[Chance for young electrophysiologists: the continuing education program "Fellowship heart rhythm"]

Increasing workloads, growing economical pressure and developments on the German job market for young physicians create a background which threatens an adequate education and training of physicians in many places. The"Fellowship heart rhythm" program focuses on training in clinical electrophysiology complementary to established educational initiatives, such as courses for competence in pacemaker and ICD therapy of the German Cardiac Society. Participants have to be residents with a minimum of 3 years clinical experience and should be younger than 36 years old. They should be actively involved with a long-term perspective in clinical electrophysiology. Activity in the fields of pacing, defibrillator and cardiac resynchronization therapy is required. The hospital has to be able provide the possibility of invasive electrophysiology and catheter ablation including a 3-dimensional mapping system. In 6 face-to-face meetings of 3 days each, the state of the art is presented in the topics electrophysiological studies, sudden cardiac death and defibrillation, health economy/management, catheter ablation, atrial fibrillation and heart failure and arrhythmias. The first 4 years with 2 fellowship programs have demonstrated that this project enables education at a high level, strongly supporting advances in scientific interest, individual development and medical orientation. The fellowship program facilitates the development of a network of young electrophysiologists in Germany.