Fellows & Alumni
Current Cardiac Critical Care Medicine Fellow (2025-2026)
Andi Shahu, MD
- Cardiac Critical Care Medicine Fellow
Hometown: Tirana, Albania and Washington, DC
Medical School: Yale School of Medicine
Residency: Johns Hopkins Hospital
Fellowship: Yale New Haven Hospital
Cardiac Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Alumni
Ari Miller, MD
- Assistant Professor, Critical Care Cardiology, CUIMC
Prior fellowship: Cardiovascular Disease, CUIMC
What are your favorite things about the fellowship? "The faculty and fellows are very engaged and collegial. It's also pretty special that we are not required to take overnight call."
What do you love about New York City? "I like the open communal spaces/parks that I can discover particularly biking/running along the Hudson river on the west side of the city."
What do you like to do outside of work? "I enjoy traveling and watching football (soccer) every opportunity I get. *Hala Madrid!**YNWA*"
Why I chose this fellowship program: Columbia critical care cardiology fellowship program was conveniently a program at my home institution. I had the benefit of knowing some of the faculty in the division and know of their investment in teaching, the robust and diverse clinical exposure to critical care specific procedures and pathology, as well as the robust ECMO program with exposure to a variety of of configurations of ECMO. In a word, I knew my training would be nothing short of exceptional with the added benefit of learning from extremely collegial faculty and co-fellows.
How this fellowship aided me in my fellow-to-faculty job transition: I’m extraordinarily lucky to have a program director whose career advice and attention to all aspects of my training throughout the year has been quite helpful. There is also a culture of graduated responsibility where some faculty effectively allows trainees to function as attendings on daily rounds. I don’t think I would feel this comfortable transitioning to my new role without this degree of investment in my growth. For that I am truly grateful!
Ani Nalbandian, MD, MS
- Assistant Professor, Critical Care Cardiology, CUIMC
Prior fellowship: Cardiovascular Disease, CUIMC
What are your favorite things about the fellowship? "As the inaugural cardiac critical care fellow at our institution, I appreciate how the program leadership has tailored this advanced fellowship to equip me with the skills set and knowledge base I need as a critical care cardiologist. I especially enjoy the multidisciplinary experiences I have working across all ICUs and settings. These help me cultivate a better understanding of the practice of ICU-based medicine from different subspecialty perspectives - pulm, anesthesia, and CT surgery, in particular."
What do you love about New York City? "There's always something new to experience, somewhere new to go, someone new to meet..."
What do you like to do outside of work? "Performances at Lincoln Center, New York City Center; Central Park"
Why I chose this fellowship program: "I elected to pursue this advanced fellowship after completing cardiology fellowship because I enjoy the medical complexity of patients in our modern-day cardiac ICUs, but recognized I did not have the skills set to be self-sufficient in caring for them. Through this fellowship experience, I gained a robust skills set which includes pleural procedures, intubations, bronchoscopies, and advanced knowledge in areas such as ARDS or mechanical ventilatory support. As this year included not only rounding in medical and cardiac ICUs, but also cardiothoracic and neuro ICUs, I also gained additional perspective and knowledge on how to manage critical illness from different subspecialty perspectives, which I value immensely. The environment at Columbia is exceptional for this advanced fellowship - there is a robust volume of ECMO, interventional pulmonology, and of course CT surgery and interventional cardiology and advanced heart failure / transplant cases to provide the exposure one seeks to emerge as a critical care cardiologist."
How this fellowship aided me in my fellow-to-faculty job transition: "As a graduate of this advanced fellowship in critical care medicine, I am now dual trained in cardiovascular diseases and critical care, which has opened a plethora of career opportunities for me. In my faculty position, I will serve as both a critical care cardiologist and outpatient cardiologist - with this balance, I hope to help patients recover post-ICU, and care for them longitudinally, which is important to me as a physician. Indeed, there are layers of understanding and insight which I gained as a result of this year which have better informed me of how adjustments in practice patterns in the ICU can yield tremendous long-term impact on patients recovering post-ICU, and which post-ICU sequelae often go under-recognized or under-treated. There is also an abundance of research opportunity pertaining to both cardiology and critical care medicine in this setting, which I look forward to engaging in through the lens of both a cardiologist and critical care physician."
