After reading through a few of these threads, let's think about the downside:
Why NOT to go into radiology:
-Sitting in a dark room all day: A fair number really do get depressed by it.
-Studying: If you enjoyed third year of med school much much more than second year, that might be a warning sign. Imagine doing a solid two hours of rad textbook reading every night, after burningyour eyes out from a full day of work and learning in residency. Add a good several hours of reading over the weekend and post-call as well.
If you inherently enjoy the field, and if you have a bit of the scholar in you, the books and the journals won't be too painful. If you're just in it for the money (ha!) and easy lifestyle (ha! ha!), this will really become a chore. Either you won't study and your career and confidence will suffer, or you'll only reluctantly study, and you'll start to think, "maybe I should switch into X."
-Physics Board Exam: this is Part One of the American Board of Radiology Exam, taken when you're about half-way through your rad residency. Failure rate is nearly 20%. You'll face the oral and written boards a couple years later.
-Lifestyle: sure, it's not as bad as transplant surgery, but you'll work harder and have a lot more stress than you probably imagine. You're on call; it's the middle of the night: tell me doc, do we operate or not? And guess what? That one thing you missed last June? Yeah, it was cancer, and your lawyer wants a call back ASAP. What? You haven't been keeping up, staying sharp? Tell it to the jury.-Uncertain future of the field: the out-sourcing threat often gets overblown, but rads is a young field, so no one really knows what might happen over the next 5 to 10 to 20 years. Along with out-sourcing, there's turf wars (Cards and Neuro already. More generally, why should they refer to rads if they can create a one-year fellowship and keep the work to themselves?) and declining reimbursements (already a reality). Meanwhile, molecular imaging could revolutionize everything, but do you really need to pay a radiologist $100 per image to say, "yes, it lights up" or "no, it does not"??
-Minimal patient contact (dx rads more than IR): you have to decide if this is a good or bad thing, and it's tricky in med school. It's tough to say if you didn't like the entire field or if you just didn't like being the rookie in that field. You won't like being a rookie in rads either. Plus, many physicians report that they enjoy patient contact more and more as their own skills develop and as they advance in their fields. Similar thing for surgery: once you get some real hands on experience and you start to get some practical power, you might see what all the fuss is about.
-Lack of respect: you'll get this from some colleagues, from some patients, and from plenty of folk at the cocktail parties ("What, so you do X-rays??"). In the end, you should feel proud to do what you do.
-The money and lifestyle myth: as with many fields, the best jobs in terms of lifestyle OR money are often in the least popular regions of the country. And yes, I can almost guarantee that you won't have mad money and an easy lifestyle (barring any lottery-ticket-type good fortune).
Also, you really can do well for yourself in any field of medicine. There's a big bell curve out there in terms of money and lifestyle for each and every field. Family med docs making $500,000? Sure thing. Rehab docs making even more? Think pain management. Docs with an entrepreneurial bent? Sky's the limit. Radiologists hanging on for an early retirement because they just don't enjoy their work? That happens as well.
Another thing about the money: we all say, "don't choose based on money." It's not because money's unimportant. It's because -- when you're at the attending level in any field -- you'll have some control over how much you make. You can work more, become more efficient, hire a great business manager, do some pharm / industry work on the side, etc. etc. The other big thing is this: once you've got some savings in the bank, which will come soon enough, then an extra $100K per year won't be worth it -- not at all, not if you don't enjoy the thing you do for 50+ hours per week.
Why NOT to go into radiology:
-Sitting in a dark room all day: A fair number really do get depressed by it.
-Studying: If you enjoyed third year of med school much much more than second year, that might be a warning sign. Imagine doing a solid two hours of rad textbook reading every night, after burningyour eyes out from a full day of work and learning in residency. Add a good several hours of reading over the weekend and post-call as well.
If you inherently enjoy the field, and if you have a bit of the scholar in you, the books and the journals won't be too painful. If you're just in it for the money (ha!) and easy lifestyle (ha! ha!), this will really become a chore. Either you won't study and your career and confidence will suffer, or you'll only reluctantly study, and you'll start to think, "maybe I should switch into X."
-Physics Board Exam: this is Part One of the American Board of Radiology Exam, taken when you're about half-way through your rad residency. Failure rate is nearly 20%. You'll face the oral and written boards a couple years later.
-Lifestyle: sure, it's not as bad as transplant surgery, but you'll work harder and have a lot more stress than you probably imagine. You're on call; it's the middle of the night: tell me doc, do we operate or not? And guess what? That one thing you missed last June? Yeah, it was cancer, and your lawyer wants a call back ASAP. What? You haven't been keeping up, staying sharp? Tell it to the jury.-Uncertain future of the field: the out-sourcing threat often gets overblown, but rads is a young field, so no one really knows what might happen over the next 5 to 10 to 20 years. Along with out-sourcing, there's turf wars (Cards and Neuro already. More generally, why should they refer to rads if they can create a one-year fellowship and keep the work to themselves?) and declining reimbursements (already a reality). Meanwhile, molecular imaging could revolutionize everything, but do you really need to pay a radiologist $100 per image to say, "yes, it lights up" or "no, it does not"??
-Minimal patient contact (dx rads more than IR): you have to decide if this is a good or bad thing, and it's tricky in med school. It's tough to say if you didn't like the entire field or if you just didn't like being the rookie in that field. You won't like being a rookie in rads either. Plus, many physicians report that they enjoy patient contact more and more as their own skills develop and as they advance in their fields. Similar thing for surgery: once you get some real hands on experience and you start to get some practical power, you might see what all the fuss is about.
-Lack of respect: you'll get this from some colleagues, from some patients, and from plenty of folk at the cocktail parties ("What, so you do X-rays??"). In the end, you should feel proud to do what you do.
-The money and lifestyle myth: as with many fields, the best jobs in terms of lifestyle OR money are often in the least popular regions of the country. And yes, I can almost guarantee that you won't have mad money and an easy lifestyle (barring any lottery-ticket-type good fortune).
Also, you really can do well for yourself in any field of medicine. There's a big bell curve out there in terms of money and lifestyle for each and every field. Family med docs making $500,000? Sure thing. Rehab docs making even more? Think pain management. Docs with an entrepreneurial bent? Sky's the limit. Radiologists hanging on for an early retirement because they just don't enjoy their work? That happens as well.
Another thing about the money: we all say, "don't choose based on money." It's not because money's unimportant. It's because -- when you're at the attending level in any field -- you'll have some control over how much you make. You can work more, become more efficient, hire a great business manager, do some pharm / industry work on the side, etc. etc. The other big thing is this: once you've got some savings in the bank, which will come soon enough, then an extra $100K per year won't be worth it -- not at all, not if you don't enjoy the thing you do for 50+ hours per week.
