Please explain how to be a cardiologist?

Question

How long will it take and etc.

Answer 1

After graduating high school, it will take about 14-16 years to become a cardiologist (give or take 1-2 yrs).  I'll try to explain each educational phase separately and with some detail.

The first phase of course is college.  Your success in college is of the utmost imporance towards achieving your goal and so discussing your college career will be the main focus here.  To become a cardiologist, a major focus in college is to work towards getting into medical school.  Because science is a major part of medical school, you should enroll in a college that offers full-year science classes (specifically chemistry, biology, and physics) and do very well in your science classes.  

However, you do not have to be a science major if you choose not to.  In medical school, half the people I knew were non-science majors (philosophy, music, history, English, etc), but you must still take the science classes necessary to get into med school.  There are required science classes required by every accredited med school in the US.  More information about specific course and test requirements can be found here: http://www.aamc.org/students/applying/ms...  Whatever your major, though, you must keep up a high GPA (try not to fall below a 3.5), especially in your science classes since your GPA from these classes is calculated separately from your overall GPA when you apply.

Besides your science grades, though, the other three pillars of a successful med school applicant are community service, experience in the medical field, and extracurricular activities.  The first is relatively self-explanatory.  One nuance that might be helpful, though, is to work with a nationally recognized service group, such as Habitat for Humanity, The Red Cross, United Way, etc., so that application reviewers or interviewers will be more impressed and less cautious or unsure about your service.  

Medical experience can take several different forms.  The best would be to find a physician to shadow for some sort of extended length of time (several weeks during summer vacation or a day a week for a semester, etc.).  If you have a family member or family friend who is a physician, nurse/nurse practitioner, or physician's assistant, you should definitley seek them out for shadowing.  Of course you could try to volunteer at a hospital, but often you will not have any interaction with medical staff or patients since the hospitals are afraid of lawsuits.  Check with the career counseling center at your college to see what opportunities are available in your area.  Also, it is better if you can do some shadowing in more than one field (or at least with more than one practitioner) to show the med schools your serious interest in learning about the different facets of medicine.

The third pillar is extracurricular activities.  Now I put this separately from the previous two activities since this should be something that you enjoy and does not directly enrich your pursuit of medicine as a career.  If you play sports, pick one or two and play on a college team, even if it is just intramural.  If you play music, sign up for band/orchestra/choir at the school.  The key is to stick with something for a longer period of time (at least a year, preferably 2+).  It should be something that allows you to escape your academic rigors but is still a constructive activity.  

The final requirement for med school is to take the dreaded MCAT (medical college admission test).  This is a reasoning test much like the SAT or ACT, but instead of being split into verbal and math, it is split between verbal, physical sciences, and biological sciences.  Each section is scored on a 15-point scale with a maximum score of 45.  There is also a writing section that is scored by letter from J-T, with T being the highest score.  The national average of all test takers is a 25 O.  The average of those who get into med school is around a 27 O.   The score you specifically need for a successful application will depend highly on your GPA.  If you have a 4.0, you can afford to have perhaps even a 22-23 MCAT.  If your GPA is closer to 3.0, your MCAT needs to be in the 30's.  Several companies offer test preparation (Princeton Review and Kaplan are the major players), and these can often be helpful for review and for getting used to the exam.  

The rest just involves the actual application and interviews for the med schools, which is not something that will be useful here.

The second phase then is medical school.  Because all medical schools must be accredited by a national accrediting body, the overall curriculum for them is essentially the same, so there really isn't much to talk about.  The first two years are classroom work while the last two years are clinical work.  The difficult part about med school is the massive amount of knowledge you have to absorb in a very small amount of time.  All the different facts by themselves are not difficult to understand, but being able to process and remember ALL of them is the tricky part.  Specifically looking into cardiology, you have to keep very high grades in med school because cardiology is a highly sought-after specialty.  Also, do at least one elective in cardiology during your clinical years of med school to really see if you like it or not.

Once medical school is over, you will begin your residency training.  Just like colleges and med schools, residency programs have rankings on the quality of their programs.  Because cardiology is a very popular field, you need to tailor your med school program to try to get into one of the high-ranking residency programs in either Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, or the combined Medicine/Pediatrics (depdending on the population you want to work with as a cardiologist).  This will involve 3-4 years of mainly clinical training to teach you to be an independent physician.  You should also do some sort of scientific research here (and in med school if you can).  Doing a year as Chief Resident will also benefit you greatly.  After your residency, you then apply for a Cardiology fellowship, which takes approximately 3-4 years as well.

I know this is quite an overload of information, but the process is indeed very involved and lengthy.  However, the reward is well worth the effort if Cardiology becomes your passion.  Good luck.

Answer 2

The following 8 steps are the key to your success to become a cardiologist :

Step 1 :-

Get a bachelor's degree in an analytical subject like life sciences, chemistry, economics, engineering or psychology. It's not necessary to do a premed curriculum to succeed as a cardiologist.

Step 2 :-

Take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) to get into medical school. Check out the Liaison Committee of Medical Education (LCME), which accredits medical schools in the United States and Canada.

Step 3 :-

Concentrate on internal medicine in medical school. You learn about preventing, diagnosing and treating diseases affecting all organ systems. It is typically 4 years program.

Step 4 :-

Perform a three year residency program in internal medicine. This is a prerequisite for every cardiologist. You need to treat patients directly during your residency. Your level of responsibility increases as you progress through the program.

Step 5 :-

Acquire your license to practice medicine in your state. This is a prerequisite to getting certified as a cardiologist by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM).

Step 6 :-

Get certified by the ABIM. This requires you attended an accredited medical school and meet certain standards in your residency program.

Step 7 :-

Complete three years of cardiology residency once certified as an internist. This includes performing cardiac catheterizations, EKGs and other cardiac tests.

Step 8 :-

Take the American Board of Internal Medicine test to get certified as a cardiologist.

Wish You All The Best !