Graduate Medical Education

The Division of Cardiology at ZSFG has a long-standing tradition of world-class clinical and research training activities as core faculty for the UCSF medicine residency program. All cardiologists hold faculty appointments in the UCSF School of Medicine and are members of the Academic Senate.

They directly supervise 4 medicine interns and 4 junior residents on the inpatient cardiology service, where housestaff are expected to prepare sophisticated case presentations while they provide guideline-directed care under hectic conditions. Importantly, each team member strives to advance collective understanding of complex cardiovascular conditions while working with patients from diverse and often vulnerable communities. This cardiology service experience is exhilarating and consistently ranks as the best clinical rotation for educational value across the training program. Division of Cardiology faculty are also generous mentors for the career development of UCSF medicine residents. Trainees frequently complete fellowships at top academic centers across the nation and succeed as clinical, investigative, and administrative leaders in major healthcare organizations.

The highly selective UCSF adult general cardiology fellowship is fully integrated across 3 core sites: UCSF Moffitt-Long Hospital, San Francisco Veterans Affairs Hospital, and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Lucas Zier, MD, MS is the Fellowship Site Director at ZSFG to ensure compliance with rigorous Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) program requirements. Our first-year fellow is responsible for patients in the coronary care unit and cardiology consultations across ZSFG clinical services. Our second-year fellow is responsible for transesophageal echocardiograms, cardioversions, cardiac catheterizations, pacemaker placements, and related invasive procedures. Fellows on non-clinical rotations participate in night and weekend coverage so that no ACGME trainee is on duty more than 80 hours per week. Inpatient cardiology service at ZSFG is consistently ranked as the favorite clinical rotation across UCSF core sites because of high-volume procedural training with talented attendings, high-impact mentoring for research projects and career development grant applications, and endless opportunities to instruct perceptive UCSF medical students and residents with a passion for cardiovascular pathophysiology. The accomplishments of cardiology division faculty as first-rate medical educators are often recognized by prestigious UCSF Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, and Academic Senate teaching and mentoring awards.