Cardiac Surgery, Any Jobs?

[N-transition]

I have heard from a couple of fellows in Cardiac surgery that there aren't any jobs in the filed right now. I find this hard to believe. Has anyone heard of a downturn in Cardiac surgery postions? If so, why is this ? Could it becasue of some the interventional procedures replacing open heart surgery, leading to decrease in the demand for cardiac surgeons?

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[Vukken99]

Cardiac surgery is very closed field...

hospitals authorized to do open heart are few and established by Medicare by need..

Only few truly open places...and on top of that you need connection to get your cases...

It is very tight field....

So many years of training and very poor job prospectus really..

 

[Blade28]

Damn it...that's where I thought I was headed all these years...

 

[zensurg]

Blade, if you haven't already figured it out, I would take the above post with a huge grain of salt. I have numerous friends with an interest in pursuing CT surgery. The field is not dead, nor are the opportunities completely drying up. If you want to get into thoracics there will always be the need for operations...the types of operations, however, are changing with the expansion of interventional cardiology.

 

[dry dre]

Blade, if you haven't already figured it out, I would take the above post with a huge grain of salt. I have numerous friends with an interest in pursuing CT surgery. The field is not dead, nor are the opportunities completely drying up. If you want to get into thoracics there will always be the need for operations...the types of operations, however, are changing with the expansion of interventional cardiology.

Yeah, take it with a block of salt.

While some people say CT is dead because of invasive cardio, you could make an argument that statins are going to make invasive cardio slow down (ask any cardiologist). As Zen said, there will always be a need for chest operators. There's no getting around the fact that there is stuff in the chest that needs adjusting/fixing/removing every now and then. "Invasive" with respect to cardio and IR means entering with a needle (not a knife). The golden era (and paychecks) for CT surgery are gone, but you'll always find work. If you like CT, stick with it...

 

[apma77]

9-10 yrs of training and then coming out dying to get a decent job isnt what i would call a worthwile endeavour

 

[Paulista]

To succeed in a CT surgeon career you have to do very unique procedures,
And willing to move far from major markets.

CT surgeon scope is broad:
From wide variety of thoracic procedures to open heart..
Aortic surgery is also very challenging since injury to spinal cord may occur.
Arrhythmia surgery is also something that is done by very few groups nation wide. But, it is worthwhile you be mastered.

If you are aggressive, progressive and creative you can start some cardiac program somewhere in southwest or midwest easily.

But, on simple review, it is a long training.

In NY, a recently graduating thoracic surgeon was offered 150K a year.
Low compensation level compared to years of training.

 

[Celiac Plexus]

My $00.02 on the subject of CT surgery...

Thoracic surgery will be a good bet since with the increase in the number of imaging studies done, there will be a lot more incidental pulmonary nodules and things to take out. Also, there are not a lot of "interventional" options for the thorax.

Cardio, on the other hand seems to be very both on the decline and on the upswing. If you are in a CT fellowship right now, and you are getting a lot of CABG training then you will probably have to be flexible about where you wind up practicing. The established CT guys are not gonna be thrilled about sharing their dwindling CABG cases with you. OTOH, if you are training in one of the handful of programs that is doind a fair number VAD (ventricular assist device) placements, then you probably are going to be positioned very well and have many choices in the future. I believe that Medicare has approved VAD for CHF (or will soon), and that will create a huge demand for this procedure and there will be very few qualified individuals out there who can both perform VAD procedures, and teach others how to do them.

 

[Rony]

Two points here :

CT surgery entails more than CABGs....someone mentioned a thoracic track...there will always be a need for thoracotomies for thoracic malignancies (unless Philip Morris ceases to exist)...

I wanted to mention that 3 of the graduating chiefs at my institution went into CT, the job market is alive and well...the fact that IC and IR are really encroaching on the field of CT/vascular is often overexagerrated.

 

[Blade28]

Well, I'll explore the fellowship option when I'm in residency next year...until then, I'll just keep my fingers crossed...