CardioPathway is the core educational infrastructure a cardiovascular service line needs — structured, RCIS/RCES-aligned programs that turn the clinical staff you already have (telemetry techs, EMTs, rad techs) into cath-lab-ready technologists.
One connected curriculum across the cardiovascular service line — so readiness stops depending on who was free to teach that day.
RCIS/RCES-aligned programs across ECG, the cath lab, and EP — built for the person who'll actually stand in the room.
Sequenced modules, a dual-lead rhythm simulator, workbooks, and mastery assessments, so onboarding is the same every time.
Preceptor guides and competency tracking that turn one great preceptor's knowledge into a repeatable standard.
The rhythm strips and the pressure waveforms every cardiovascular tech has to read on sight — live, measurable, and free to start.
Cardiovascular procedure volume keeps rising. The trained workforce to support it doesn't exist in the numbers hospitals need — and no amount of recruiting creates people who were never trained.
Procedure volume and the 65+ population keep climbing while the training pipeline stays flat. Every year the gap widens — and it can't be recruited shut.
Travel and agency staffing became the default stopgap — but the agencies draw from the same shallow pool. Even they can't recruit enough, because the trained people simply aren't out there. Distribution isn't the problem. Supply is.
Travel cath lab techs average ~$74/hr and run as high as $112/hr, against a staff average near $29/hr — roughly a 130% premium for a body that never builds your permanent team.
96% of programs report trouble staffing their cath labs, 85% say it's harder than before the pandemic, and some report 30% vacancy.
~33% burnout prevalence among cath-lab RNs and RCIS staff — and call burden is the single largest driver of interventional staffing strain. "Nine straight days of call" is a real headline.
No standard plan, learn-by-doing, different every time — and 6–12 months to full independence, every month carrying a cost.
One poorly prepared hire — or one quarter of traveler coverage — costs more than a CardioPathway license. The status quo isn't free; it's just an invisible bill. The way out isn't more recruiting. It's building your own pipeline.
See how we fix it →*Program counts confirmed against the CAAHEP accredited-program directory (caahep.org, accessed August 2026): 41 accredited Cardiovascular Technology programs nationwide, of which only two (Loma Linda University, CA and Sentara College of Health Sciences, VA) offer a Cardiac Electrophysiology track. Sources: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (Cardiovascular Technologists & Diagnostic Sonographers); NCDR CathPCI Registry; CAAHEP program directory; Vivian Health / industry travel-pay data; MedAxiom & Cardiac Interventions Today staffing surveys; Cardiology Research burnout study; HMP Cath Lab Digest. CardioPathway executive briefing (v6) consolidates the workforce figures.
Your telemetry techs, EMTs, and rad techs already have a clinical foundation. What they lack is a structured path into the cath lab. CardioPathway is that path — delivered through a hosted LMS, so it runs remotely and scales past any one location.
Book a call to see itStart each person at the right program for their background — no one-size onboarding.
ECG, hemodynamics, anatomy, safety — the same content every time, never dependent on who was free.
A dual-lead rhythm simulator, workbooks, and mastery checks turn reading into recognition.
Competency checklists and preceptor guides make readiness something you sign off — not guess at.
Not a course. A connected curriculum across the cardiovascular service line, each program print-ready and LMS-ready, with workbooks, assessments, and instructor tools.
The scrub-tech pathway into the cath lab — hemodynamics, coronary anatomy, PCI, safety.
A ground-up rhythm interpretation course with real strips and a built-in simulator.
Axis, STEMI localization, and a full stress-testing course for the diagnostic side.
The electrophysiology pathway — signals, mapping, ablation, devices — where training is scarcest.
The technologist's procedural reference for the cath lab — the standards and steps behind every case.
A companion workbook for every course — drills, practice, and mastery checks, built to be worked in.
A preceptor guidebook plus a 154-item RCIS readiness practice exam — structure for the people who train the team.
Eight volumes, the workbooks, the manual, and preceptor tools — one connected pathway across the service line.
You don't have time to write a curriculum, and your preceptors don't have time to be instructors. CardioPathway is the structured onboarding your lab has been improvising — ready to run.
On a hosted LMS, with the rhythm simulator, workbooks, and mastery assessments included.
A defined, sign-off-able path from new hire to independent tech — the standard your lab has been missing.
We'll have your curriculum live on your LMS, your preceptor tools in place, and your first cohort onboarding within 90 days of signing — guaranteed. We map it to your lab on a call.
Every lab is different — size, case mix, where your new hires come from. A 15-minute call lets us fit the program to your lab and give you real numbers, not a generic quote.
Whether you're a telemetry tech eyeing the cath lab, a student studying for the RCIS, or a new hire trying to stop feeling lost in the room — this is built for you.
Practice rhythms and cath lab hemodynamics free, in your browser — dual-lead strips and live pressure waveforms, with calipers.
The numbers, waveforms, and language of the lab — on pages you'll keep.
When you're ready to go deep — the same curriculum labs run, module by module.
Real tools you'll actually use — we just ask for an email so we can send them (and the occasional useful reference). No spam.
A 12-page briefing on the invasive cardiology & EP staffing gap — the national data, what it costs, and how to build the pipeline you can no longer recruit. Free.
Get the free briefing →Normal pressures, the six waveforms, coronary territories, and safety — the essentials on a few pages.
Read any rhythm in five steps, plus the can't-miss rhythms every new tech should know cold.
Our survey. Take it and get the results — every response makes the case that new techs deserve real onboarding.
I'm Steven Chambers, founder of CardioPathway — and getting into the cath lab took me six years.
Not for lack of trying, and not for lack of clinical work. I spent those years as an ECG tech, a telemetry tech, a stress-testing tech, an EMT, and an educator — building the foundation the whole time. What I couldn't find was the path: a structured way to turn all of that experience into a cath-lab-ready technologist. No one could point me to it, because it didn't exist.
That's when it clicked. The cath lab shortage isn't really a hiring problem — it's a pathway problem. There are capable, motivated people one clear route away from filling these roles, and that route was never built.
So I built it. CardioPathway is the structured path I spent six years looking for: a real curriculum that takes the clinical staff a hospital already has — the ECG techs, the tele techs, the EMTs — and gives them a defined way into the cath lab and the EP suite. It's the training I wish someone had handed me, and the standard I want every tech who comes after me to start with.
That struggle is exactly why the motivation behind this runs so deep. I'm not building it from the outside looking in — I'm building the thing I needed.
— Steven Chambers, Founder
A 15-minute call — no pitch deck, no pressure. Tell us about your lab and where your new hires come from, and we'll tell you honestly whether we're a fit.
Prefer email? steven@cardiopathway.com · 970-396-1438