Future Training Pathways in Percutaneous Coronary Interventions: Interventional Critical Care, Complex Coronary Interventions, and Interventional Heart Failure.

Overview

While there has been a proliferation of training and practice paradigms in the realm of noncoronary interventions, coronary disease remains the predominant pathology necessitating interventional cardiology expertise. The landscape of coronary disease has also experienced a significant transformation due to rapidly evolving technologies, clinical application of mechanical circulatory support and other device innovations, and increasing acuity and complexity of patients. The modern interventional cardiologist is subject to challenges including decreasing coronary procedural volume, need to maintain clinical and financial productivity, and often also requirements of continued scholastic pursuit. Therefore, in the coming decade, there will be greater impetus to develop expertise in multiple new domains of practice. In this document, we propose 3 training paradigms that may assist the tertiary/quaternary center coronary interventional cardiologist to develop a unique clinical/scholastic niche, maintain clinical skills and productivity, and develop care models for complex patients within local and regional tertiary/quaternary hospitals.