Tomasz Timek, MD, Receives AATS Resident Traveling Fellowship

Tomasz Timek, MD, Stanford Cardiothoracic Surgery Resident, has been selected to receive the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) Resident Traveling Fellowship for 2008-2009.

According to the AATS website, “The Resident Traveling Fellowship was established to broaden the educational experience of residents in their final year of an approved North American cardiothoracic surgical training program by providing an opportunity to spend a maximum of two weeks at one or more institutions other than their home institution. … This fellowship is intended to provide the resident with an opportunity to gain additional insights and innovative techniques from another institution and bring this knowledge back to his or her home institution.”

According to Timek, he applied for this fellowship “to gain greater exposure to minimally invasive cardiac valvular replacement and repair techniques.” He added, “I am also very interested in fostering international contacts within our specialty, which are often enriching both professionally and personally.”

Timek will be traveling to the Leipzig Heart Center in Leipzig, Germany, from November 1st to Thanksgiving to study the Center’s transapical and percutaneous aortic valve implantation and minimal access mitral valve surgery, which are new techniques in the field of minimally invasive valve repair and replacement surgery.

“The field is currently in its infancy,” stated Timek, “but the technology is promising and will potentially extend the clinical benefit of valve replacement to our sickest patients. I feel it is important to be familiar with these techniques as they are bound to impact the future of cardiothoracic surgical practice.”

Timek is grateful to the AATS for this opportunity, but he also expresses his appreciation to his training program. “I was permitted a three-week leave of absence. I don’t think all residents across the country have that luxury.”

Tomasz Timek, MD
CT Surgery Resident