Interventional Radiology

[IR Residents]

Just wanted to post some information on a much lesser-known specialty in medicine: Interventional Radiology.

Purely diagnostic radiologists primarily look at different imaging studies to assist in diagnosing various medical conditions, with also some procedural work such as tissue biopsies and fluid drainages (e.g. paracentesis).

Interventional radiologists is currently a sub-specialty of radiology that uses radiology imaging to diagnose and treat various conditions in as minimally-invasive of a way as possible. You can think of it as high-tech surgery using less cutting.

How does one become an interventional radiologist? As of today, after finishing medical school, a trainee will do a radiology residency (5 years total), and then a 1 year interventional radiology fellowship. This might change in the not-to-distant future, as interventional radiology might become its own residency.

If you have any questions about the field, or are interested in trying to shadow an interventional radiologist, feel free to PM us and we'll try and help.

Some great resources if still interested in the field:

Good overview about IR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interventional_radiology

SIR information on training program: http://www.sirweb.org/fellows-residents-students/

CIRSE page of interventional procedures: http://www.cirse.org/?pid=85

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[dredwinf]

This was extremely exciting and useful.

 

[xroc]

Just wanted to post some information on a much lesser-known specialty in medicine: Interventional Radiology.

Purely diagnostic radiologists primarily look at different imaging studies to assist in diagnosing various medical conditions, with also some procedural work such as tissue biopsies and fluid drainages (e.g. paracentesis).

Interventional radiologists is currently a sub-specialty of radiology that uses radiology imaging to diagnose and treat various conditions in as minimally-invasive of a way as possible. You can think of it as high-tech surgery using less cutting.

How does one become an interventional radiologist? As of today, after finishing medical school, a trainee will do a radiology residency (5 years total), and then a 1 year interventional radiology fellowship. This might change in the not-to-distant future, as interventional radiology might become its own residency.

If you have any questions about the field, or are interested in trying to shadow an interventional radiologist, feel free to PM us and we'll try and help.

Some great resources if still interested in the field:

Good overview about IR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interventional_radiology

SIR information on training program: http://www.sirweb.org/fellows-residents-students/

CIRSE page of interventional procedures: http://www.cirse.org/?pid=85

Great info! I'm actually a pre-med starting med school in the fall, but I have always had somewhat of an interest in radiology. I was wondering, however, what you believe the future of IR would be? I think IR is extremely interesting and I'm not sure if this fellowship route is more of the norm for radiology residents now or whether very few choose to do this fellowship?

 

[Law2Doc]

Great info! I'm actually a pre-med starting med school in the fall, but I have always had somewhat of an interest in radiology. I was wondering, however, what you believe the future of IR would be? I think IR is extremely interesting and I'm not sure if this fellowship route is more of the norm for radiology residents now or whether very few choose to do this fellowship?

If you look at the specialty discussion boards, IR is in the process of becoming a separate distinct residency path from diagnostic radiology, and by the time you get to med school it will likely no longer be a fellowship path.

 

[xroc]

If you look at the specialty discussion boards, IR is in the process of becoming a separate distinct residency path from diagnostic radiology, and by the time you get to med school it will likely no longer be a fellowship path.

Cool, thanks for the info!

 

[IR Residents]

This was extremely exciting and useful.

Thanks. Let me know if you have any extra questions. I hope to post a "Day in the Life of an Interventional Radiologist" post soon. In the meantime, good luck with your professional pursuits.

 

[Nascent]

Thanks. Let me know if you have any extra questions. I hope to post a "Day in the Life of an Interventional Radiologist" post soon. In the meantime, good luck with your professional pursuits.

Looking forward to this!

 

[Jarcos3]

Thank you for posting this.... This is one of the medical pathways that interests me, being in high school, I read up on this, and diagnosing and treating without cutting people blows my mind.

 

[Redpancreas]

Just wanted to post some information on a much lesser-known specialty in medicine: Interventional Radiology.

Purely diagnostic radiologists primarily look at different imaging studies to assist in diagnosing various medical conditions, with also some procedural work such as tissue biopsies and fluid drainages (e.g. paracentesis).

Interventional radiologists is currently a sub-specialty of radiology that uses radiology imaging to diagnose and treat various conditions in as minimally-invasive of a way as possible. You can think of it as high-tech surgery using less cutting.

How does one become an interventional radiologist? As of today, after finishing medical school, a trainee will do a radiology residency (5 years total), and then a 1 year interventional radiology fellowship. This might change in the not-to-distant future, as interventional radiology might become its own residency.

If you have any questions about the field, or are interested in trying to shadow an interventional radiologist, feel free to PM us and we'll try and help.

Some great resources if still interested in the field:

Good overview about IR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interventional_radiology

SIR information on training program: http://www.sirweb.org/fellows-residents-students/

CIRSE page of interventional procedures: http://www.cirse.org/?pid=85

Hi,

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I'm a pre-med and IR is something that interest me quite a bit. To avoid sounding presumptious, let me qualify but saying I know I will probably change my mind 20 times in medical school. With that being said, it doesn't hurt to have an early idea of what is expected. Now I know IR is now no longer a fellowship of Radiology. I was excited to hear this. Undoubtedly though, the competition will increase (and thus another reason I want to know what to expect early).


1. What kind of Step 1 score do you think will make one very competitive for an IR residency?

(btw, do Step 2 CK scores matter for the match?)

2. Is research looked highly upon for Interventional Radiology as it is for many fields in Internal Medicine like Gastroenterology and Cardiology? I'm assuming the research can be in any field but Interventional Radiology help?


3. This question might seem more crude but IR is like doing procedure while being guided with an X-ray. Does this mean you literally see the guide-wire/stent or whatever tool you're using unblock occlusions, stent things, etc? Something like that would be really appealing to me as I am the kind of person who seeks quick gratification if possible.

Thanks so much! This is why I like SDN so much.

4. I am glad IR is direct but why was the decision made to make it direct? Is there a greater need for IR in certain areas? Why is that so? Does it have to do with the changing landscape of healthcare policy? Maybe it's more cost-effective and may play a more efficient role in preventative medicine?

5. I really enjoy patient contact. I've read medical school blogs and I've seen how little you actually interact with the patients and I am mentally preparing for that but regardless...I do not want to practice DR because of the minimal patient contact. I was talking to a physician and she said there are no jobs where you can practice solely IR (and if this is the case how can an IR residency be offered? will they teach both IR and DR?).

6. I noticed that IR deals with the whole body rather than one particular organ system and that's another factor that makes it seem interesting to me. However, wouldn't things with the blood vessels (for example) be for the Interv. Cardiologists and General Surgery people? Wouldn't there be competition for the procedures. What advantage does IR to combat this competition? Is our training more rigorous? Do IR physicians charge less? etc.

EDIT: Didn't realize this was on hSDN. Now I don't feel as presumptious

 

[Aern]

Hey all, I just wanted to let you know that Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai will be hosting the 1st Annual NYC Medical Student Interventional Radiology Symposium on Friday, March 14, 2014.

Register here if you are interested!

 

[PapaGuava]

Just wanted to post some information on a much lesser-known specialty in medicine: Interventional Radiology.

Purely diagnostic radiologists primarily look at different imaging studies to assist in diagnosing various medical conditions, with also some procedural work such as tissue biopsies and fluid drainages (e.g. paracentesis).

Interventional radiologists is currently a sub-specialty of radiology that uses radiology imaging to diagnose and treat various conditions in as minimally-invasive of a way as possible. You can think of it as high-tech surgery using less cutting.

How does one become an interventional radiologist? As of today, after finishing medical school, a trainee will do a radiology residency (5 years total), and then a 1 year interventional radiology fellowship. This might change in the not-to-distant future, as interventional radiology might become its own residency.

If you have any questions about the field, or are interested in trying to shadow an interventional radiologist, feel free to PM us and we'll try and help.

Some great resources if still interested in the field:

Good overview about IR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interventional_radiology

SIR information on training program: http://www.sirweb.org/fellows-residents-students/

CIRSE page of interventional procedures: http://www.cirse.org/?pid=85

Thanks for the information, Radiology is big interest of mine and learning more about this type of sub specialty would be great! I will be sure to contact you guys =)

 

[worfndata]

If you look at the specialty discussion boards, IR is in the process of becoming a separate distinct residency path from diagnostic radiology, and by the time you get to med school it will likely no longer be a fellowship path.

any idea how long it will be?