Pack’s study did not measure whether doctors whose fellowships followed the training recommendations were more knowledgeable in prevention than doctors who didn’t get a dedicated prevention rotation.

The survey respondents often said that a lack of time to devote to prevention training was the biggest obstacle to meeting the guidelines.

Another problem was a lack of faculty members with expertise in prevention. Twenty fellowship programs had no faculty who specialized in the subject.

Blumenthal said the lesson learned from Pack’s study is that program directors need to make sure their fellows properly understand all the fine points of prevention in cardiology.

Pack said getting prevention experts on staff and reconfiguring the fellowship program to include time for prevention could help programs meet the training recommendations.

“There’s time,” he said. “It’s just given to other priorities.”

SOURCE: The American Journal of Cardiology, online April 4, 2012.