The congenital heart early-career exchange programme: collaboration to advance faculty development

INTRODUCTION: Developing the next generation of leaders in congenital cardiology is critical to advancing the field. Increasingly, it is recognised that earlier opportunities to establish professional networks, gain unique skills, and disseminate scientific work can be highly beneficial. While cross-institutional collaboration has been successful in supporting quality improvement, it has not been widely used in other areas. We describe our initial experience with a multi-centre congenital heart early-career exchange programme. METHODS: Faculty (<10 years from training) among five participating congenital heart centres were eligible to apply. Applications were reviewed and matched with host sites. Visits (typically 3-5 days) included topics spanning research and collaboration, unique clinical programmes/skills, networking, and presenting a formal lecture. All participants were invited to complete an anonymous post-visit survey, with descriptive results reported. RESULTS: Overall, 20/28 (71%) applicants over the initial two years of the programme were selected for participation. The majority were assistant professors; 75% were <5 years from training. There was an equal distribution of males and females and a diverse range of clinical specialties/areas of interest. Post-visit survey responses (75% response rate) were highly favourable, with 92% indicating "strongly agree" regarding the value of the programme across domains and highlighting valuable exposure to unique clinical and research opportunities, networking, and mentorship. CONCLUSIONS: Initial results from the congenital heart early-career exchange programme highlight the feasibility and positive impact of a collaborative approach to career development. Further efforts should be prioritised to foster broader engagement and impact.