Role of the cardiologist in peripheral vascular disease

The first 10 years of the American Board of Vascular Medicine

“…Formal fellowship training in vascular medicine has been defined in previous documents. 1,2 Because of the limited number of fellowships available in vascular medicine, the practice pathway was open for those candidates who have committed at least 50% of their practice to vascular medicine. The number of candidates applying through the practice pathway has gradually declined with the majority now receiving formal fellowship training (Figure 1).…”

Postgraduate training in vascular medicine: proposed requirements and standards

“…Training for an academic career (1) engenders familiarity with current issues and controversies in vascular medicine; (2) fosters the ability to create cogent, testable hypotheses, as well as rigorous application of the scienti c method and critical analysis; (3) exposes the fellow to a broad range of ideas and techniques of investigation; (4) faithfully transmits a commitment to conducting ethically responsible research; (5) focuses individual effort on a eld of research that can serve as a springboard for future investigation and independent grant support; and (6) enhances skills in oral and written communication. Meeting these objectives requires the guidance of experienced faculty mentors enhanced by opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.…”

“…Expertise in vascular medicine, however, requires special training analogous to that required for electrophysiology, cardiac failure and transplantation, nuclear cardiology or echocardiography. 2 Board certi cation in cardiovascular diseases documents successful completion of a fellowship programme and tested knowledge according to an objective standard. Despite the potential economy of utilizing existing resources, few academic centers have integrated vascular medicine into cardiovascular fellowship training and it remains uncertain whether existing programmes will be able to accomplish this successfully.…”

Reorganization of vascular care in Canada

“…Technical skills and previous experience with coronary angioplasty are transferrable to cerebrovascular or peripheral vascular interventions, as reflected by the lower number of supervised procedures required before independent performance is recommended in the practice guidelines for the cardiology specialty compared with other specialties (2,4,12). Hence, many interventional cardiologists believe they are in the best position to provide endovascular treatment for cerebrovascular disease and PAD (10,11,13,14 assessment and management, or postprocedural care, makes it difficult for interventional radiologists to be a stand-alone specialty in providing vascular care. Furthermore, clinicians, including cardiologists, vascular surgeons and neurosurgeons, claim that it is always better for clinicians who know the patient to perform the revascularization procedures and make clinical decisions, rather than leaving these tasks to a radiologist who sees the patient only at the time of the procedure (10).…”