With the addition of interventional cardiology, all major cardiology areas are now represented in the program, commonly known as The Match. Before joining The Match, interventional cardiology fellowship programs had to consider applicants separately, which resulted in tougher competition among fellows. During the pandemic, interviews in the increasingly competitive specialty were being pushed on short timelines, physicians told Medscape in the report.
“The process was so accelerated that it created high-pressure, high-stakes situations for candidates,” said Dawn Abbott, MD, director of interventional cardiology and cardiac catheterization laboratories at Brown University’s Health Cardiovascular Institute in Providence, R.I. “It was a free-for-all.”
Dr. Abbott worked with Douglas Drachman, MD, director of the interventional cardiology fellowship program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and co-chair of the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions task force, to urge their colleagues to join The Match.
