What is a cardiologist?

In plain English

Cardiology is a sub-specialty of internal medicine. After an internal medicine residency, a cardiologist completes a general cardiovascular disease fellowship covering diagnosis, imaging such as echocardiography, and the medical management of heart and vascular conditions.

Below general cardiology sit further sub-specialties, each a separate fellowship and a separate code on the public record: interventional cardiology for catheter-based procedures, electrophysiology for rhythm and implanted devices, advanced heart failure and transplant, and non-invasive imaging. Cardiac surgery is not one of them - it is a surgical specialty with its own long residency.

Because cardiology is filed beneath internal medicine, the count depends on where you filter. Asking for the internal medicine classification returns cardiologists along with every other internal medicine sub-specialty; asking for cardiovascular disease returns the ones who file that as their primary specialty and misses those who file something narrower.

Cardiology also consolidated into health systems earlier and harder than most specialties. The employer on one of these records is often more useful than the practice address, because a cardiologist may hold clinics at several sites owned by the group that actually employs them.

Training and credentials

Medical school, three years of internal medicine residency, a cardiovascular disease fellowship of about three years, then board certification; each further sub-specialty adds a year or more.

Where they practise

Hospital-employed cardiology divisions, large single-specialty cardiology groups, catheterisation labs and heart centres, academic medical centres.