Cardiologists earn an average annual salary of $459,000, according to the 2021 Medscape Physician Compensation Report. This represents an increase of 4.8%.
This continues a consistent rise in pay for the specialty—the same report recorded cardiology’s average salary as $438,000 in 2020, $430,000 in 2019, $423,000 in 2018 and $410,000 in 2017. According to Medscape, the only specialties with higher average salaries than cardiology are plastic surgery ($526,000) and orthopedics ($511,000).
The report also highlighted cardiology’s lack of diversity. Just 14% of cardiologists are women, according to Medscape, putting it near the very bottom of all specialties.
Overall physician income remained largely unchanged from 2020 to 2021. Salaries for primary care physicians were down slightly, for example, dipping from $243,000 in 2020 to $242,000 in 2021. For specialists, meanwhile, average salaries dropped from $346,000 in 2020 to $344,000 in 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic did lead to significant changes for physicians throughout the country. Forty-four percent of physicians reported a drop in patient volume, and nearly one in four respondents said they were forced to work fewer hours. How did physician salaries stay relatively strong during this troubling time? The team behind the report attributed that success to numerous factors, including the rise of telemedicine.
“Physicians experienced a challenging year on numerous fronts, including weathering the volatile financial impact of lockdowns,” Leslie Kane, MA, senior director of Medscape Business of Medicine, said in a prepared statement. “Our report shows that many were able to pivot to use telemedicine and focus on tactics that would protect their practices. COVID took a terrible emotional toll on physicians and healthcare workers, and many are still struggling financially, but our findings showed that physicians will innovate and change quickly to meet the needs of patients through extremely difficult times.”
Nearly 18,000 physicians participated in the 2021 Medscape Physician Compensation Report. Three percent of those participants were cardiologists. Data was collected from October 2020 to February 2021.
Click here to read through the full report.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.