Emergency Medicine

[WOutAPulse]

I have seen combined programs in some residencies. EM-Internal, EM-Peds, and so on. Are there any others? My interests lie with emergency cardiology. I know there are elective blocks to take during residency that deal with cardiology, but can you specialize or double-board certify? Same for surgery?

------------------
EmrgncMedic*
FF/NREMT-Paramedic
Undergrad/"Gonnabe M.D."

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[TMJoyner]

I think that you would have to make your residency cardiology and them do a emergency medicine fellowship for a couple of years. I am not sure how long cardiology residency's are; but i am sure you are looking at at least 6 years total.

 

[Pebbles]

Woutapulse,

I don't know if this will help any but...


Your best bet would be to go into Cardio then zero in your focus into Cardiac ICU's. I did a internship (dealt with my nursing school) in a Cardiac ICU pod, where most of the emergency cases related to cardiac trauma were directly placed into the cardiac pods. However, some hospitals may do things differently, in that all trauma is presented to the E.R. first. Check out your local hospital, find out there situation, then talk with a cardiologist in a cardio ICU.

I don't know if this will help

 

[Pebbles]

I also should tell you: this is an interest of mine also.

Good luck.

 

[turtleboard]

Cardiology is a subspecialty of Internal Medicine, and to be boarded in Cardio, you have to go through IM (3 years) and then do a fellowship in Cardio (3 years). If you want invasive/interventional Cardio (catheterization, etc.), that's an additional year.

There is no fellowship within EM specific for cardiology or cardiac emergencies, but if you want to practice both, the best approach would probably be: 1) Do a combined EM/IM residency (5 years) and 2) Do a cardio fellowship (3 years).


Tim of New York City.

 

[Nanook]

Tim is right, and you can learn much of this sort of info on the AAMC's (or AOA's, for that matter) website at
http://www.ama-assn.org/cgi-bin/freida/freida.cgi
(allopathic), or at http://opportunities.aoa-net.org/
(osteopathic)

Lots of good info about all types of residencies, their length, and what you can be board certified in after you complete them. If you went the above route, you could be boarded in both EM and cardio (and probably in IM as well, if you wanted)

 

[UHS2002]

Like Tim mentioned, the only way you are going to get certified in both, at the present time, is by doing a dual EM/IM plus the cardio fellowship. Since you are still an undergrad, it is an issue that you can consider with a lot of leisure.

I would say that you need to look at the usefulness of doing such an unusual program. Being trained and board certified in EM will give you all the expertise you need to treat cardiac emergencies in the ER. If you are working as a ER physician, you will not have the luxury of acting as a cardiology consultant for your ER patients. Why? Because you still have the LOL with pneumonia in curtain 3, the kid with the broken ankle in curtain 4, the r/o ectopic in curtain 7, and so on. It is just not the job you are supposed to be doing while acting as ER physician. Nobody keeps you from taking as many cardiology rotations as you can fit into your schedule and be an ER physician who is a real whiz at cardio cases, but you don't need to do a IM residency and a cardiology fellowship for that.

By the same token, if you are a cardiologist who is also board certified in EM, it doesn't mean that you can just waltz down to the ER and take over the cardiac cases.

The only reason I would see to go the EM/IM + cardio fellowship is if you just loved EM and cardio so much that you really wanted to be a cardiologist and still moonlight as a ER doc (not very realistic either, if you consider the schedule cardiologists keep) or if you are interested in clinical research involving emergency cardiac protocols (and even at that, IM + cardio fellowship should suffice).