You will join a cardiovascular team of approximately 20 physicians across multiple subspecialties, all practicing under the Southern Medical Group umbrella rather than competing within separate groups or employment models. This structure creates genuine collaboration instead of the territorial conflicts that plague many institutions where cardiologists, vascular surgeons, and cardiac surgeons maintain separate practices and compete for cases, referrals, and procedural access. Here, everyone shares the same organizational alignment and financial incentives, making it easy to consult colleagues about complex cases or co-manage patients when hybrid approaches make clinical sense.
The culture reflects the personalities of physicians who chose private practice specifically because they value autonomy, clinical decision-making authority, and long-term sustainability over the corporate medicine environment dominating much of healthcare. You will find colleagues who take pride in clinical excellence, maintain reasonable workloads rather than maximizing throughput at all costs, and genuinely enjoy practicing medicine rather than simply surviving it. Physician longevity speaks to this culture: many physicians have practiced here for decades, and turnover typically occurs due to retirement or personal circumstances rather than dissatisfaction with the practice environment.
Your interventional colleagues include four cardiologists who trained at respected programs and bring diverse skill sets that create comprehensive coverage rather than overlapping redundancy. Dr. William Dixon serves as the de facto leader of the interventional section and pioneered the practice's expansion into critical limb ischemia work. He identified the need for advanced peripheral capabilities years ago, recognizing that vascular disease burden in this region exceeded what traditional surgical approaches could manage. His willingness to learn techniques like detour procedures and DVA, often collaborating with vascular surgeons intraoperatively, established the culture of innovation and hybrid care that now defines the program.
The group maintains training relationships with premier institutions including Duke, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, University of Florida, and University of Virginia. This breadth of training backgrounds creates productive diversity in procedural approaches and clinical decision-making rather than groupthink. When you encounter a challenging case, you can discuss it with colleagues who learned different techniques at different institutions, gaining multiple perspectives on optimal management rather than a single "this is how we've always done it" approach.
The non-invasive cardiology section includes nine physicians who handle general cardiology clinic, inpatient consultations, and advanced cardiovascular imaging. Dr. Greg Hartlage serves as Vice President of Southern Medical Group, providing physician leadership perspective and direct access to practice decision-making when issues arise. Dr. Ernesto Umana leads non-invasive recruitment efforts and brings expertise in advanced cardiac imaging. Dr. David Smith focuses on preventive cardiology and metabolic health, offering consultative support for patients who benefit from aggressive lipid management or cardiometabolic optimization before revascularization.
The younger physicians including Dr. Natalia Rocha, Dr. Julia Barry, and Dr. Abel Romero-Corral bring recent training, contemporary evidence-based approaches, and enthusiasm for building careers in a practice model that rewards clinical excellence and long-term thinking. These colleagues provide fresh perspectives on evolving guidelines while learning from senior physicians who understand practice sustainability and work-life integration after decades in medicine.
Three electrophysiologists led by Dr. Venkata Bavikati maintain a robust EP program that performs comprehensive arrhythmia management including atrial fibrillation ablations, device implantations, and lead extractions. The section recently added pulsed field ablation technology, positioning Southern Medical Group as one of the first programs in Florida with access to this advanced platform. The EP team manages more than 3,500 device patients through a dedicated device clinic staffed by six nurses, creating the infrastructure for longitudinal care and reducing unnecessary clinic visits for routine device checks.
The EP physicians designed their own call structure to balance lifestyle with income opportunity, demonstrating the practice's willingness to accommodate physician preferences rather than imposing rigid corporate policies. They participate in general cardiology call by choice rather than requirement, maintaining clinical breadth and additional income streams while avoiding excessive after-hours burden. This flexibility reflects the broader culture where physicians control their professional lives within reasonable boundaries rather than accepting whatever hospital administrators demand.
Two vascular surgeons practice within Southern Medical Group, creating the unusual situation where both cardiologists and surgeons share the same employer and organizational goals. This alignment eliminates the competitive dynamics that create conflict in many institutions, where vascular surgeons view interventional cardiologists as threats to case volume and referrals. Here, the groups collaborate genuinely, often scrubbing cases together when hybrid approaches offer optimal outcomes for complex patients.
The vascular surgeons perform both open and endovascular procedures, maintaining broad capabilities that complement rather than duplicate interventional cardiology skills. When you encounter a patient whose anatomy or disease pattern suggests surgical revascularization would outperform endovascular intervention, you can consult vascular surgery colleagues who will provide honest assessment rather than automatically defaulting to their preferred approach regardless of what benefits the patient. Similarly, when vascular surgeons face patients whose comorbidities or anatomic challenges make open surgery excessively risky, they refer to interventional cardiology for consideration of advanced endovascular techniques.
Three cardiac surgeons employed by Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare maintain close working relationships with the Southern Medical Group cardiology team. Unlike some institutions where cardiac surgery and cardiology function as competing silos, this partnership emphasizes collaborative patient care and appropriate case selection. The surgeons provide backup for EP lead extractions, perform open surgical approaches when endovascular techniques prove inadequate for vascular patients, and serve as consultative resources when you encounter patients who might benefit from surgical revascularization.
The practice employs advanced practice providers including nurse practitioners and physician assistants who support individual physicians rather than functioning as a pooled resource managed by hospital administrators. This means you will hire and train your own APP once you establish your practice patterns and determine where additional support would enhance efficiency. The APP becomes part of your team, learning your preferences and workflows rather than rotating between multiple physicians with different practice styles.
This individualized approach creates continuity and allows APPs to develop genuine expertise in your subspecialty focus. For critical limb ischemia work, having an APP who understands the nuances of peripheral arterial disease, can identify concerning wound progression, and knows when to escalate patient concerns proves far more valuable than generic cardiology support without subspecialty training.