Summary of Task Force recommendations to address the growing shortage of cardiologists.

The nation’s growing shortage of cardiologists, if not addressed, will adversely affect the care of patients with cardiovascular diseases. The shortage will impair patient access to cardiovascular specialty care (that has proven benefits in terms of timely diagnosis, appropriate treatment, and enhanced outcomes). Cardiovascular research programs will suffer because many academic cardiologists will be expected to devote more time to patient care. Over the past two years, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Task Force on Workforce studied several aspects of the nation’s growing shortage of cardiologists. This final section summarizes the recommendations of eight working groups and the participants in the 35th Bethesda Conference. The strategies to accomplish these goals are discussed in the following text, and an outline of specific recommendations is at the end of this paper. Each working group report includes more detail about the rationale for its recommendations and suggestions for implementing them. For the purposes of this brief summary, the task force’s recommendations fall into two broad categories: 1) how to increase the number of cardiologists, and 2) how to enhance the efficiency of cardiologists and the care teams they lead.