UTSW Fellows Forging Cardiology Care’s Future

As part of one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers, UT Southwestern’s Division of Cardiology offers a dynamic fellowship program that leaves physicians well-trained for a future caring for a wide range of cardiology conditions.

In 2024, our program included 44 fellows. Below are brief highlights and descriptions of just a few of their accomplishments and areas of expanding expertise.

Ijeoma Eleazu, M.D., is a third-year fellow with a strong interest in cardio-obstetrics and health care disparities. Working with data from the Dallas Heart Study population, she developed a novel approach to assess cumulative stress, revealing an association with cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes. Her work was featured on an NPR affiliate radio show, and the manuscript detailing her findings was accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Dr. Eleazu actively mentors within the ACC Internal Medicine Cardiology Program, was invited to speak at the national SNMA conference, and presented to young teens about the mind-heart connection through the Girls Empowered by Mavericks program. She was named a 2024 NHLBI Women’s Health Across the Lifespan Scholar and selected in July 2024 to join the AHA CLCD & Stroke Women’s Health Science Committee. She also played a pivotal role in establishing a new cardio-obstetrics clinic at Parkland Memorial Hospital for high-risk obstetric patients with cardiac disease and is collaborating on a prospective cohort study exploring trends in postpartum hypertension among patients with preeclampsia.

Eric Hall, M.D., is a cardiology research fellow supported by the NIH T32 postdoctoral training grant, with expertise in critical care cardiology and implementation science. He is a member of the ACC Fellow-in-Training Council and the Society of Critical Care Cardiology and serves as co-chair of the Texas Chapter of the ACC Critical Care Cardiology Section. He has also served as the CardioNerds Conference Scholar for national critical care cardiology meetings. Dr. Hall is an active educator, facilitating simulation sessions for senior medical students and providing training to ICU nurses on cardiac devices and cardiogenic shock. He leads a team of junior investigators focused on cardiogenic shock at a large safety-net hospital and is conducting a prospective trial on neurological outcomes in cardiogenic shock patients, which he has led from its inception. He is pursuing further training in the critical care fellowship program and will also earn a Master of Science in Biomedical Informatics.

Ahmed Kolkailah, M.D., M.Sc., is a third-year cardiology fellow with a focus on structural cardiology and resuscitation. His scholarly work has resulted in more than 40 manuscripts published in journals such as JAMA Cardiology, JAMA Internal Medicine, and the European Heart Journal. He was selected to join the American Heart Association’s Interventional Cardiovascular Care Committee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology and serves as a Fellow-in-Training member of the NCDR STS/ACC TVT Registry R&P Subcommittee. He is also a member of the CVCT Future Trialists Fellowship and was invited to serve as a faculty panelist in both 2023 and 2024. Dr. Kolkailah enjoys teaching residents in the simulation lab and hosting cardiology morning reports for medical students, and he has been a guest speaker on medical humanities. In July 2025, he will begin a fellowship in interventional cardiology.

Ayeeshik Kole, M.D., Ph.D., is a second-year cardiology fellow interested in preventive cardiology. He is working with Drs. Anand Rohatgi and Parag Joshi to investigate coronary plaque characteristics using noninvasive imaging and leading the coronary CTA research group. Dr. Kole received a travel grant to present his research on noncalcified plaque in asymptomatic South Asian individuals at the 13th International Congress on Lipid & Atherosclerosis in Seoul, South Korea. Subsequently, he was selected as the recipient of the SANSAR/Burgundy Young Investigator Award to study cardiometabolic disease in South Asians. This grant will support his work to identify high-risk coronary plaque phenotypes and advance personalized cardiovascular care.

Jessica Qiu, M.D., is a third-year cardiology fellow with an interest in cardiac electrophysiology and medical education. She is not only championing the electrocardiographic education curriculum for the UTSW Internal Medicine Residency Program but is also helping lead community-based ACLS education for local high school sports instructors in Dallas. She actively mentors through the ACC Internal Medicine Cardiology Program. Her research investigates the rates of oral anticoagulation use and the prevalence of comorbid conditions in patients with atrial fibrillation and hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. She will be pursuing a fellowship in electrophysiology in 2025

Gene Hu, M.D., is a third-year cardiology fellow with an interest in electrophysiology and medical education and currently is one of UTSW’s Chief Cardiology Fellows. He has expertise in medical education, winning multiple division-wide teaching awards for house staff at UTSW. He is a member of the AHA Bradycardia and Conduction Delay Guideline Fellow Committee and a member of the AHA Ambassador Working Group for the Stroke Primary Prevention Guidelines. His research investigates appropriate defibrillator management during end-of-life care. Dr. Hu presented his research on the implementation of ICD order sets to enhance alignment of patient goals and ICD settings at the ACC Quality Summit in 2024 in San Antonio, TX. He will be pursuing a fellowship in electrophysiology in 2025.