Nearly 50% of all U.S. counties do not have a single practicing cardiologist, most of which are in rural counties where residents are most in need of higher levels of care, according to research published July 8 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
"The counties that do not have cardiologists probably need this type of specialty care even more," Haider Warraich, MD, a cardiologist at Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital and senior study author, told NBC News, which first reported findings from the new study.
The study was conducted in partnership between researchers at Brigham and Women's, the VA Boston Healthcare System and GoodRx. It found 46.3% of counties lack a cardiologist. Of those, 86.2% are rural counties where residents tend to have less access to healthcare services overall. The rural counties also have lower income levels and less access to healthy food.
Around 10% of U.S. counties have a single cardiologist, the study found.
"We've got small towns with high health needs and the inability to seek care," Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, told NBC News.
The study also found people who live in a county without a cardiologist travel around 87 miles round trip for care, relative to around 16 miles for those who do have access to a local specialist.
The findings point to the value of telemedicine and the need for wider access to it, experts told the news outlet. The study comes two months after research in May found the majority of adults 20 and older meet criteria for cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, putting them at risk of developing full-blown heart disease.