and recent publications in the field.
- Interact with staff members (lipidologists, cardiologists, endocrinologists, internists, basic scientists, students, nurses, dietitians, exercise specialists, case managers).
- Participate in individual assessment of dietary and exercise counseling in the Prevention Clinic or Obesity Clinic.
At the end of the program the trainee will be able to:
- Perform consultancy as a clinical expert the areas they designate focus in
- Manage patients with complex hypertension, dyslipidemias or patients with obesity.
- Assess patients’ risk for vascular disease and screen for subclinical atherosclerosis.
- Manage CV risk factors (including diabetes, hypertension, smoking and others) with specific advice on lifestyle (diet and exercise) and drug treatment.
- Work towards obtaining certification in the area(s) of the metabolic program that they choose to focus.