Current Status of Preventive Cardiology Training Among United States Cardiology Fellowships and Comparison to Training Guidelines

We evaluated preventive cardiology education in United States cardiology fellowship programs and their adherence to Core Cardiovascular Training Symposium training guidelines, which recommend 1 month of training, faculty with expertise, and clinical experience in cardiac rehabilitation, lipid disorder management, and diabetes management as a part of the prevention curricula. We sent an anonymous survey to United States cardiology program directors and their chief fellow. The survey assessed the program curricula, rotation structure, faculty expertise, obstacles, and recommended improvements. The results revealed that 24% of surveyed programs met the Core Cardiovascular Training Symposium guidelines with a dedicated 1-month rotation in preventive cardiology, 24% had no formalized training in preventive cardiology, and 30% had no faculty with expertise in preventive cardiology, which correlated with fewer rotations in prevention than those with specialized faculty (p = 0.009). Fellows rotated though the following experiences (% of programs): cardiac rehabilitation, 71%; lipid management, 37%; hypertension, 15%; diabetes, 7%; weight management/obesity, 6%; cardiac nutrition, 6%; and smoking cessation, 5%. The program directors cited “lack of time” as the greatest obstacle to providing preventive cardiology training and the chief fellows reported “lack of a developed curriculum” (p = 0.01). The most recommended improvement was for the American College of Cardiology to develop a web-based curriculum/module. In conclusion, most surveyed United States cardiology training programs currently do not adhere to basic preventive cardiovascular medicine Core Cardiovascular Training Symposium recommendations. Additional attention to developing curricular content and structure, including the creation of an American College of Cardiology on-line knowledge module might improve fellowship training in preventive cardiology.