Public dataset · Updated monthly · 3,144 counties
Heart failure care where there’s no cardiologist.
An interactive county-level atlas of the US cardiology access gap — provider density, distance to the nearest specialist, Critical Access Hospitals, and HRSA shortage designations. Companion to the peer-reviewed HEARTLAND Protocol.
57.6% of US counties have zero cardiologists at a primary practice ZIP. Aggregate public data only; no patient health information.
Counties with zero cardiologists
1,810
of 3,144 (57.6%)
Median distance — rural counties
23.1 mi
to nearest cardiologist
CAHs ≥ 20 mi from a cardiologist
659
Critical Access Hospitals
Population in zero-cardio counties
39,161,958
residents without a local cardiologist
How this map is built
Cardiologists are identified from the CMS NPPES registry and located via their practice ZIP (crosswalked to county FIPS by the US Census ZCTA↔County relationship file). Distance is measured between county centroids and ZIP centroids via great-circle geometry — suitable for county-level comparisons and intentionally coarse inside very large urban ZIPs. Full methodology.