Interventional vs. Invasive Cardiology

[QuakerMD]

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Hey all,

I have a question: What is the difference between invasive and interventional cardiology? What types of procedures do they perform? Is additional fellowship beyond the 3 years of cardiology required for invasive cardiology?

Thanks all.
Q

 

[Apollyon]

In a cardiology fellowship, everyone does invasive - that is cardiac catheterization for characterization of lesions. Interventional is a subfellowship (one to two years after the 3 of the fellowship and 3 of IM), where, beyond cathing just to look, interventional techniques are taught, like balloon angioplasty, the "roto-rooter", stenting, and clot lysis.

 

[QuakerMD]

Thanks Apollyon.

So what is a typical workday for an invasive cardiologist? Do they spend most of their day in the cath lab, or is it usually a minor part? Also, what is the renumeration compared to that for an interventionalist?

 

[QuakerMD]

Anyone have any ideas? I know it's a fairly general question, I'm just trying to get an idea so that I can have some info when I set up my shadowing. Thanks!

 

[Bear1220]

Thanks Apollyon.

So what is a typical workday for an invasive cardiologist? Do they spend most of their day in the cath lab, or is it usually a minor part? Also, what is the renumeration compared to that for an interventionalist?

I did clinical research with an interventional cardiologist a couple summers ago. A large chunk of his time, as expected, was spent in the Cath lab. But since he was also interested in clinical research, he wasn't in the Cath lab all the time; this isn't the more financially lucrative endeavor but it shows you can be as involved as you want (to an extent) in the clinics.