Breast Imaging Appreciation Thread

[TheVagüs]

Hi All! Current R3 deciding on fellowship. I like most of radiology, but I am leaning towards breast imaging as that was the rotation I enjoyed the most. However, as application season draws near I am having trouble committing, especially given how different breast is from the rest of radiology (and how much I like the rest of radiology!). Any breast trained rads who are willing to share what they love and hate about their work?

 

[CorneliaSt]

I love breast because I feel like I am an integral part of the breast care team. My work feels highly valued by referring clinicians, breast surgeons, and patients, which improves my sense of professional fulfillment. I also enjoy the patient interaction and procedures 🙂 With that said, I find variety to be the spice of life, so I also ready body imaging for my group. I could do 100% breast and be content, but I am happier changing things up and reading body a few days a week too (mostly CT, no advanced body MRI). Overall, I love my job!

 

[TheVagüs]

I love breast because I feel like I am an integral part of the breast care team. My work feels highly valued by referring clinicians, breast surgeons, and patients, which improves my sense of professional fulfillment. I also enjoy the patient interaction and procedures 🙂 With that said, I find variety to be the spice of life, so I also ready body imaging for my group. I could do 100% breast and be content, but I am happier changing things up and reading body a few days a week too (mostly CT, no advanced body MRI). Overall, I love my job!

This is great to hear! Especially since that is the exact kind of work I'm interested in (a split between breast and general). Your first line really hit home as my time on breast imaging definitely felt the most impactful. Have groups been open to you maintaining your general skillset (including MRI)? As a corollary, do academic breast positions generally give you room to moonlight?

 

[CorneliaSt]

This is great to hear! Especially since that is the exact kind of work I'm interested in (a split between breast and general). Your first line really hit home as my time on breast imaging definitely felt the most impactful. Have groups been open to you maintaining your general skillset (including MRI)? As a corollary, do academic breast positions generally give you room to moonlight?

I am employed in a pseudoacademic job, but I would think private practice groups would love to have you do some general (especially for call). Probably very practice-dependent regarding reading MRI outside of your subspeciality. For academic breast, some are offering moonlighting. But I don't know how widespread this is. Hope that helps!

 

[Clean7795]

I like breast because days reading screening from home I can more or less turn my brain off and go. On days in the breast center it's more intense but the work is generally rewarding (biopsies, pre-op localizations, diagnostics on symptomatic patients, etc.).

What I don't like about breast is that doing long stretches of it makes me a bit dumber when it comes to other areas of radiology. Most of breast imaging comes down to deciding next imaging/diagnostic steps... very little is actually thinking about differentials, physiology, detailed anatomy, etc.

 

[TheVagüs]

I like breast because days reading screening from home I can more or less turn my brain off and go. On days in the breast center it's more intense but the work is generally rewarding (biopsies, pre-op localizations, diagnostics on symptomatic patients, etc.).

What I don't like about breast is that doing long stretches of it makes me a bit dumber when it comes to other areas of radiology. Most of breast imaging comes down to deciding next imaging/diagnostic steps... very little is actually thinking about differentials, physiology, detailed anatomy, etc.

Thank you for your perspective! Any advice for someone at my stage (senior resident) of their career? Also do you feel 6 months of breast as a fellow is adequate? While the majority of programs I am applying to are full year breast imaging programs, there are a few body/breast combined fellowships in the regions I am interested in. They are tempting given my interest in maintaining my general skill set/not being completely shoehorned into just breast imaging.

 

[Clean7795]

Thank you for your perspective! Any advice for someone at my stage (senior resident) of their career? Also do you feel 6 months of breast as a fellow is adequate? While the majority of programs I am applying to are full year breast imaging programs, there are a few body/breast combined fellowships in the regions I am interested in. They are tempting given my interest in maintaining my general skill set/not being completely shoehorned into just breast imaging.

The amount of time you should get completely depends completely on how much the resident knew going in. I believe a decent resident would get what they need from any non-IR/nucs/peds fellowship just doing 6 months (meaning body/MSK/neuro/breast). Some fellowships you need even less (e.g. pure thoracic radiology fellowship, how much time do you need to learn ILD CT and PET-CTs for nodules...).

That said, I would look carefully at these combined programs to make sure previous fellows have had good experiences. You don't want to go into one of these programs, and the breast section is good but the body section treats you like an outsider because they cater to their full year fellows.

Also if you plan on academics for whatever reason, a full year would be better so you have more time to publish in that subfield of radiology.

 

[odyssey2]

Would you say at this point in time e it’s still a better lifestyle choice than other subs in radiology?

 

[Clean7795]

Everyone takes part in the same call pool (evening/weekend coverage) in all the practices around me (minus IR), so it's basically the same.