Dr. Leor Perl, from Rabin Medical Center’s Cardiology Department, came to Stanford University’s Stanford Hospital & Clinics in March 2014 to complete a month-long Rabin Medical Exchange Fellowship in cardiology, under Dr. Alan Yeung, Director of Interventional Cardiology at Stanford’s School of Medicine. 

Largely due to the success of this initial Rabin fellowship, Dr. Perl was accepted to the prestigious Stanford Medical Center two-year Fellowship for Interventional Cardiology and Biodesign Innovation. Halfway through his second year there, Dr. Perl shares his experiences.

Please provide an overview of your fellowship at your hospital in the USA.

My program consists of two years of training. The first is the interventional cardiology fellowship, and the second is the innovation fellowship at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign. During the first year, I performed close to a thousand procedures in the catheterization laboratory at the Stanford University Medical Center. These included a large variety of coronary cases, structural heart procedures and procedures related to heart failure and cardiac intensive care. My first year included being on call for half of the time with one other fellow, being clinically active (both during day and at night) and taking part in academic work, such as presenting educational cases at the Cardiovascular Institute’s weekly conferences.

Describe how your fellowship opportunity has expanded your knowledge in your specific field.

The opportunity to train at such a high-level institution has tremendously expanded both my knowledge and skills as an interventional cardiologist. Stanford University Medical Center was the first center in the US to successfully transplant a heart and has remained a pioneer and a leader in cardiovascular care throughout the years. The interventional cardiology team is led by the remarkable chief of cardiology, Dr. Alan Yeung, and composed of an extremely skilled and knowledgeable group of senior physicians. Work in the lab is intense and very intimate, and as such I was able to acquire a vast array of technical skills, experience different methods, and expand my knowledge in cardiology.