Fact checked by Derick Wilder
Emotional patient videos across social media highlight the high-stakes decision-making required to access cardiac care. Among them is Leah Eva Smith, a Chicago comedian, who shares her recovery from sudden cardiac arrest.
“My engine died, and they revived me,” Smith says in one post, praising her team at Northwestern Medicine.
With heart disease the nation’s leading killer, Smith’s experience underscores the stakes of access to cardiac care.
But federal projections anticipate a shortfall of more than 7,000 cardiologists by 2038. The outlook is even tighter for cardiothoracic specialists: 900 are expected to retire by 2035 as demand grows by 20%.
Illinois, however, is projected to have a surplus — 1,650 cardiologists for the 1,470 needed by 2036.
Yet, that abundance may be a geographic illusion. Nearly 90% of rural counties nationally have no cardiologist, forcing long trips for specialty care.
For Illinois, the challenge may be less about having enough cardiologists than getting that expertise to patients who need it.
Northwestern Medicine’s Douglas Johnston, MD, surgical director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, sees a solution in expanding cardiovascular care beyond downtown. The institute now operates across nine Northwestern Medicine hospitals, sees 48,000 new patients, and performs 2,750 cardiac surgeries annually. Its newest location is the Bronzeville Outpatient Center.
Johnston describes the network as a spider web.
“People may get their care at a bunch of different places, not just start in a regional facility and end up downtown,” Johnston says.
As the national cardiology workforce contracts, Bluhm’s expanding network could offer a model for bringing cardiac expertise closer to where patients live.
“If we’re going to avoid really stressing the system, we need to focus on getting people timely diagnosis and timely care,” Johnston says. That means meeting them where they are.
Originally published in the Fall 2026/Winter 2027 print issue.
A native of Chicago’s Marquette Park neighborhood on the southwest side, Cassie M. Chew operates as a freelance healthcare policy reporter based in D.C.
