FAQ - Cardiology

[WildWing]

We are working on a consistent set of FAQs for all specialties as part of a revamp of the Specialty Selector.

If you are a practicing Cardiologist, please share your expertise by answering these questions.

Thank you in advance for considering this opportunity to give back to the SDN community!

• What is unique or special about this specialty?
• What other specialties did you consider and why did you pick this one?
• What challenges will this specialty face in the next 10 years?
• What are common practice settings for this specialty?
• How challenging or easy is it to match in this specialty?
• What excites you most about your specialty in the next 5, 10, 15 years from now?
• Does your specialty currently use or do you foresee the incorporation of technology such as Artificial Intelligence?
• What are some typical traits to be successful in this specialty? (For example, organization skills, work independently)
• What does a typical workday consist of in your specialty?
• What is the career progression for your specialty?
• How has your work impacted your life dynamics? What is your work-life balance?
• How does healthcare policy impact your specialty?

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[Heartdoc1]

I love cardiology- heart disease is the biggest killer of Americans, so anything you do in this field is making a huge impact in a major disease. It's fun and exciting. You get to use alot of physiology in cardiology. You can take care of patients acutely in a hospital or see people over decades treating their chronic diseases. I didn't consider a different specialty.
I do think that cardiology ten years from now will have been infiltrated by AI. AI computers probably will read echoes and EKGs in the future, which is part of our salary. Most people practice in either a multispecialty group or a cardiology only group. I think it's very difficult to match in cardiology because there aren't enough fellowship spots.
You need to be organized and hard-working in cardiology. I feel being kind and friendly is always a good idea because we take care of alot of patients who have severe chronic diseases.
I come in at 9 am and leave by 4 pm, do 2 hours of paperwork during the day or after I leave at home. I take 3 days of hospital call a month. I have a great work-life balance but that is definitely not common in cardiology. My husband is a great guy (not a physician), so that has helped alot. You often have to work long hours in cardiology.

 

[shouldigomd]

A lot of these questions change depending on if you sub-specialize and some are too variable.

- Cardiology is constantly changing with extensive research, new ideas / tools / etc probably more than any other field.
- I thought about urology. cardiology is more balanced / diverse with the ability to focus on many different things that suit your interest / lifestyle. This can range from a cath jock to an outpatient lipid specialist and everything in between.
- I think in the interventional space CT will improve to the level that diagnostic cath will be largely unnecessary
- AI will start reading imaging modalities which overall isn't a big problem for cardiologists in my opinion.
- Dynamics of a practice are completely variable depending on where you work. You can work in a group where everyone functions independently with little interaction or a group where everyone is a team player.
- As an interventionalist communication is vital. You are handling life and death acute situations with a large team and many moving parts.
- Workday completely dependent on practice dynamics and subspecialty. You have the power to choose how hard you want to work. Today I showed up at 8am, did 3 cath lab cases, saw 14 inpatients, 18 clinic outpatients and read imaging studies in between (echo, CT, stress tests, holters/ppm) and left at 4:45pm.
- Career progression is excellent with many avenues to sub-specialize in
- Healthcare policy is constantly destroying medical care in america in every specialty.