General Cardiology Job market

[IM2022]

Hi everyone, 

I am an IM resident in ontario. I have an interest in cardiology, mainly general cardiology though and not any of its specific fellowships. What I have been seeing is that most of the fellows have to do extra 2 years in something (EP, imaging, etc.) to get a job but nobody really talks about general cardio. Not sure it is because people don’t want to do it or the lack of job forces people to do extra years. Was wondering how is the job market for general cardio in places like GTA, ottawa, London and how is the income/lifestyle. Really appreciate it. 

[Kitara]

43 minutes ago, IM2022 said:

Hi everyone, 

I am an IM resident in ontario. I have an interest in cardiology, mainly general cardiology though and not any of its specific fellowships. What I have been seeing is that most of the fellows have to do extra 2 years in something (EP, imaging, etc.) to get a job but nobody really talks about general cardio. Not sure it is because people don’t want to do it or the lack of job forces people to do extra years. Was wondering how is the job market for general cardio in places like GTA, ottawa, London and how is the income/lifestyle. Really appreciate it. 

Hi, just a measly MS1 here but I had a lengthy conversation regarding this topic with my physician mentor who happens to be a cardiologist. They said currently job market for general cardiologists is limited to small centers (think Moosejaw SK, Timmins ON) and they often do GIM and General cardio together because they don't have enough work to solely do general cardiology. Even slightly bigger centers like Saskatoon (comparable to London) are now requiring additional fellowships to make yourself competitive for a job there. Big centers like Ottawa and Toronto often require more training now to be considered competitive. Apparently there are general cardiologists in bigger cities like that but they are from back when finding a job was easier :/

[ACHQ]

17 hours ago, IM2022 said:

Hi everyone, 

I am an IM resident in ontario. I have an interest in cardiology, mainly general cardiology though and not any of its specific fellowships. What I have been seeing is that most of the fellows have to do extra 2 years in something (EP, imaging, etc.) to get a job but nobody really talks about general cardio. Not sure it is because people don’t want to do it or the lack of job forces people to do extra years. Was wondering how is the job market for general cardio in places like GTA, ottawa, London and how is the income/lifestyle. Really appreciate it. 

GIM staff at a large community hospital in the GTA, with cardiology colleagues and friends.

I would say your statement "lack of job forces people to do extra years" is more reflective of the situation. Most (not all) cardiologists want to do some hospital based cardiology (diagnostics such as echos, stress tests, CCU, cardiology wards/inpatient consultations etc...). These positions are the ones that are limited even in non-academic centres. From what I see (general observation may not be completely accurate) but most cardiology fellows that want to do general cardiology do an echo fellowship or a fellowship in Heart failure (or both)

That being said if you don't care about working in a hospital setting and can find a outpatient practice to join that has echo and other diagnostic availability you can do cardiology without any fellowship and get to work (high overhead though)

[IM2022]

22 hours ago, ACHQ said:

GIM staff at a large community hospital in the GTA, with cardiology colleagues and friends.

I would say your statement "lack of job forces people to do extra years" is more reflective of the situation. Most (not all) cardiologists want to do some hospital based cardiology (diagnostics such as echos, stress tests, CCU, cardiology wards/inpatient consultations etc...). These positions are the ones that are limited even in non-academic centres. From what I see (general observation may not be completely accurate) but most cardiology fellows that want to do general cardiology do an echo fellowship or a fellowship in Heart failure (or both)

That being said if you don't care about working in a hospital setting and can find a outpatient practice to join that has echo and other diagnostic availability you can do cardiology without any fellowship and get to work (high overhead though)

Thanks a lot for the reply. Really appreciate it. I am someone who enjoys GIM quite a bit and have been between GIM with cardiac interest vs gen cardio. If I do gen cardio, is it still doable to like get a full gim job in gta and complement that with outpt cardio or once you do cardio, you will be not as preferred for the GIM job. Also how is the GIM job in big centres in GTA right now and any predictions for the next three yrs by any chance? 

[ACHQ]

2 hours ago, IM2022 said:

Thanks a lot for the reply. Really appreciate it. I am someone who enjoys GIM quite a bit and have been between GIM with cardiac interest vs gen cardio. If I do gen cardio, is it still doable to like get a full gim job in gta and complement that with outpt cardio or once you do cardio, you will be not as preferred for the GIM job. Also how is the GIM job in big centres in GTA right now and any predictions for the next three yrs by any chance? 

Is it possible? probably, but not likely. Some places wont care too much, although generally speaking if you want to do the full gambit of GIM (ED consults, Urgent GIM clinics, Hospitalists/MRP/inpatient work, inpatient consults to non-medicine wards) they would probably prefer a GIM to do that.

Whats more likely is that you could do ED consult shifts ontop of whatever outpatient practice you have, that is probably the most common way *any* IM subspecialist does some GIM ontop of their sub-specialty.

The other option is to do GIM and go beyond the city (smaller, more rural but not completely isolated) centres, where you can do full out GIM, and see alot of the cardio cases, and read stress tests/ecgs.

Define "big centres", do you mean academic? community? The job prospects in community GIM right now is pretty good, but things are starting to tighten up, in 3 years I suspect it will be even tighter.

[Snowmen]

The main issue is keeping the expertise after you begin your cardiology "fellowship". After 3 years of only doing cardiology, you will no longer have the experience or knowledge to do GIM and you wouldn't be able to offer your patients the care they deserve in both GIM and cardiology.

[ACHQ]

On 4/13/2021 at 7:12 PM, Snowmen said:

The main issue is keeping the expertise after you begin your cardiology "fellowship". After 3 years of only doing cardiology, you will no longer have the experience or knowledge to do GIM and you wouldn't be able to offer your patients the care they deserve in both GIM and cardiology.

Yes this is a big point I forgot to mention, and very true. I know fellows that locum for $ during their PGY5 year getting scared even though they are only 1 year out of doing GIM.

 

The one thing you could do is lots of GIM locums during your fellowship to keep up those skill sets. That being said it wont make your fellowship very fun...