The Uganda Heart Institute (UHI) runs fellowship programs in Adult Cardiology, Pediatric Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery, Cardiac Anesthesia, Critical Care and Cardiac Nursing. The Doctor`s fellowship is a three-year structured program combining clinical work and research. Trainees are individually paired with a mentor to develop their career plans over the three years while gaining solid general cardiovascular training. A highly organized teaching schedule with enthusiastic, approachable faculty is a clear standard. Experts in all aspects of training make themselves available for teaching, consultation and mentorship.

The academic curriculum includes daily rounds and a dedicated annual three month fellows course which longitudinally covers all the objectives of cardiology training over the three years .

Multiple evaluative tools are integrated into the academic program to provide residents the feedback needed to meet all their educational objectives including an annual objective structured clinical examination, written Theory exam and annual observed history and physical examination of patients. A longitudinal mentorship program provides trainees with the guidance they need to use this assessment data in planning their learning.

The referral population to our centre is large, creating ample exposure to all manner of cardiac pathology. Our program is well equipped with a regionalized tertiary level cardiac care centre providing service to over 40 million people. The CCU provides an opportunity to care for critically ill cardiac patients including management of intra-aortic balloon pumps, ventilated patients and a potential primary PCI program. There is extensive consultant on-call support including 24 hour interventional, echocardiography. A nuclear unit for myocardial perfusion imaging studies is being currently installed and our fellows are also exposed to coronary CT angiograms currently done in one of our sister hospitals.

The Fellowship Training Programme aims at producing highly skilled cardiovascular specialists to serve not only Uganda but the entire Great Lakes Region of Africa for both community and academic practice. Our mission is to provide solid clinical training in general cardiovascular medicine by enabling the cardiovascular trainee to become:

• a skilled and compassionate clinician
• an enthusiastic teacher
• a lifelong learner

All Fellowship programmes for doctors have three years duration. The Cardiac Nursing is a two-year programme for graduate nurses. There is Research component embedded in all programmmes.

The cardiac fellowships are 3 years full time program of training except for cardiac nursing fellowships which take 2 years.

The following documents will be required to be submitted together with the application form:

• A well written application letter addressed to the Executive director Uganda Heart Institute
• A degree certificate for bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery (MB.Ch.B or its equivalent) from a recognized University.
• Master of Medicine degree certificate in appropriate discipline for example, Internal Medicine, from a recognized University.
• A specialty license and registration from the Uganda Medical & Dental Practitioner’s Council or equivalent from another country.
• A valid annual practicing licence by the medical council or a regulatory body
• Letters of support from two (2) referees at senior level in the medical profession.
• Personal statement
• Current curriculum vitae.
• Proof of identity e.g. Passport copy, national identification card.
• A letter of support from current employer

Note: Missing any of the above listed documents will automatically lead to disqualification of the application.

Applications for the fellowships are open in February and closed in May of each year. In takes commence 1st July of every year.   

Eligible applicants are scored and ranked based on the above criteria. Shortlisted candidates are invited for a face-to-face structured interview at the UHI or Skype interview for the foreign candidates. The purpose of the interview is to further determine the candidates’ personal attributes, especially interpersonal skills and motivation for a career in cardiovascular medicine. The best candidates are selected, and formally informed in writing by the Fellowship Program Chairperson.

Taking into account the current clinical capacity of the training centre, each program takes on a manageable number of candidates per year as tabulated below. This will be revised according to available facilities.

UHI has built formidable collaborations with world class Hospitals and Universities over the years, which supports our Fellowship programme by having Fellows travel over for short term electives or by having experts travel to share their experiences and perform hands-on training in Uganda. The training disciplines include; nuclear medicine and advanced heart failure management which is not yet fully developed in Uganda.

Partnering Institutions include;

• Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio.
• McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
• The University of Cape Town
• Children’s National Medical Center, Washington DC
• Madras Medical Mission
• Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Kochi, Kerala, India.
• Riley’ Children’s Hospital, Indiana USA
• Chain of Hope- UK
• Gift of Life International

Access Our Training Resources and Downloads Here

• Uganda Heart Institute Capacity Building Plan