As the future holds great promise for improved multidisciplinary collaborations between cardiology and obstetrics, cardio-obstetrics may present a unique opportunity for Fellows in Training (FITs) and early career professionals to develop a niche in this expanding subspecialty, according to an FIT/Early Career Page published March 16 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Garima Sharma, MBBS, FACC, et al., describe a stepwise approach for training programs to consider this rapidly expanding subspecialty with a focus on FITs and early career professionals, and highlight the evolving spectrum of cardiovascular disease in pregnancy, need for multidisciplinary care and registry data, and growing need of developing core competencies in cardio-obstetrics.

In a response to the column, Mary Norine Walsh, MD, MACC, comments that "it will be incumbent on those cardiologists who choose to specialize in the nascent discipline of cardio-obstetrics to ask hard questions, design trials, enroll patients in registries and publish their investigations."

She adds, "If this newer, more collaborative and encompassing type of practice can impact maternal cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the U.S., we will have invested well in another new cardiology subspecialty."