COVID-19 shifted how cardiologists practice and will permanently change the specialty going forward, according to an article in TCTMD.
Here's is how three cardiologists believe the specialty will have changed:
1. Emmanouil Brilakis, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Complex Coronary Interventions at the Minneapolis Heart Institute said people will be hesitant to seek cardiology care until there is a vaccine or medication. He said his practice won't resume normal operations for anywhere between a couple months and a year.
2. Dipti Itchhaporia, MD, vice president of the American College of Cardiology, said the elective surgery shutdown will see procedures migrate to ASCs to restart. Patients will be hesitant to return to hospitals in the near term, but should be open to migrating to the ASC setting. ASCs, too, can handle the majority of outpatient appointments previously taking place in the hospital setting.
3. Jonathon Leipsic, MD, chair of the department of radiology at Providence Health Care's St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, Canada, believes COVID-19 will eliminate the historical biases of care and make organizations more nimble. He said: "We're really going to be aligning our testing and our clinical decision-making as to what is not only best for patients but finding the most direct answer and the safest way of approaching patient management and work-up with regard to distancing and potential risk exposure for both our patients and ourselves."
Read the entire piece here.