A Detailed Outlook on Cardiology
A cardiologist is a professional doctor who has received specialist training and skills in diagnosing, treating and preventing disease of the blood vessels and the heart. Therefore, a cardiologist is doctor who treats the heart, veins and arteries. Cardiology is a specialty in the broad category of the internal medicine. You can receive training in other subspecialties such as interventional cardiology, nuclear cardiology, echocardiography and electrophysiology.
Duties of cardiologists
The cardiologist plays an important role in diagnosing and treating cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, they promote heart health. They also provide rehabilitation to people who have undergone treatment or surgery for heart ailments. The invasive non-interventional cardiologists help to diagnose patients and perform catheterizations to undertake an examination of clogged arteries. The interventional cardiologists undertake cardiovascular procedures to treat or cure diseases.
Education prerequisites
To become a medical professional you need a lot of study and clinical practice. If you are looking for an opportunity to become a cardiologist, you need to complete a pre-medicine bachelor’s degree- the program chosen needs to be loaded with pre-med courses, including anatomy, statistics, chemistry and biology. In addition, you will need to prepare yourself for a college admission test. You also need to form good relationships with mentors to help you receive strong recommendation letters. For you to become a competitive candidate you will need to acquire a bachelor’s degree and gain some clinical experience.
Afterwards, you need to consider a Doctor of Medicine (M.D) degree. These general medical degrees introduce the students’ to medicine and a career in medicine. Through the classroom instructions and clinical experiences, the students acquire the necessary skills required in assessing, diagnosing and treating illnesses. Furthermore, students focus on the medical ethics, anatomy, psychology and physical sciences.
Once the student has completed their M.D education, they get an opportunity to advance to a 2 or 3-year residency. Here, they get an opportunity to work under the supervision of experienced doctors and thus learn through hands on practice. Normally, the interns work with patients to diagnose cardiovascular diseases and prevent illnesses. Students are also advised to consider a fellowship in cardiovascular specialization for their career.
License and certification
To practice medicine you need to be licensed. You need to pass the medical licensing examination, which seeks to test the science and medical knowledge of the professional. It assesses whether the professional can administer unsupervised treatment. Furthermore, certifications are also issued in 3 areas: cardiovascular disease, interventional cardiology and heart failure & transplants.