Electrophysiology questions -- "Level 2" and job market

[Cantal]

I have several questions for anyone in EP or private practice familiar EPs

1) What "level 2" certifications should a private practice electrophysiologist obtain in general fellowship to be highly marketable? TEE so he/she can perform his own TEE/cardioversion? Do they need need diagnostic cath? Or is a private practice EP able to perform 100% EP procedures and get support from their group?


2) should a private practice EP be able to perform complex ablations (epicardial, complex pathway) or just basic SVT, device insertion?

thanks!

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[Myostatin]

MRI and/or CT will be very useful to have in context of af ablation.
Echo - TEE in particular - will be useful. Diagnostic cath will be useful in the sense that you will need good catheter skills to do EP so at least six months in the cath lab. (also for epicardial ablations it is often necessary to shoot the coronaries).

I'm also curious what the job market is looking like for private practice. In general the cards job market is not what it was 5 years ago. The few people I know who have been looking for private practice EP jobs have not had difficulty finding 100% EP jobs, but had to make some small concessions re geography. Most of the graduating fellows I know have stayed in academics.

 

[RickyBobby23]

Out of curiosity what would rank as the top 10-15 EP fellowship programs in terms if reputation? Thanks

 

[EPADHA]

Out of curiosity what would rank as the top 10-15 EP fellowship programs in terms if reputation? Thanks

If I had to hazard a guess I might say Beth Israel Deaconess, PENN, MGH, Michigan,Hopkins, UCLA, UAB, Mayo, may be Cleveland Clinic and Indiana have traditionally had very strong EP divisions with some great research going on. Not sure how strong UCSF, U Dub , Brigham, Columbia, Duke, Univ of Chicago or Wash U are for EP..

Please note that the list might look completely different if we were talking about interventional or even CV research..

 

[drdavemd]

The talk I hear is that very few private practice EP docs end up doing the complex stuff because they frequently occupy a lab for a whole day and don't reimburse enough to cover the costs. If you end up at a strong clinical program, (ie: the general fellows get to do lots of procedures) you can possibly get enough devices to be able to do implants without having to do an additional EP fellowship. I also don't know any EP people who read their own MRs or CTs in prep for ablation cases.

 

[Cantal]

I was a little surprised to see CT/MRI appear on the list of level 2 needs. I could see echo being helpful, but even level 2 in echo seems excessive.

 

[Myostatin]

I don't think that CT/MRI are necessary for EP, but I think it would be useful to know how to interpret the studies given that they are used heavily in planning EP procedures. If going into private practice, having multiple different skills (in the "level 2" sense) is useful. For academics, it doesn't make any difference.