Hi to all of you. I've been reading about EP lately and find it very interesting. I know training is hard and all but I think I'm falling in love with EP concepts. I know EP has a huge impact in treating heart failure patients. My question is: Can you don an EP fellowship and then a Heart Failure fellowship, and work as an EP while also having your private practice where you do ECHOs, and normal clinic/office work? Or does EP really sequesters you to EP only and not let you have a general cardiology practice? It would be interesting to know if you can have such a practice set up. Also how does EP lifestyle compare with other areas of cardiology?? Thanks!!
Cardiac Electrophysiology
- Thread starter HMSBeagle
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A few programs are allowing docs to combine EP and heart failure into 1 fellowship (Ohio State for example) for those interested in it, but I'm not sure it has that much wide appeal. Most HF docs don't want to spend that much time in the lab and most EP docs really don't want to take care of complex HF cases.
Yes, you can certainly do echo and nuclear imaging and EP in private practice. And depending upon the practice you join, you may have to. Certainly in some groups the EP docs will be expected to participate in general cardiology call. During your general cardiology fellowship, you can get certified to read echoes, TEEs, nuclear studies, etc. And then you do EP to get certification as an EP doc.
Yes, you can certainly do echo and nuclear imaging and EP in private practice. And depending upon the practice you join, you may have to. Certainly in some groups the EP docs will be expected to participate in general cardiology call. During your general cardiology fellowship, you can get certified to read echoes, TEEs, nuclear studies, etc. And then you do EP to get certification as an EP doc.
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HMS,
You can really do whatever you'd like. All that it costs you is time. In addition to your 3 years IM residency then 3 years general cardiology fellowship (not including fast-tracking), most EP fellowships are an additional 2-3 years (longer for academic programs that are research oriented). Heart failure/transplant is generally 1 year. Advanced imaging is 1-2 years (ECHO, MRI, nuclear, etc.). Interventional is 1 year for basic PCIs and usually an additional year for peripherals, devices, pVADs, etc.
For private practice, it is really quite easy to get level II certification for ECHO straight out of general cards. In academics, it is hard to be a jack-of-all trades where the environment rewards ultraspecialists with expertise in a specific niche.
One thing to keep in mind is that some aspects of heart failure care marries quite well with EP. For example, many patients can be straight forward pacemaker, AICD, or BiV pacer implantations. However, no one would want their heart failure patients to get complicated VT or afib ablations performed by a part-time EP proceduralist. These cases can be challenging in even the most skilled hands.
As for the EP lifestyle, it is quite good... probably better than general cards. There are few true emergencies that call you out of bed because the general cardiologist should be able to stabilize most acute EP emergencies in the middle of the night. Further, it's the general or interventional cardiologist who places temp wires for emergency pacing.
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