The Future of Cardiovascular Subspecialty Training

Cardiovascular (CV) medicine as a field has expanded rapidly, and that expansion has led to the proliferation of CV subspecialties beyond the initial cohort of interventional cardiology and electrophysiology. The rapid pace of growth of CV subspecialties, coupled with a growing mismatch between the supply and demand of practicing subspecialists, has exposed deficiencies in the current model of CV subspecialty training. These deficiencies include excessive length of training, lack of flexibility in training, and lack of standardization. In this manuscript, we review the current model of CV subspecialty training, current efforts in place to redefine that training, and propose new training models that can positively transform CV subspecialty training to meet the needs of trainees, training programs, health care institutions, and patients.