Current State of Navy Radiology?

[Spook]

Hi, incoming USUHS student here. 6 years of prior service in the Navy, 4 as a linguist and 2 in EMDP2 (USUHS's enlisted to MD postbacc).

I'm interested in rads, but threads from a few years ago shared that quite a few residency seats were cut and the field is overmanned. Will this likely persist/get worse? I keep hearing that the Navy is moving away from wanting GMO tours pre-residency and moving towards OMO tours after. Any idea when this is supposed to start? Is radiology a specialty that has a GMO tour as a soft requirement, or is it possible to go straight through after med school?

I'd appreciate any info, insight, or advice for matching rads in the Navy. If anyone would be willing to share their job and life satisfaction as a Navy radiologist I'd love to hear about that too. Thanks!

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[Correlate Clinically]

I'm not Navy, so this is all second hand. Navy Rads isn't overmanned. They have drastically been cut and are something like 60 or 70% manned at the moment. What I hear, pretty much universally, is that all their departments are short.

I don't know if there are concrete plans to ramp up their residency spots to try and improve that. If you're at USU, I'd talk to the current Radiology staff there. They should be able to give you a better idea or put you in touch with some of the Navy staff in the NCR.

Keep in mind that things can change between now and when you'd be applying. There is a lot of luck when it comes to timing the military match.

 

[Spook]

I'm not Navy, so this is all second hand. Navy Rads isn't overmanned. They have drastically been cut and are something like 60 or 70% manned at the moment. What I hear, pretty much universally, is that all their departments are short.

I don't know if there are concrete plans to ramp up their residency spots to try and improve that. If you're at USU, I'd talk to the current Radiology staff there. They should be able to give you a better idea or put you in touch with some of the Navy staff in the NCR.

Keep in mind that things can change between now and when you'd be applying. There is a lot of luck when it comes to timing the military match.

Thanks, I appreciate it. Do you know how interventional works in the Navy or military in general? Is there any pathway for IR residency, or is it DR > civ deferred/sponsored IR fellowship? I've heard many civ programs have been moving away from the 1yr IR fellowship but not sure how accurate this is. Of course I'm keeping an open mind about specialties and subspecialties this early on, mostly just curious

 

[Correlate Clinically]

The military doesn't have any DR/IR active duty slots, at least that I'm aware of. I think there have been a few DR/IR civilian sponsored or deferred positions, but I don't know off hand how many or if it was a recurring thing. The services usually offer varying numbers of sponsored IR fellowship spots, depending on need and manning levels.

Every year the consultants meet and hash out available residency and fellowship slots. The documents are public, so you can grab that and look at what the Navy has offered the last several years to get a general idea.

 

[SirGecko]

The navy is no longer overmanned with radiologists. There was a year they went down to selecting only three people Navy wide (it’s now back up to seven) and they did some stuff with pay and fellowship opportunity cuts to signal they wanted radiologists to leave. Shocking no one, the Navy is feeling the resultant squeeze now.

Historically the GMO tour was nearly a hard requirement (good six year stretch I think with no one going straight through) but they have been selecting a few people straight through recently as part of that whole “OMO” thing. No idea which way that will go in the next few years.

IR: there is no such thing as a one year fellowship anymore. IR moved to two year “residency” a few years ago. (Though that’s functionally a two year fellowship they call it a residency) There are no ESIR spots or IR active duty training spots in the Navy. (It’s all full time Out-Service post residency right now and it’s been roughly one spot per yet for the last few years) There is interest in establishing ESIR last I heard but without an associated IR residency it’s hard to support the volume of IR needed for that. Might change in the future though.

If you want to see the number of training spots each year for yourself btw the GME note is published every summer. It’s public access.

 

[Spook]

The navy is no longer overmanned with radiologists. There was a year they went down to selecting only three people Navy wide (it’s now back up to seven) and they did some stuff with pay and fellowship opportunity cuts to signal they wanted radiologists to leave. Shocking no one, the Navy is feeling the resultant squeeze now.

Historically the GMO tour was nearly a hard requirement (good six year stretch I think with no one going straight through) but they have been selecting a few people straight through recently as part of that whole “OMO” thing. No idea which way that will go in the next few years.

IR: there is no such thing as a one year fellowship anymore. IR moved to two year “residency” a few years ago. (Though that’s functionally a two year fellowship they call it a residency) There are no ESIR spots or IR active duty training spots in the Navy. (It’s all full time Out-Service post residency right now and it’s been roughly one spot per yet for the last few years) There is interest in establishing ESIR last I heard but without an associated IR residency it’s hard to support the volume of IR needed for that. Might change in the future though.

If you want to see the number of training spots each year for yourself btw the GME note is published every summer. It’s public access.

I did pull up the GME note, it was very helpful. That’s a bummer about ESIR, I doubt that’ll be in place by the time I apply (if it ever is implemented). Rads manning seems hard to predict, I’ll just hope when I apply in a few years I’ll be on the luckier side. Thank you!