Cardiology!

[ffp]

Ok, here's my post on the specialty that's closest to my heart!

Cardiology is one of the subspecialties that you apply to after 3 years of IM residency. Cardio itself is 3 years, then you can further subspecialize after that (usually 1-3 years, but can take as long as you want if you choose multiple subspecialties).

I developed an interest in cardio in first year med school because it's the first topic we covered that made any sense to me! I've always loved math, physics and logic. In school, I did well in these subjects without studying, because I found that if you had a solid understanding of the basics, you could reason out the answer to any problem. I HATED classes like bio which required memorization of seemingly unrelated facts.

Well, the first few months of med school were miserable because they seemed like straight memorization (infection, immunity, inflammation, endocrine, pulmonary). My head was spinning with cytokines, bugs and drugs, and hormones. It wasn't very much fun

Suddenly we were in cardio block. The heart functions as a pump. If you can understand some basic pressure-volume relationships, you can understand heart failure and valvular abnormalities! You can understand why certain heart sounds and murmurs go with certain conditions, and how they might vary with maneuvers. You can reason out how all of the cardiac drugs act, and how they might be used to treat different heart conditons! ECGs baffled me until my PBL preceptor explained that it is all vector geometry. Suddenly it made sense! I loved cardiology because it all seemed so simple, beautiful and logical.

Long story short... I did some cardio research and electives in med school (some experiences were better than others). I explored a few other specialties (including peds cardio), but eventually ended up as an adult cardio trainee! Here's the lowdown on my specialty:

I like cardiology because it is a great combination of thinking and doing. Cardiology is more "active" than some of the other IM specialties. Often, your patient will have a serious, acute condition, and you can act immediately to treat it (ie. cardiac arrest, arrhythmia, MI, pulmonary edema). In that sense, you can instantly see the result of your actions, and it provides some instant gratification. There's higher patient turnover than on the IM service. Patients tend to come in, get treated, and go home within a few days. On the other hand, it's still more of a cognitive specialty than surgery or EM. Some patients have weird and wonderful conditons (cardiomyopathies, congenital diseases, arrhythmias) that require thorough workups to determine the etiology. Some patients have chronic conditions and require long-term follow-up.

Cardio is great if you like doing procedures. As a cardio fellow, you get to perform echocardiograms and diagnostic angiograms. 8 months into my fellowship, I've done ~200 diagnostic angiograms on my own already! You get to put in intraaortic balloon pumps and do lots of central lines, arterial lines and temporary pacemakers. You gain some exposure to electrophysiology studies and transesophageal echocardiography.

Even if you think you are no good at procedures, you can still do cardio. I always had trouble with central lines and felt I was no good at procedures. After a couple months of cardio, I had so much practice that now I can get a line in no time! As long as you like doing procedures and are willing to try, you can still do cardiology!

From general cardiology, you can subspecialize in many different areas:

Interventional cardiology (angioplasty/stenting, percutaneous valves, sometimes ASD/VSD closures)

Electrophysiology (arrhythmias, pacemakers, implantable defibrillators)

Echocardography

Nuclear cardiology

Imaging (Cardiac CT/MRI)

Congenital

Heart Failure

Transplant

Some people will do a combination of subspecialties (ie. echo + congenital).
Most people spend some time in their area of expertise (ie. 2-3 days/week in the cath lab or reading echos), as well as some time seeing patients in the clinic, doing treadmill tests, or reading Holter monitors. Most cardiologists also participate in a call rota looking after the CCU, ward and inpatient consult services as well.

Cardiology is full of new advances. Right now, interventionalists are starting to do valve replacements in the cath lab (something that has traditionally involved open-heart surgery). There are new advances with imaging technology. Cardiac CT and MRI are in their infancy now, but have a promising future. There are lots of new advances in electrophysiology. Stem cell therapy for regenerating damaged myocardium is also a current hot topic. It's an exciting time to be entering the field!

Lots of people knock cardiology for being a "bad lifestyle" specialty. This is true to a certain extent. People have heart attacks and cardiac arrests in the middle of the night, and need someone to look after them. It's not like rheumatology or endocrine where an after-hours emergency is rare. That said, some of the cardio subspecialties are more lifestyle-friendly than others. An interventionalist can expect to be called in most nights (s)he is on call. An echocardiographer is still called in (albeit less frequently) for urgent transesophageal echos at night. An electrophysiologist will RARELY be called at night, and most problems can be handled over the phone. A nuclear cardiologist will NEVER be called after-hours!

Even with the busier specialties, the amount of call you do will depend on the size of your call group, and the arrangements you have worked out. If you are 1 of 3 interventional cardiologists, your call is 1 in 3. This becomes a lot nicer if you are 1 of 10!

A cardiology fellowship is very busy. No doubt about that!!! Right now, I am doing 7 calls/month (plus whatever moonlighting shifts I pick up). I compare this to my friends in heme, rheum and pulmonary fellowships who either do NO call, or might get called in once/month! Still, I think it's worth it to be doing what i like to do. Different programs vary in terms of fellow call, but it's pretty standard to do 7 call/month in your first year, ~5 in your second year, and ~3 in your third year. For most programs, it's home call. I review all admissions and consults with the junior resident. If the patient is stable, and the junior is comfortable managing them, I can review over the phone. If the patient is unstable or requires admission to CCU, I have to see them in person. I have to see all admissions/consults before 8am signover the next day. If a patient goes to the cath lab at night, I actually get to scrub in for the procedure!!!

As a fellow, I also take all phone calls from doctors in the city or the periphery who have cardiology questions. They tell me about patients over the phone and fax me the labwork or ECGs. I then either give management advice over the phone, arrange outpatient testing and follow-up, or, if required, I arrange for the patient to be sent to Saskatoon for work-up/admission.

There is always an attending on call for me to review these things with if I have questions. The attendings are good at coming in to help if the junior and I are over our heads.

As fellows, we rotate through different rotations. Here's my PGY-4 schedule:

July - Echo
August - Cath
Sept - Cath
Oct - Echo
Nov - CCU
Dec - Ward
Jan - Research
Feb - Echo (elective)
March - Treadmills
April - Nuclear
May - CCU
June - Consults

Next year, I'll have rotations in pediatric cardiology, CV surgery, and electrophysiology as well as more echo, cath, CCU, ward and consult.

As far as remuneration goes, cardiology is the highest-paying IM subspecialty. Generally, interventionalists make the most, because they do the most procedures and a lot of it is done after-hours (which means special premiums). The specialties with fewer procedures earn less, but most cardiologists will earn at least $300K.

It is a busy lifestyle, but I look at it this way. Right now, I am VERY busy, but I like what I am doing and time flies by quickly. if I was doing endocrinology, my days would be 9-5, but every minute would be boredom and drudgery. I therefore consider cardiology to have a much better lifestyle! Once you finish your core fellowship, you can choose a less-busy specialty. You can choose to join a large call group, or job-share with someone. There are options for people who want lives outside of medicine (and most of us do!)

Right now I am trying to decide between electrophysiology and interventional. Aaah, decisions, decisions.

If you have any questions about cardio that I haven't answered, fire away!

[OttawaURookie]

ffp, wow, your posts are just amazing. Really really useful.

I have two questions for you:

1. After I finish my undergrad I will be around 26 and applying to med school hopefully. After med school is done I will be close to 30 and starting a residency. (which is not too bad in terms of age I guess?) Now you said you did the 3yrs of Internal Medicine and then you decided to subspecialize. Now, my problem would not be doing three more years if I had the standard pay for that area, but I would wager since you are a cardiology fellow now, you still have the lower pay till you finish that? That would bother me a lot more. (since I'd want to get rid of those debts as soon as I can)

2. And you said that your strength in physics, math and logic was what made you love cardiology and ultimatley enable you to have success. In all the different subspecialties of internal medicine, what subject(s) strength may give you a better chance of success? For example, Biology and Chemistry were always my strengths, while Physics I had to work really hard on and my mark was still only a bit over average.(this was in grade 11, only took grade 12 Biology)

[ffp]

Hi OttawaURookie!
30 is not old to be finishing med school!

Your pay goes up a few thousand dollars each year of your residency. I don't know my exact pay scale off by heart (we just got a new contract), but I can post it or PM it when I get home. In PGY-6, my final year of cardio, I'll earn ~$61K as my regular salary.

As you become more senior, some schools offer opportunities to augment your income by moonlighting. U of S is one of the best schools for this. Once we do 2 months ICU, 2 months CCU, and pass LMCC2, we can moonlight up to 72h/month, at $100/hr... so that's a potential extra $7200/month. Most months, I moonlight ~40hours... but it does add up! My income will break 6 figures this year. Once I pass my internal medicine licensing exams (hopefully in April, fingers crossed!) I can do locums as an internist as well. You would have to check with each individual school for their policies on moonlighting.

As to your second question... my interest/aptitude for math and physics is what attracted me to cardio as a student... but you don't necessarily need that to enjoy cardiology or be a good cardiologist. same with the other specialties. Often, you'll find that you really enjoy the THEORY behind a particular specialty, but once you get out on the ward and start seeing patients, you dislike it (or vice versa). For example, I loved the theory behind neurology, but when I got out on the wards and started seeing neuro patients, I realized that I didn't like it. I hated hematology in the classroom, but clinical heme is kind of cool! I don't think there's any way to predict it. You just have to get out there and experience the different specialties for yourself.

This is why I tell people to keep an open mind. Sometimes we go into a rotation with a pre-conceived notion that we will either love or hate it. Try not to jump to early conclusions... after all, you're trying to decide what you'll be doing for the next 30 years! Make the most careful and informed decision you can!

good luck

[tarzi]

you're one of the best posters on here ffp

[Blake]

Originally Posted by tarzi

you're one of the best posters on here ffp

Indeed. Cards is a pretty cool field, and probably the main reason why I would consider IM.

[spade]

Hey ffp,

Just wondering...what turned you against going into paeds cardio? I find that paeds cardio is so much more diverse in terms of what you see and do...and more rewarding too! (but I guess that one's subjective)...

spade

[ffp]

As a med student, I actually spent lots of time in peds cardio. U of A has a great program, and I worked with a wonderful mentor (Dr. Coe). he told me at one point that I would be bored with adult cardio because the patients are all the same. "Coronary artery disease?" I asked naively. "No... 4 chambers, 4 valves", he said.

Peds cardio is fascinating and diverse, and you do see a lot of weird and wonderful things. Sick kids are always kind of sad to deal with, but you don't have the same problems with self-inflicted disease that you have in adults (3rd heart attack, obese, smoking, noncompliant with diabetes meds).

it was a VERY tough choice for me come CaRMS time, and in fact, I did apply to peds as well as IM. What it boiled down to is that I got interviews everywhere for IM, but very limited peds interviews, and mostly at places without cardio programs (as my interest in peds cardio came late, and peds was competitive in my year). Sometime between match day and ranking, I also reached the conclusion that an IM residency would be easier for me to stomach than a peds residency (as I would have to do one or the other before entering cardio). I couldn't stomach the poor kids with weird genetic diseases who would never have a chance at normal life. I couldn't handle some of the difficult parents, and I really disliked the general peds clinics... reminded me too much of family med. Adult IM has its equivalents, but I just thought it was a better fit for me.

Not that it influenced my decision all that much, but peds cardiologists are much lower-paid than their adult counterparts.

So far, I think I made the right decision for me, but it would be a very individual decision.

Good luck

[tarzi]

ffp,

what are some of the negatives about cardiology and IM in general?

Are the hours bad? Are you on call? I read somewhere that the hours for cardiology are really bad - but I don't see how this can be.

Is there opportunity for you to split your week into clinical time and research/teaching time? Do cardiologists ever go into private practice or do most work for hospitals?

[leviathan]

Nice post, ffp. Cardiovascular physiology has always been my favourite topic in university, with respiratory following in second (probably because of their intimate relationship). I love all of the very concrete facts about cardio like understanding all the stuff about preload, afterload, cardiac output, blood pressure determinants, etc. And even with the diseases, it is very little memorization and much more understanding to know why a dilated vs. hypertrophic cardiomyopathy develops, for instance.

I have no idea if I want to do cardiology though, because I'm sure the STUDY of cardiovascular physiology can be very different than the PRACTICE of it as a cardiologist. Is there any real way to find that out other than doing cardio during med school rotations?

[ffp]

leviathan,
Sounds like you like cardio for all the same reasons I did at first! From what I understand, you aren't in med school yet, right? this can make it harder to get clinical exposure. Cardio is a bit harder than other areas. If you like geriatrics, you can always work/volunteer in a nursing home. For peds....well, it's easy to find volunteer work with kids. You could volunteer with a cardiac rehab program, but this doesn't give you a real flavour for clinical cardio, since most of these patients have stable disease with few active issues.

I think the best thing for you to do would be try to shadow a cardiologist, or cardio fellow. At UofS, they have a program for aboriginal high school and university students to be paired up with a doc for a day. I met one of these students through the preceptor he was paired up with, and he shadowed me for a few mornings at work, as well as a few nights on call. If you could get set up with something like that, it would be sweet.

Also, I did some cardio research early on in second year med school, and my preceptor invited me to hang out in her clinic (despite the fact that I hadn't done my cardio clin skills yet).

You still have lots of time... Remember.. you have ~3 years of med school to decide on a specialty, and if you do IM, you have another ~2 years to pick a subspecialty... so don't worry about it too much at this point... you might change your mind several times