PEDIATRIC CARDIOLOGY

What does a Pediatric Cardiologist do?
What are the career opportunities?
What Board, if any, certifies a Pediatric Cardiologist?
What is the lifestyle of a Pediatric Cardiologist?
What is the compensation of a Pediatric Cardiologist?
How do I become a Pediatric Cardiologist?
Where do I find out about available programs?
When do I apply?
Why should I choose to become a Pediatric Cardiologist?

What does a Pediatric Cardiologist do?
Pediatric Cardiologists care for patients with congenital or acquired cardiac and cardiovascular abnormalities. The scope of pediatric cardiology practice is extensive. Pediatric Cardiologists evaluate and care for fetuses, neonates, infants, children, adolescents, young adults, and adults. Special areas of interest include: Intensive Cardiac Care, Cardiac Catheterization and Intervention, Electrophysiology, Imaging, Exercise Physiology, Preventive Cardiology, Heart Failure and Transplantation. Cardiology is practiced in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Additionally, Pediatric Cardiologists can have a career that focuses on translational or basic science research, or in medical education. The scope of conditions cared for by Pediatric Cardiologists is broad and includes congenital heart defects, heart muscle disorders, rhythm disturbances, hypertension, and other systemic disorders affecting the cardiovascular system. A significant majority of activities in Pediatric Cardiology require expertise in procedural and/or interpretive activities.

What are the career opportunities?
The available opportunities in Pediatric Cardiology are many and varied. Pediatric Cardiology is often the cornerstone of large academic medical centers and there are many divisions of high volume and high intensity. There are also many small to medium sized programs with most divisions of Pediatric Cardiology averaging 2-3 cardiologists per 1 million population served. Private practice opportunities of various sizes and clinical service also exist throughout the country. Career opportunities range from 1) a career in an academic setting as a clinician educator or researcher on a tenure track or some combination of the two, 2) hospital based settings with academic collaborations with a larger tertiary care center, and 3) a private practice setting usually with referrals to a large center for surgery or cath interventions. A career in an academic based setting may necessitate a fourth year of further specialization in order to pursue a subspecialty career in most of the areas mentioned above.

What board, if any, certifies a Pediatric Cardiologist?
Board certification for Pediatric Cardiologists is through the American Board of Pediatrics, Sub-board of Pediatric Cardiology. To sit for this exam, applicants must have achieved certification in General Pediatrics.

What is the lifestyle of a Pediatric Cardiologist?
An extremely variable, yet enjoyable, lifestyle awaits the physician specializing in pediatric cardiology. Some areas of cardiovascular specialization are only infrequently called upon to deal with emergent situations; hence, those physicians are infrequently called upon at odd hours to deal with such events. At the other extreme are those subspecialty areas in cardiology which necessitate in-house call or frequent nighttime or after-hours life saving activities, many of which necessitate special technical expertise. Also impacting the lifestyle achievable in pediatric cardiology is the program size. As many Pediatric Cardiology programs are very large in number and train fellows, call nights can frequently be managed from home and emergencies are often diluted between many practitioners. Although academic pursuits in pediatric cardiology may avoid emergency on-call clinical issues, the lifestyle of a basic science researcher can be one of rather long hours in the laboratory.

What is the compensation of a Pediatric Cardiologist?
Pediatric Cardiologists, in general, are well compensated. The basis for this is multi-factorial, but predominantly related to large clinical volumes and the significant number of procedurally-oriented activities which are historically well reimbursed. For additional salary information, please click here or here.

How do I become a Pediatric Cardiologist?
Pediatric Cardiologists undertake three, and sometimes more, years of post-pediatric subspecialty training. Medicine-Pediatric graduates are also accepted into Pediatric Cardiology fellowship programs. Pediatric Cardiology fellowship programs exist across the country and over 150 fellowship positions are available each year. Application to pediatric cardiology programs is through ERAS and pediatric cardiology participates in the NRMP pediatric subspecialties spring match.

Where do I find out about available programs?
Information can be obtained on pediatric cardiology training programs through the individual institutions’ websites, as well as the ACGME, Freida and ERAS websites.

When do I apply?
Pediatric Cardiology will begin using ERAS in 2011. ERAS applications are available in November.with rank lists due in the spring. Match results are released in early June. The interview cycle has typically been from December through April of the year preceding the intended fellowship start date. Information about the match can be found at the NRMP website. For match statistics, click here

Why should I choose to become a Pediatric Cardiologist?
Pediatric Cardiology is the most clinically diverse subspecialty of pediatrics. From the infant to the young adult, from the critically ill to the competitive athlete, from the bench to the bedside, Pediatric Cardiology provides the opportunity for you to craft the practice of medicine that will be both satisfying and rewarding.

For more information about Pediatric Cardiology, visit these websites:
FREIDA
ACGME
ERAS
American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery

Subspecialty Journal:
Congenital Heart Disease
Pediatric Cardiology
Circulation
Journal of the American College of Cardiology