PCAS Educational Programs for Providers

Medical Student Rotations

The PCAS service provides a medical student elective with our unique service for senior level (generally 4th year) medical students (Post Cardiac Arrest Service - EMED 5466). Clinical rotations for medical students provides intensive training on post-arrest physiology and the spectrum of care for the cardiac arrest patients, as well as exposure to the PCAS service research and QA programs. Investigative interests include: neuroprognostication, optimal duration of and temperature for therapeutic hypothermia, seizure prevention, inflammatory effects of therapeutic hypothermia, and mitochondrial injury during the post-arrest phase.

UPSOM students must have completed the Adult Inpatient Medicine Clerkship AND the Medical Intensive Care Unit Or Critical Care Medicine Elective. A MICU AI will count for both requirements.  Visiting students must apply through the School of Medicine via VLSO (https://www.medstudentaffairs.pitt.edu/visiting-students) and must complete equivalent courses at their home institutions. All rotations must approved by the course director prior to scheduling. Please contact Dr. Ankur Doshi (doshiaa@upmc.edu) for more information.

Post Graduate Rotations

The PCAS service invites post graduate medical trainees to rotate with our service. Presently, we train roughly 15 Emergency Medicine residents, Neurology residents, and Critical Care Fellows per years. Trainees from these programs at UPMC are welcome to contact their program leadership to schedule a rotation with us. Trainees from other institutions will be considered on an individual basis, but must arrange these rotations with a valid Program Letter of Agreement (PLA) with the UPMC Emergency Medicine Residents. Please contact Dr. Ankur Doshi (doshiaa@upmc.edu) for more information.

Cardiac Arrest Fellowship

There is no formal fellowship training for post-cardiac arrest care.  In-person consultation as performed at UPMC-Presbyterian is a model that may only be appropriate for high-volume referral centers.  Nevertheless, our vision is that every hospital should have one or more champions for cardiac arrest care.  That champion or his team will provide education, QI, protocol development and integration of clinical services.  That champion should work with EMS and the community to enhance survival and prevention of sudden death.  Because so many specialists are central to the care of post-cardiac arrest patients, a champion might be a cardiologist, an intensivist, an emergency physician, a hospitalist or some other specialist. We are happy to work with interested practitioners to share the specialized knowledge in this field.

For the past few years, emergency medicine research fellows, particularly those with research interests that include resuscitation, work on the PCAS service. This experience has provided access to a variety of special patient populations.