Book excerpt: For more than 60 years, graduates of the Cardiology Fellows Training Program at Duke University Medical Center have made a major positive impact on the treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease. These physicians have been at the forefront of developing strategies for improving health care, carrying out both clinical and basic research, delivering outstanding patient care, and training future cardiologists. The primary purpose of this book is not only to document these achievements, but also to examine the nature of the Training Program and to whatever extent possible, define the factors which have led to the outstanding results. This programmatic description encompasses the period from 1946 through 2009. The material in this manuscript has been extensively revised and enlarged since the original publication: Duke Cardiology Fellows Training Program: Origin to the Present, published in 2004. Throughout the manuscript, the designation "fellow" denotes a physician either during or after finishing the fellowship. In order to be included, a fellow must have been enrolled in the Training Program for at least one year. In presenting the large body of material, Chapters II-VII deal with specific time periods. Each of these chapters presents both a narrative of the programmatic development as well as a Table listing the names of the fellows, the types of training and future careers. (A detailed explanation of the content of these Tables is given at the end of Chapter II.) The remaining chapters deal with specific aspects of the Training Program. The Appendix documents the sources of the data. A "Rogues' Gallery" contains pictures obtained usually in a non-academic setting of a number of the fellows and faculty.