Peds vs. Med/Peds for Peds Cardiology Career - Thoughts?

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pedscardio

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So I just finished a peds cardiology elective in my 3rd year and my thoughts this as a possible career were definitely confirmed by the elective as I loved it.

My question is what is everybody's thoughts about peds vs. med/peds for peds cardiology.

Peds is obvious, so I'll give the reason why I'm thinking med/peds. In addition to liking both IM and peds clerkships, I liked the adults with congenital patients who I saw on my elective. This population is exploding and they have their own interesting issues.

My school has a special section of the peds cardio department that sees these patients. One of the faculty was a person who did med/peds before peds cardiology fellowship. However, there were other peds cardiologists who saw the adults with congenital who were not med/peds trained so one can clearly do this field without being med/peds trained.


Med/peds definitely makes sense to me if one was planning a primary care or hospitalist where you can see adults and kids. However, do you guys think it makes sense to do med/peds when I know I want to go into peds cardiology? (even with the adult congenital stuff)


What do yo guys think?

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a broader training in cardiology would not be a bad thing (more CICU time, etc.) and though the congenital heart disease population would likely be better served with a pediatric cardiologist, there are some situations (Afib w RVR) that are much more familiar in adult literature and even good general IM residents are pretty comfortable dealing with these issues....

however, i'm just spit-ballin' here. I would actually look up a congenital heart disease program (Baylor for instance) and ask a fellow currently in training their opinion.

Id be interested in what such a person would say, especially since it seems from this past year's MedPeds applicants that peds cards is high on the list of interests of many....jw
 
I know several Pedi Cards fellows at Baylor who were previously Med/Peds...it does seem to be a well-trodden career path. The full monte, OTOH, where you do a full M-P residency and a full Adult/Pedi combined fellowship, is still pretty rare since it takes SO long.

From what I've heard, it's looked upon favorably if you have that adult training and you express an interest in doing adult congenital one day. But most of the adult congenital patients you treat seem to have pretty specific needs (which is why they need specially trained cardiologists), so it's not so clear to me that spending time taking care of the s/p STEMI/PCI, Afib, etc pts in your IM years will help THAT much.
 
Programs definitely view med/peds applicants in a favorable light but it's far from a requirement.

If you know you are interested in pediatric cardiology with an emphasis in adult congenital, I feel that it would be helpful to do med/peds, but probably the most useful thing would be to do an extra year after your peds cards fellowship to emphasize adult congenital care.

Good luck!
 
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