What the mentorship adds to the courses
The modules on this site teach content. They tell you how conduction disease presents, how to size a stent, how to phrase a report. What no module can tell you is what you should be doing this term, given your year, your country, your examination route and the two research ideas you have not yet started. That is a sequencing problem, and it is the reason capable students lose years without ever failing anything.
The cardiology mentorship programme exists to solve that sequencing problem. It is not another course to complete. It is a long-running advisory relationship, run alongside whatever curriculum you are already inside, in which a senior interventional cardiologist looks at your position every month and tells you what to do next. The set reading, the live sessions and the case teaching are all included, but the mentoring itself is the product. The corresponding listing on this site is One to One Cardiology Mentoring, shelved under Core Collections and Mentorship.
The five-stage roadmap
The programme is structured as five stages. You join at the stage you are actually at rather than at the beginning, and you continue through the remaining stages as you reach them. Nothing resets and nothing expires when a stage ends.
Stage one: Foundation
Preclinical years, taught with a cardiologist’s priorities rather than an examiner’s. Anatomy and physiology are covered in the depth you will later need at the bedside; pharmacology is anchored to the drugs you will actually prescribe. Electrocardiography starts here, years before most curricula introduce it, using the same sequence set out in our ECG interpretation course module. The point of this stage is not early expertise but early study method.
Stage two: Clinical Bridge
The move from textbook to ward. Auscultation you can defend, chest pain triage, breathlessness that turns out to be cardiac, and the presentations every viva returns to. You begin attending unfolding-case sessions with more senior participants, and your first research question is chosen, scoped and started — early enough that it can realistically be written up before it matters. The bedside teaching pearls text is the standing reference for this stage.
Stage three: Internship and Decision
The highest-stakes year in the roadmap, because most of its decisions are irreversible. Which examination route to commit to, which country, which posting, which project to finish and which to abandon. Monthly calls in this stage are largely strategic: your curriculum vitae is rebuilt, your research is pushed to submission, and the choices that would quietly close cardiology are identified before you make them.
Stage four: Entrance and Residency
Structured preparation for whichever entrance you are sitting — USMLE, PLAB, MRCP, NEET-PG, NEET SS, DM or DNB — timetabled around clinical hours rather than assuming you have none. The exam preparation reading is issued here, and the plan is built on the same architecture as our six-month board study programme. Through residency the focus shifts to keeping cardiology skills alive while general ward work tries to erode them; the board course bundle supports this stage.
Stage five: Into Cardiology
Fellowship applications, personal statements, interview rehearsal and candid advice about which programmes suit which candidates. Mentoring does not stop at acceptance. The later part of this stage is catheterisation laboratory thinking, complex case discussion and the judgement problems of the first independent years, drawn from the same material as the full cardiology course library.
What is included each month
- One personal call each month with Dr Thirugnanam — your position, your obstacles, your next four weeks. This is not delegated.
- One live group masterclass each month, taught as an unfolding case with the outcome withheld until participants have committed to a plan. All sessions are recorded and the recordings remain available.
- Access to a cardiology e-library of more than forty titles, covering the reading attached to every stage of the roadmap, from foundation texts through to advanced interventional material.
- A stage-specific study roadmap rewritten for your year rather than issued as a generic plan.
- Case and electrocardiogram teaching from real practice, including archived catheterisation laboratory material.
- Research, curriculum vitae and application support across the stages where each becomes relevant.
Commitment, intake and who it suits
Expect to give the programme four to six hours a month: the personal call, the group masterclass, and self-directed work from your roadmap. It is deliberately sized to sit beside a full medical course or a clinical job rather than compete with one. Doing less than that is the main reason a mentee gets little out of it.
Because every mentee receives a personal monthly call from one cardiologist, each intake is capped. When an intake is full, applications are carried to the next one. This suits students who have already decided on cardiology and want the route shortened — first-year students with a long runway, final-year students needing to fix their priorities, interns choosing an examination route, internal medicine residents aiming at fellowship, international graduates navigating cross-border applications, and practising physicians moving across into cardiology. It does not suit anyone looking for a shortcut in place of the work.
Fee and how to apply
The programme is a one-time fee of ₹2,50,000, which is approximately US$2,500 for international applicants and is billed in INR. There is no renewal fee, no per-stage charge and no annual subscription: the fee covers the entire roadmap, the monthly calls and masterclasses, and the full e-library for as long as you are in the programme.
Applications for the mentorship are handled centrally for both of Dr Thirugnanam’s sites, so there is no separate form on this site. Apply through the programme’s central application page at cardiologybooks.com/cardiology-mentorship. Every application is read personally and you will have a reply within three working days. Applying costs nothing and carries no obligation.
Mentorship FAQ
What exactly is the fee, and are there later charges?
₹2,50,000 once, approximately US$2,500 for international applicants and billed in INR. There is no renewal fee and no additional charge for stages, sessions or library access.
How much time does it take each month?
Four to six hours: one personal call, one live group masterclass, and reading or project work from your roadmap. Sessions are recorded, so a clashing clinical shift does not cost you the material.
Can I apply from outside India?
Yes. All sessions run online and the examination guidance covers USMLE, PLAB, MRCP and national entrance routes as well as Indian DM and DNB pathways. The fee is billed in INR regardless of where you apply from.
Why are places limited?
Because the monthly one-to-one call is taken by Dr Thirugnanam himself and is not passed to anyone else. That caps how many mentees an intake can hold. Applications received after an intake fills are considered for the following one.
Where do I apply, and how long is the wait?
Through the central application page linked above — this site does not run a separate form or a separate price. Applications are answered within three working days.
The mentorship is led personally by Dr A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, based in Hyderabad, who takes every mentoring call in the programme himself.