January 25, 2017 | Monica Verdoia, MD
International

Investing in the next generation of cardiologists has been the goal of cardiovascular medical societies, both in the United States and Italy, over the last few years. FITs appreciate opportunities and new initiatives to promote learning and networking.

Over the past six years in the Piedmont region, in north-west  Italy, the month of November has been dedicated to young fellows in Cardiology. In fact, the Piedmont Chapter of the Italian Society of Cardiology (SIC), has been promoting an educational project/meeting entitled, “From School to Practice”, where young cardiologists, who have just achieved their specialization, present their most challenging cases and experiences to other cardiology FITs.

It is a one-day meeting, which takes place under the supervision of experienced cardiologists and professors from the two regional schools of cardiology. These experienced cardiologists and professors lead the case-based discussion and provide their recommendations derived from their career experiences. 

Informal ambient, interactive cases, where the audience is involved in discussing key clinical decision making processes, and answers quizzes with a televoter, are the characteristic features of the meeting.

For the November 2016 meeting, the Piedmont Chapter of the SIC, led by Marco Scaglione, MD, decided to add international collaboration to the meeting. In conjunction with the ACC, the first-ever ACC-SIC FIT Jeopardy competition, dubbed “The Great Battle,” was successfully held at the Piedmont regional SIC meeting. It was an “army-of-one” Jeopardy competition where young fellows could test their knowledge of cardiology against 16 Jeopardy questions on topics including electrocardiography, echocardiography, drug therapy and hemodynamics. The chairmen of the session, two experienced cardiologists, Ferdinando Varbella, MD, and Paolo Marino, MD, FACC, the incoming President of the regional Board, provided explanations to the audience and discussed the basis for each answer. The winner was awarded a great prize – a cardiological stethoscope!

Indeed, the use of the ACC FIT format allowed us to focus our attention on topics that are less routinely discussed in our country. Hopefully, this is the start of a continued collaboration between the ACC FITs and the SIC-Italy fellows. From a regional to an international level, this is the beginning of an ambitious project – a transoceanic exchange of fellows competing in Italian and American Jeopardy competitions, with great advantages for education, networking and sharing of different experiences. 

This article was authored by Monica Verdoia, MD, a Fellow in Training (FIT) at Ospedale Maggiore della Carità, Università del Piemonte Orientale in Novara, Italy.