Division of Clinical Cardiology

What Is Clinical Cardiology?

We use a lot of terms to describe conditions that affect the heart and circulatory system: cardiovascular disease, cardiac disease, and of course, heart disease. We also have a wide range of experts who work to treat diseases of the heart, with clinical cardiologists at the center of the nexus.

At Mount Sinai Medical Center, home to the Mount Sinai Heart Institute, and at medical centers around the world, clinical cardiologists oftentimes are the central physicians in the treatment and management of cardiac disease. But what is a cardiologist, and what is clinical cardiology?

The Heart Of Your Heart Care

Cardiologists are highly trained doctors who specialize in disease and conditions of the heart and circulatory system – the system responsible for pumping blood through the body and delivering life-giving oxygen to every human cell. Of course, the heart is the central organ in the circulatory system, and similar to the heart, your Mount Sinai cardiologist is likely the central figure in your cardiac team.

Cardiologists start their journey as medical professionals under the broad study of “internal medicine,” which includes nearly every type of health care, with the exception of surgery. Then, they go on to spend additional years training specifically in disease and conditions of the heart, focusing on non-surgical approaches to heart care, along with coordination among a team of other cardiac experts in allied fields of study. So, when you think of your Mount Sinai cardiologist, you can trust that she or he is the “conductor” or your heart health plan, applying all the medical care necessary to take care of you and your heart. In addition, your Mount Sinai cardiologist will identify the necessary sub-specialists to provide the expert care required for advanced cardiac interventions should you require cardiac surgery, diagnostics and testing, or interventions that use catheters to repair structures in your heart or in blood vessels, as well as electrophysiology, which treats those parts of the cardiovascular system that focus on the natural current that keeps the heart pumping.

Your Partner For Long-Term Heart Health

Because clinical cardiologists are so central to your heart care, many patients stay with their Mount Sinai cardiologist for years. Your cardiologist becomes a vital part of your overall health care team, ensuring proper coordination of care. She or he will likely use an array of data collected from different tests to understand your personal cardiac circumstances. Then, your Mount Sinai cardiologist will prescribe a treatment plan that may include non-surgical and surgical interventions to correct heart problems, to prevent escalation of whatever problem you’re facing, or to prevent other diseases that sometimes happen to people with certain cardiovascular disease. We call these co-morbidities.

Types Of Cardiologists

We classify cardiology into three main categories – invasive cardiology, non-invasive cardiology, and interventional cardiology. Remember, your Mount Sinai cardiologist is not a surgeon, but she or he can perform procedures to correct problems inside your body without an operation that requires opening the chest.

While cardiologists can perform procedures, when we specifically use the term clinical cardiology, we are usually referring to non-invasive approaches to heart care. These approaches included important tests such as:

• Echocardiography, which uses ultrasound to “see” the heart and evaluate its function and structures
• CT scans to provide 3-D images of the heart and blood vessels
• Nuclear tests that use radioactive elements to evaluate cardiac function
• Stress tests to monitor heart function when you’re exercising or exerting more energy than normal
• Remote heart monitoring to get a long-term view of how your heart functions over several days

Frequently, prescription medication, dietary changes, carefully-studied nutritional supplements, exercise programs, and mental health treatment are part of your medical cardiologist’s tool kit for getting and keeping you healthy.