Medical Students

Jennifer Lang and Kyle Mentkowski.

“I enjoy training students,” says Jennifer Lang, MD, with Kyle Mentkowski. “Their questions keep me current and help me render the best patient care.”

When you train with our faculty, we’ll augment your understanding of the cardiovascular system and cardiovascular disease, providing you with essential knowledge that you’ll tap throughout your career.

Preclinical Education

During your second year, trainees in our cardiovascular disease fellowship serve as your preceptors in the Clinical Practice of Medicine II course.

In your second-year integrated module on the cardiovascular system, our faculty serve as your preceptors and deliver didactic lectures on cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology.

  • IMC 602 The Human Cardiovascular System, 8 credits

    This course provides instruction into the mechanisms of operation of the human cardiovascular system. Emphasis is placed on the integration of relevant principles from anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology and microbiology with respect to the behavior of the normal circulation and its responses to the stress of injury and disease. Both expert directed and student directed methodologies will be employed in this module and a select set of clinical cases will be used to guide instruction.

    Fall semester

    Number of students: 180

    Required course for all second year medical students (MS2)

    Course Director: Perry Hogan, PhD

Internal Medicine Clerkships

During your third- and fourth-year internal medicine clerkships, our faculty provide didactic sessions on cardiovascular case management and EKG reading. We also supervise you on the inpatient medical service at the Buffalo VA Medical Center (third- and fourth-year students) and at Buffalo General Medical Center (fourth-year medical students).

Elective

Senior medical students may take our cardiovascular medicine elective, which includes training on the cardiology consult services at Buffalo General Medical Center and the Buffalo VAMC.

  • MED 804 Cardiovascular Medicine, 4 credits

    Students will see patients for whom cardiac consultation has been requested and will make daily rounds with the attending, cardiology fellow and resident. There will be exposure to EKG reading, stress testing, nuclear cardiology, echocardiography, and cardiac catheterization.

    There also will be opportunities to participate in cardiology clinic and observe cardiac catheterizations, interventional cardiology procedures and open-heart surgery.

    The student will attend weekly university-wide fellows conference. On completion, the student will develop an understanding of the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of a wide variety of cardiac conditions.

    Prerequisite: MS3 or MS4

    Modules: A-M Blocks: 1-4

    Number of students: 4: 3 MS4s, 1 MS3

    Course Director: Brian Page, MD

    Course Coordinator: Anna Alvarado Marwin

Research Opportunities

We encourage medical students and MD/PhD candidates pursuing careers as physician-scientists in cardiovascular medicine to conduct research in our division.

During your fourth year of medical school, you may use electives to conduct research with our faculty; we can be flexible in scheduling your training throughout the year. If you seek a more in-depth experience, you may arrange to participate in a year-out research training program with our division.

Most of our faculty require that you have prior research experience, either in our summer research fellowship program or as a Sarnoff fellow.