Physician: Advanced Heart Failure/Mechanical Circulatory Support /Transplant Opportunity - Northwestern Medicine
Posted Oct 2, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026
Apply at Northwestern Medicine
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
About your past
Tell me about a patient you evaluated for LVAD or transplant who you ultimately did not list. How did you get there and how did you tell them?
What they are checking: Whether they can make hard candidacy decisions and deliver them honestly and humanely.
Tell me about a time you disagreed with a cardiac surgeon about whether a patient needed mechanical support. How was it resolved?
What they are checking: Whether they can work through disagreement within a multidisciplinary shock or transplant team.
How do you approach goals-of-care conversations with a patient with end-stage heart failure who is not a candidate for advanced therapies?
What they are checking: Whether they integrate palliative care and honest prognosis rather than avoiding the conversation.
What would you want to have built in your first two years here?
What they are checking: Whether they have a concrete vision for program growth and fit with a physician-led group.
What would you do
This role is in the Health Network hospitals rather than downtown. How would you build a heart failure program that links community sites with the transplant center?
What they are checking: Whether they understand hub-and-spoke referral work and can grow a program outside the main campus.
The role includes a productivity bonus. How do you balance clinical volume with the time complex patients really need?
What they are checking: Whether they can think honestly about throughput without letting it compromise care for complex patients.
About the work
Walk me through how you manage a patient arriving in SCAI stage C cardiogenic shock, from the first hour to the decision about mechanical support.
What they are checking: Whether they have a clear, current shock pathway and know when to escalate to MCS.
How do you decide between Impella, VA-ECMO, and a balloon pump for a given shock patient?
What they are checking: Whether they match device choice to the physiology and goals rather than habit or what is available.
An LVAD patient comes in with a suction event alarm and low flows. What are you thinking and what do you do?
What they are checking: Whether they can troubleshoot common LVAD problems like volume depletion, RV failure, or thrombosis quickly.
How do you manage immunosuppression and rejection surveillance in the first year after heart transplant?
What they are checking: Whether they have real post-transplant experience beyond what fellowship training alone gives.
What do you see as the most important recent change in guideline-directed medical therapy, and how have you put it into practice?
What they are checking: Whether they stay current and actually optimize GDMT, which is the foundation of heart failure care.
Practice this interview out loud.
Offer builds a real interview for this exact role at Northwestern Medicine from your resume and this job description, asks the questions one at a time, and tells you what landed. The first one is free.
Practice this out loudThe full job description
As published by Northwestern Medicine.