Military Radiology

[Primate]

Anyone know what life is like for a radiologist (already trained) in the military? Is teleradiology in use widely, or do rads deploy (for instance, is there a radiologist on a carrier, or are the images sent shoreside for analysis)? Are billets typically just at the large medical centers, or are they more widely distributed?

Any info appreciated.

P

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[R-Me-Doc]

Rads in the military is like rads everywhere else: overpaid, out the door at 3:30-4:00 (unless you have a lot of admin duties), send out readings with B.S. comments like "clinical correlation is advised." In fairness, however, if you are at a small facility with only a couple radiologists, you may end up getting called in at night a lot to do emergency ultrasounds and such.

Radiologists in the Army do get deployed to places like the Gulf to staff field hospitals. Don't know about the other branches. I doubt the Navy has radiologists even on large carriers; I suspect most of their films get read by the doc-in-the-boat (most likely a surgeon, FP, or GMO). Larger military facilities are all digital at this point, but at smaller hospitals it's still film and a lightbox. Telemedicine is becoming more widely used, but again, not universally.