Cardiovascular CT Training Certification Course - worth it?

[Sapien3]

Hello folks, I am interested in advanced imaging. I am j1 visa holder so I am not 100% sure of pursuing imaging fellowship as I would work in a rural area. So, I am considering doing an online Cardiovascular CT Training Certification Course to be level 2 certified. It costs about $3000 plus where you read 150 cases and then you would be board eligible. I hear after 2 years you need to do a dedicated imaging fellowship to be eligible to read CTs. Anyone who has done this course? What are your thoughts about doing the course to boost one's skills? thanks

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[timpview]

The one thing I regret (other than choosing to be a cardiologist) is not getting my CT numbers in training.. if you can get the numbers and better yet the silly boards than yes, it could be a valuable and profitable skill in the community. Obviously you won’t be reading CTs at Duke and there might be territory stuff with rads depending on the job - but there’s a good chance you’ll find a job where it comes in handy.

At some point you think we’ll be forced to get away from stress imaging, particularly nucs and coronary CTs will fulfill their decade long promise of being the go to noninvasive screening tool

 

[aafisahar]

the one thing I hate about cardiology is the ever expanding scope of practice regarding imaging/procedures. Pretty soon a general cardiologist will just be someone who runs consults, does echoes+TEEs/stress echo but leaves CTs, nukes, MRIs, structural TEEs, diagnostics, rights, etc etc to more specialized cardiologists.

 

[disorder]

the one thing I hate about cardiology is the ever expanding scope of practice regarding imaging/procedures. Pretty soon a general cardiologist will just be someone who runs consults, does echoes+TEEs/stress echo but leaves CTs, nukes, MRIs, structural TEEs, diagnostics, rights, etc etc to more specialized cardiologists.

This will probably be the future. There will likely be an advanced imaging board certification as well.
The one thing that abundantly fights this sub-specialization within imaging is the lack of payment and low wRVU (you need to be salaried and supported). Even Chest radiologists hate cardiacs because it's so underpaid for the time needed for interpretation compared to cranking out CT PE's and CXR's.

That being said, CT's will be the future of Cardiology. It will take over stress testing. It will be the basis for un/complicated structural planning.

Here's some simple math for the above mentioned.

TTE ~1.5wRVU (15 minute read)
TEE ~2.6 wRVU (30 minute perform)

32 TTE's/day 48 wRVU's (honestly you should be able to read more than that in a day, too)
------------
MIBI ~2.4 wRVU (15 minute read)
Structural TEE ~4.5 wRVU (60-120 minutes; criminal compared to the ~32 the IC gets for a clip!)
Cardiac MRI ~2.6 wRVU (45 minutes reconstruction + read, doesn't account hand holding the technologist)
Cardiac CT ~2.4 wRVU (45 minutes reconstruction + read, doesn't account hand holding the technologist)

8 advanced studies/day ~21 wRVU's
4 structural cases/day ~18 wRVU's

 

[timpview]

the one thing I hate about cardiology is the ever expanding scope of practice regarding imaging/procedures. Pretty soon a general cardiologist will just be someone who runs consults, does echoes+TEEs/stress echo but leaves CTs, nukes, MRIs, structural TEEs, diagnostics, rights, etc etc to more specialized cardiologists.

I actually think that a general cardiologist will HAVE to be an “advanced” imager at some point in the future... with the consults, clinic, etc being handled predominantly by mid levels.. A run of the mill general cardiologist who doesn’t do pacers, doesn’t do CT or MRI or structural TEE And who requires a redundant backup IC for their caths isn’t the most efficient or cost effective member of these new heart teams. Just my opinion.

 

[AlphaDavid]

This will probably be the future. There will likely be an advanced imaging board certification as well.
The one thing that abundantly fights this sub-specialization within imaging is the lack of payment and low wRVU (you need to be salaried and supported). Even Chest radiologists hate cardiacs because it's so underpaid for the time needed for interpretation compared to cranking out CT PE's and CXR's.

That being said, CT's will be the future of Cardiology. It will take over stress testing. It will be the basis for un/complicated structural planning.

Here's some simple math for the above mentioned.

TTE ~1.5wRVU (15 minute read)
TEE ~2.6 wRVU (30 minute perform)

32 TTE's/day 48 wRVU's (honestly you should be able to read more than that in a day, too)
------------
MIBI ~2.4 wRVU (15 minute read)
Structural TEE ~4.5 wRVU (60-120 minutes; criminal compared to the ~32 the IC gets for a clip!)
Cardiac MRI ~2.6 wRVU (45 minutes reconstruction + read, doesn't account hand holding the technologist)
Cardiac CT ~2.4 wRVU (45 minutes reconstruction + read, doesn't account hand holding the technologist)

8 advanced studies/day ~21 wRVU's
4 structural cases/day ~18 wRVU's

That's awesome explanation, thanks

Can I ask where I can find the wRVU table? where did you get that from?

I absolutly agree that structural TEE doesn't worth the time and headache + Radiation exposure

 

[disorder]

Can I ask where I can find the wRVU table? where did you get that from?

All very google'able stuff. I put "~" because there are some year-to-year differences and I don't think I have the most recent data.

 

[TAVR4life]

the one thing I hate about cardiology is the ever expanding scope of practice regarding imaging/procedures. Pretty soon a general cardiologist will just be someone who runs consults, does echoes+TEEs/stress echo but leaves CTs, nukes, MRIs, structural TEEs, diagnostics, rights, etc etc to more specialized cardiologists.

That’s because the hospital administration eventually wants the bread and butter to be overseen by midlevels at a much cheaper cost to the hospital. For one general cardiologist salary, they can hire 5 midlevels. The more specialized stuff will be left to the doctors which forces them to go through 7-8 years of training which is even cheaper labor for the hospital administration.

 

[RoyalEnfield]

Hello folks, I am interested in advanced imaging. I am j1 visa holder so I am not 100% sure of pursuing imaging fellowship as I would work in a rural area. So, I am considering doing an online Cardiovascular CT Training Certification Course to be level 2 certified. It costs about $3000 plus where you read 150 cases and then you would be board eligible. I hear after 2 years you need to do a dedicated imaging fellowship to be eligible to read CTs. Anyone who has done this course? What are your thoughts about doing the course to boost one's skills? thanks

I took a CT Certification course in Michigan. It was not worth the money spent on it. I will suggest to do a thorough research. I have heard about Dr Bhasin`s CT Course. He is providing online course series because of COVID 19. I have read quite impressive reviews about this course. I agree with most of discussion in the thread.