Cardiovascular Physicians and Cardiac-Related Mortality

Purpose: To determine the geographic distribution of cardiovascular physicians in relation to cardiac-related mortality and to assess the relationship between five different diagnoses and regional prevalence of cardiovascular physicians. Method: We used US Cardiovascular Physicians (MDs and DOs per 100,000 US Population) as our input measure and Cardiac related-mortality based on five categories as our output measure (2007 CDC Mortality Data). A US map identifying nine major geographic regions was used to illustrate cardiovascular physician distribution and cardiac-related mortality rates. Age-adjusted data was used to compute mortality rates for the diagnosis groups. Multivariate and correlation analysis was done on the variables. Further univariate regression analysis was done on statistically significant variables. SAS statistical package was used to analyze our data. Results: On the basis of geographic regions, a direct relationship between cardiovascular Physicians and Cardiac-related mortality was determined. The highest mortality rate along with highest number of Cardiovascular Physicians was observed in southern and southeastern states. Only Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular disease (ATH) and Hypertensive heart disease (HHD) revealed statistically significant correlations with cardiovascular physician prevalence. Cardiovascular disease and Hypertensive heart disease were determined to be statistically significant predictors of physician supply (R-Sq 0.537 and 0.17 P- <0.0001 and 0.0026). Conclusion: Mortality rates tend to play a significant role in cardiovascular physician distribution. We find that chronic conditions, particularly atherosclerotic disease and Hypertensive heart disease are positive predictors of Physician prevalence. There is a need to train more cardiovascular physicians to address the growing shortage.