Hmm....
I didn’t really get into EP (or for that matter know much about the field) until general cardio fellowship. But pretty early on I took a liking to it.
For me it’s a number of things that all combine into being a fun field.
I’ll say though that I still enjoyed/enjoy most other aspects of general cardiology, especially imaging. While some EPs eventually just do strictly 100% EP “stuff” and don’t manage general cardiac issues there are a good number that still do some aspect of general cardiology care, whether that’s covering gen cardio consults, doing their own TEEs, etc...
In any event I didn’t want to be 100% in the hospital or office regardless of field. I enjoy a mix of hospital consult work, office type visits and especially procedures. So from that starting point EP fit nicely, as do most of the other fields in caridology.
I’m sort of a gadget/technology junkie and I think somewhat drawn to the technically nature of some of these procedures. When younger I enjoyed tinkering with electronics and repairing things so whether it’s an EP study/ablation or trouble shooting an ICD/Pacer there’s an aspect of working with technology that appeals to me.
It’s still a fairly young and evolving field. Some of the “founding fathers” and second generation field leaders are still either practicing or giving talks so it’s cool to hear lectures and get to interact with the names who actually worked there way through the initial development and growth of the field. They have a unique knowledge base and perspective.
For the most part I can offer a treatment that can either cure something immediately or high a very high chance of improving a patient’s life. Someone comes in with complete heart block I can easily fix that. Most SVTs we pretty much can cure now with an ablation. Someone has symptomatic AF, I can either give meds or perform an ablation that has a high chance of improving symptoms. With advanced cardiomyopathies I’ve seen plenty of people respond dramatically to CRT.
EP itself is growing into a pretty diverse field. Certainly if you end up going into academics you may choose to focus on particular aspect, whether it be AFib, VT, device therapy, or extraction. It’s actually getting hard to “do it all”.
I enjoy the intellectual challenge. The EPs I’ve met are incredibly smart people and the subject material I think lends itself well to someone who enjoys or who is good at understanding a concept and logic. I’m horrible at memorizing though am good at working through a problem once i understand a concept or mechanism.
