Cardiology specialty

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I'm starting med school this August, and I just want to know everything about specializing in cardio. I heard some ppl said that it takes about 6 years of residency: 4 years of internal med and 2 years of surgery. Also, what if you want to go into cardio but don't want to do surgery? How long would that take? Can someone just give me a good description of a cardiologist's job?

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Cardiology is actually three years of internal medicine residency and three years of cardiology fellowship. It's not the same thing as becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon.
 
gameboi499 said:
I'm starting med school this August, and I just want to know everything about specializing in cardio. I heard some ppl said that it takes about 6 years of residency: 4 years of internal med and 2 years of surgery. Also, what if you want to go into cardio but don't want to do surgery? How long would that take? Can someone just give me a good description of a cardiologist's job?

Here are is a simple description, curtesy of google.

Cardiology is the study of cardiovascular illness, the care of all things related to the heart. It is a specialization amongst physicians. Cardiology also includes arteries and it used to diagnose and treat conditions like blockages. Cardiologists should not be confused with cardiac surgeons. Cardiac surgeons go into the chest and perform heart surgeries, while cardiologists perform tests and procedures like angioplasty.

Cardiology is the discipline that researches, diagnoses and treats heart injuries and diseases as well as their causes. A cardiologist will treat your heart problem while staying aware of other conditions, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and other factors that risk damaging the heart. Some of these risk factors include a family history of heart disease, obesity, cigarette smoking, poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle.

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IM residency is 3 years unless you choose to add a chief year which makes it 4. Then you have to do a fellowship in cardio (3 years). There is also something called fast tracts in IM. Confused yet? Here is a useful link that discusses IM/fellowships in general.

http://www.aippg.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=88701

Good luck!
 
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rainymonday said:
IM residency is 3 years unless you choose to add a chief year which makes it 4. Then you have to do a fellowship in cardio (3 years). There is also something called fast tracts in IM. Confused yet? Here is a useful link that discusses IM/fellowships in general.

http://www.aippg.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=88701

Good luck!

Funny - that link you posted is a cut-and-paste of our IM subspecialty fellowship FAQ. For more info on cards, check out the Cardiology Subforum of the Internal Medicine forum.

Also take a look at the IM subspecialty FAQ.
 
I googled that link also. Thought it explained the fast-tracking option rather well. Didn't know a thing about it until recently. Though it was a cool option that a lot of people were not privy to.
 
gameboi499 said:
I'm starting med school this August, and I just want to know everything about specializing in cardio. I heard some ppl said that it takes about 6 years of residency: 4 years of internal med and 2 years of surgery. Also, what if you want to go into cardio but don't want to do surgery? How long would that take? Can someone just give me a good description of a cardiologist's job?

fyi, cardiothoracic surgery requires 5 years of general surgery, then 2-3 years of thoracic fellowship.
 
What's a chief year?
What does an *invasive* cardiologist do that's different from a regular one? I think there's also another type of cardiologist...? How does the training vary there?


Woohoo, my first post on "Allopathic"! I'm gonna be a doc!
 
anon-y-mouse said:
What's a chief year?
What does an *invasive* cardiologist do that's different from a regular one? I think there's also another type of cardiologist...? How does the training vary there?


Woohoo, my first post on "Allopathic"! I'm gonna be a doc!


The chief year is an additional year after finishing internal medicine residency. Responsibilities vary but, I believe it is by invitation only and is considered an honor. Invasive cardiologists are trained to use catheters to increase the patency of occluded arteries in the heart, e.g. angioplasty. They can also do procedures to repair or open septa within the heart especially for congenital malformations.
 
run4boston said:
The chief year is an additional year after finishing internal medicine residency. Responsibilities vary but, I believe it is by invitation only and is considered an honor. Invasive cardiologists are trained to use catheters to increase the patency of occluded arteries in the heart, e.g. angioplasty. They can also do procedures to repair or open septa within the heart especially for congenital malformations.

Not necessarily internal medicine residency. Chief residency year is an additional year after the residency and is an honor. But, internal medicine is not the only field with chief residents. General surgery for isntance has chief residents as well. I think most fields do.
 
Thanks folks. All I knew about 'chief resident' was from Scrubs, where there was a fight for the job!
Is an 'interventional' cardiologist different from an invasive one?
 
anon-y-mouse said:
Thanks folks. All I knew about 'chief resident' was from Scrubs, where there was a fight for the job!
Is an 'interventional' cardiologist different from an invasive one?

I think interventional and invasive are the same thing.

I could be mistaken, but i dont think there is a difference...to be honest, i dont think there is such a thing as invasive cardiology.
 
There is no "invasive" cardiology. The specialties under internal medicine are cardiology (technically called "cardiovascular disease"), electrophysiology (1 year beyond the cardio fellowship), and interventional cardiology (1 year beyond the cardio fellowship). There are other cardio specialties under the umbrellas of surgery, radiology, and peds.

According to the AAMC, only 54% of applicants matched into the cardiology fellowship (77% of American applicants matched), making it the most competitive IM sub-specialty.


About chief residents: The rules are different among the various programs. At some hospitals, the residency director chooses the chief, while at others, the senior residents elect the chief. The chief is then responsible for scheduling shifts and on-call work. Also, he will assign patients and whatever else it takes to assist the residency director in running the program.
 
deuist said:
There is no "invasive" cardiology. The specialties under internal medicine are cardiology (technically called "cardiovascular disease"), electrophysiology (1 year beyond the cardio fellowship), and interventional cardiology (1 year beyond the cardio fellowship). There are other cardio specialties under the umbrellas of surgery, radiology, and peds.

According to the AAMC, only 54% of applicants matched into the cardiology fellowship (77% of American applicants matched), making it the most competitive IM sub-specialty.


About chief residents: The rules are different among the various programs. At some hospitals, the residency director chooses the chief, while at others, the senior residents elect the chief. The chief is then responsible for scheduling shifts and on-call work. Also, he will assign patients and whatever else it takes to assist the residency director in running the program.

I agree. A note of on the numbers for cardio fellowship: that's 77% placement for residents of american programs...also remember that it means that 1 in 4 applying (these are TOP residents mind you) don't get it.

As for chief residents: The policy changes among specialties and institutions, as do their responsibilities. All surgery residents in their last year automatically become chiefs at my institution. In path, only one or two of the third or forth year residents are elected to be chief by the faculty. My senior resident in Peds is electing to do a chief year after her residency ends, as she is waiting for her husband to finish his residency.

sscooterguy
 
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sscooterguy said:
I agree. A note of on the numbers for cardio fellowship: that's 77% placement for residents of american programs...also remember that it means that 1 in 4 applying (these are TOP residents mind you) don't get it.

As for chief residents: The policy changes among specialties and institutions, as do their responsibilities. All surgery residents in their last year automatically become chiefs at my institution. In path, only one or two of the third or forth year residents are elected to be chief by the faculty. My senior resident in Peds is electing to do a chief year after her residency ends, as she is waiting for her husband to finish his residency.

sscooterguy


what about for pediatric cardiology (+ maybe interventional)? do you do peds residency first and then cardiolgy fellowship (is it the same fellowship as with adult cardiologists)? is it as competitive? are there other subspecialities within the field?
 
For pediatric cardiology, you need to first do a peds residency (91% of American applicants match into peds). Second, you need to do a 3 year cardio fellowship. 84% of American applicants get accepted into this fellowship. There is no interventional peds. There is a pediatric surgery, a 2 year fellowship beyond the general surgery residency (5 years).

Here are all of the specialties in peds:
Adolescent Medicine
Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
Pediatric Cardiology
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Pediatric Endocrinology
Pediatric Gastroenterology
Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Pediatric Infectious Diseases
Pediatric Nephrology
Pediatric Pulmonology
Pediatric Rheumatology
Pediatric Sports Medicine
 
deuist said:
There is no "invasive" cardiology. The specialties under internal medicine are cardiology (technically called "cardiovascular disease"), electrophysiology (1 year beyond the cardio fellowship), and interventional cardiology (1 year beyond the cardio fellowship). There are other cardio specialties under the umbrellas of surgery, radiology, and peds.

There are some cardiologists who are considered invasive but not interventional. They can do a diagnostic cath but can not fix anything. My understanding is that nowadays nobody trains in just invasive and very few people practice just invasive, since it doesn't make sense to send patients to somebody who can't fix what they see.
 
deuist said:
For pediatric cardiology, you need to first do a peds residency (91% of American applicants match into peds). Second, you need to do a 3 year cardio fellowship. 84% of American applicants get accepted into this fellowship. There is no interventional peds. There is a pediatric surgery, a 2 year fellowship beyond the general surgery residency (5 years).

I'm a little confused. Are you talking about cardiac or general pediatric surgery? I thought cardiac ped surgery was more than 5 years?


thanks
 
Hoooba said:
I'm a little confused. Are you talking about cardiac or general pediatric surgery? I thought cardiac ped surgery was more than 5 years?


Cardio peds is 6 years (a peds subspecialty)
Peds surgery is 7 years (a surgical subspecialty)
There is not a formal cardio peds surgery.

See the AAMC website that the above poster mentioned for information about other specialties.
 
anon-y-mouse said:
What does an *invasive* cardiologist do that's different from a regular one? I think there's also another type of cardiologist...? How does the training vary there?

If i'm not mistaken, there's also an interventional fellowship for radiologists that trains them to do caths - (i'm not sure what the limit of their scope of practice is, tho.)
 
There are definitely interventional ped cardiologist. They do a regular cardio fellowship for the first year and then diverge into interventionist training (as opposed to non-interventionalist training) for the last 24 months. Same total time. Parallels IM/card track.
 
whats lifestyle like (after residency)?
 
My understanding is that nowadays nobody trains in just invasive and very few people practice just invasive, since it doesn't make sense to send patients to somebody who can't fix what they see.

There are actually plenty of cardiologists who do only diagnostic caths. Not every lesion seen on angio is fixable by angiographic means (angioplasty, recanalization and stenting). A certain share of patients who do have lesions will go to a CT surgeon instead to receive some form of coronary artery bypass grafting. Also, not every hospital that has a cath lab is equipped and certified to perform coronary intervention. For elective interventions, it is still required to have a CT surgery service who could potentially bail you out if things go south during an intervention. In emergency settings, hospitals without CT surg backup will perform coronary intervention. There are more patients who can benefit from primary coronary intervention, only a small number of patients will suffer untoward effects due to the unavailability of a CT surg backup. (I know a group of 4 cards 2 are invasive, 2 interventional. The 2 interventional cards back up the invasive guys. If a patient needs an intervention, the one who did the diagnostic cath leaves a sheath in and the interventional guy comes in from his lake house to do the fix).

whats lifestyle like (after residency)?

Lots of call, busy call.

If i'm not mistaken, there's also an interventional fellowship for radiologists that trains them to do caths - (i'm not sure what the limit of their scope of practice is, tho.)

Yes. For all other vascular and non-vascular interventions outside of the heart (renals, hepatic, peripheral, renal, carotids).
 
anyone know of any famous/reputable cardiologists at hopkins, chop, or penn?

f_w said:
There are actually plenty of cardiologists who do only diagnostic caths. Not every lesion seen on angio is fixable by angiographic means (angioplasty, recanalization and stenting). A certain share of patients who do have lesions will go to a CT surgeon instead to receive some form of coronary artery bypass grafting. Also, not every hospital that has a cath lab is equipped and certified to perform coronary intervention. For elective interventions, it is still required to have a CT surgery service who could potentially bail you out if things go south during an intervention. In emergency settings, hospitals without CT surg backup will perform coronary intervention. There are more patients who can benefit from primary coronary intervention, only a small number of patients will suffer untoward effects due to the unavailability of a CT surg backup. (I know a group of 4 cards 2 are invasive, 2 interventional. The 2 interventional cards back up the invasive guys. If a patient needs an intervention, the one who did the diagnostic cath leaves a sheath in and the interventional guy comes in from his lake house to do the fix).



Lots of call, busy call.



Yes. For all other vascular and non-vascular interventions outside of the heart (renals, hepatic, peripheral, renal, carotids).
 
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