Heart Failure and Pulmonary Hypertension Fellowship at Hackensack University Medical Center

Program Overview

  The Advanced Heart Failure and Pulmonary Hypertension Program recruits a Fellow every year for a Non-AGCME accredited fellowship position. It provides outstanding hands-on training in the management of advanced heart failure and pulmonary hypertension at one of the busiest programs in New Jersey; encompassing a heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, cardiogenic shock, cardio-oncology, and a durable assist device program. Fellows are trained in comprehensive medical and assist device management of heart failure, in performing and interpreting transesophageal and transthoracic echocardiograms, hemodynamic studies and cardiopulmonary stress tests.

Hackensack University Medical Center provides an intellectual environment that fosters acquiring the skills, clinical judgment, attitudes and values that are essential to cardiovascular medicine, as well as the humanistic aspects of medicine. The Cardiology Fellowship program cultivates in trainees an attitude of scholarship and a dedication to continuing education throughout a professional career. It also encourages a commitment to carrying out professional responsibilities at the highest level, adherence to ethical principles, and sensitivity to a diverse patient population and humanistic aspects of medicine. The program provides training in all areas of cardiovascular medicine to permit trainees to become competent cardiologists. The cardiology fellowship program is fully integrated with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Fellows are trained at both facilities.

Hackensack University Medical Center also offers an additional year of training in interventional cardiology.  A large group of interventional cardiologists provide a rich and diversified experience for the interventional fellows. The fellows also participate in a wide array of peripheral interventions provided by an outstanding group of vascular surgeons with exceptional endovascular skills. The site is a high volume site equipped with eight interventional rooms.  Interventional fellows are given progressive responsibility commensurate with their competence.

To apply: Please contact Marites Welch and Diana Cuttingham to discuss applying to the Heart Failure Fellowship Program.

Our Team

The Heart Failure Program was founded in 2000 by Robert Berkowitz, M.D., who received his medical degree from Yale University Medical School and his Ph.D. in cellular-molecular biology from the University of California at Davis.
Our team of cardiologists includes specialists in heart failure, mechanical devices (pacemaker, cardiac resynchronization therapy), heart rhythm and imaging (cardiac MRI, 3D imaging), interventional cardiology (stent implants, angioplasty), and cardiothoracic surgery (VAD implants, valve surgery).

Robert L. Berkowitz, M.D., PhD, FACC – Program Medical Director
Bernard Kim, M.D. – Associate Program Medical Director
Kumar Satya, M.D., FRCP – Medical Director, Cardiogenic Shock Program
David Silber, D.O., FACC – Staff Physician, Heart Failure Specialist
Kanika Mody, M.D. – Medical Director, Surgical VAD Program
Marites Welch, MA.Ed, BSN, RN, CCRN – Heart Failure Program Administrative Manager
Patricia Gardner, BSN, RN – Heart Failure Unit Nurse Manager
Barbara Heber-Sardanopoli, MSN, APN-C – Heart Failure Nurse Practitioner
Scott Stewart DNP, APN-C, CNL – VAD Coordinator/Heart Failure Nurse Practitioner