Contribution to society?

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deciding

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I enjoy radiology, the procedures, technology and wide breadth of knowledge one must have, but I also enjoy IM for some of these same reasons. I am constantly vacillating between the two careers options. On the one hand, I feel like I can make a greater impact on people's lives in IM because I am responsible for treating and education patients. In addition, I can do work in underdeveloped countries. Radiology doesn't afford an opportunity to work in those types of situations as readily, unless someone could enlighten me. On the other hand, I like working on clinical diagnosis with simply a brief history and an image. Plus, the compensation is better, not that that plays a big role though. But, if I did choose radiology, I could utilize the extra $100K I would make in that field to start foundations and fund medical trips to underdeveloped countries. Any advice on how to decide?
 
I can make a greater impact on people's lives in IM because I am responsible for treating and education patients.

In rads you are influencing the treatment of patients in a more indirect way and you educate clinicians. In a way, the 'n' of patients you are affecting is higher.

In addition, I can do work in underdeveloped countries. Radiology doesn't afford an opportunity to work in those types of situations as readily,

Few opportunities here. There have been people who went on mission trips, but usually this was more in a teaching role or introducing a modality (like ultrasound) in a medically underdeveloped region of the world.

But, if I did choose radiology, I could utilize the extra $100K I would make in that field to start foundations and fund medical trips to underdeveloped countries.

Oh how cute. Experience tells me that you will use that 100k (half of that after uncle sam and the state tax commissioner are through with you) to pay off that nice car you finally got after residency and to build a bit of retirement savings.
 
IM is great in theory but horrible in practice.

Apply for Radiology and do an IM prelim year at a solid, reputable program. If by some miracle you actually continue to like IM, drop the Radiology and continue on in IM without wasting any time. However, you will probably hate your life two months into your intern year and become really angry at yourself for ever being ******ed enough to consider IM when you had the opportunity to do Radiology and consequently will start counting down every day until July.
 
Do an IM prelim year, then do radiology residency. You don't have to be board certified/eligible in IM to provide primary care on mission trips.

In fact there is a senior radiologist at my institution who does just that. He has participated in numerous humanitarian missions including earthquake relief in Iran and also in SE asia after the Tsunami.

How much free time can you get from a busy IM practice to take off to go to subsaharan Africa for weeks at a time? You'd have much more flexibility with radiology.

As far as making an impact at home: Do you really think counseling patients to lose weight and quit smoking is makes an impact on peoples lives? If so, we wouldn't have this epidemic of obesity and diabetes. You can't make people do it. Not even if you threaten them with life or limb. You can tell people, quit smoking your you'll lose your leg, lose weight or you will die. Guess what... a lot choose to keep smoking or keep eating like crap! They have to take the initiative and do it for themselves.

All that prevention doesn't work unless the patient chooses it for themselves. I would argue that in radiology you can have still make a difference to a large group of people.
Don't tell me that breast cancer screening hasn't made a difference in women's lives. VC and lung cancer screening might someday do the same.

I would argue that with IR you can have a more tangible, direct impact on patients lives. You can revascularize that claudicants leg, and stentgraft the AAA. RFA the lung lesion in the smoker who is a poor surgical candidate. Keep the dialysis graft open so that a diabetic/hypertensive with shot kidneys can keep getting dialysis. Or in very select cases do an islet cell transplant!

I am a little biased, but this is the radiology forum...
 
Some points to consider before you make your decision:
-uncertain future of radiology: It's true that money/lifestyle is great in radiology now, but no one knows how long that's going to last. Take into account the recent drastic reimbursement cuts, clinician self-referral (especially cardiology and neuro), lack of control over patients, rise of radiologist assistants/PA/NP. By the time we get out, radiologists may not still be making $500,000 just working 4 days a week. Somehow it feels like the ancillary specialties are more vulnerable to reimbursement cuts and job security issues (anesthesia and pathology in the past). On the other hand, there will always be a need for IM (or IM fellowship trained) physicians because of its responsibility for direct patient care.
-Reputation: When most people think of doctors, they usually think of IM, because IM provides direct patient care and thus they have more publicity. It's unfortunate that lots of lay people still don't know what radiologist is, or cannot tell the difference between radiologist vs radiographer vs radiology technician.
-Length of training: Most radiologists do fellowships nowadays, that's 6 years of training time total. Same for IM plus fellowship. When you finish your medical training in 6 years, would you rather sit in dark room reading films? Or you could be a cardiologist, unclogging coronary arteries, care for ICU patients and have patients and their families thanking you for saving their lives? If you like procedures and imaging, cardiology would be a good choice, especially in a few years, cardiac MRI and CT will be prevalent. Cardiology departments will soon have fellowships in those imaging subspecialties.
-Continuity of care: In IM, you see your patients progress clinically, since the day you admit them to hospital until they get discharged; I think being directly involved in this continuity of care, seeing how the meds/intervention you prescribe help your patients improve over several days is rather satisfying. You feel like making a difference in your patients. I guess you can do this in radiology too; but it would be like following the patient's serial CXR or CT for many days--something I don't find as rewarding
-Mode of training: I agree that IM residency is more exhausting than rad; but overall it's still not too bad. The intern year is the worst, but you need to do that for radiology anyway. 2nd year IM you are senior of the ward team and the interns/med students do most of the work; third year is mostly electives and there's no call during those months. If you go to a cushy IM program, schedule isn't bad at all.
-Someone mentioned providing primary care abroad without being board certified in IM. That all depends on personal comfort level. But I have met attendings in clinically oriented specialties that require prelim medicine (ophthalmology, derm, PM & R) and even they feel very uncomfortable managing bread and butter medicine issues. I imagine that would be even harder for most radiologists who don't see patients on regular basis.
-Try to do a long radiology rotation (1-2 months continuously) to see if you like rad; my experience is that lots of people can sit in dark room for 2-3 weeks and enjoy such rotation, but it feels quite different when you do that for 1-2 months.
 
Wow! These are some great responses and ideas. I like the idea of doing my prelim year in IM at a reputable program. If I was to go into IM, then I would want to train at a good program to maximize my training and enhance my opportunity to find an academic position in the future. Unfortunately, my credentials aren't quite good enough to land a good radiology spot, but I am working hard, enjoy research and hopefully it will all pay off if I can land a spot at an academic institution.

The other great idea is doing mission trips without having to be board certified. I know if one works for Doctor without Border they require certification, though there are probably hundreds of expeditions that don't. Maybe during my radiology residency I will moonlight at a general practice to stay abreast on the latest medicines and recommendations. As of right now, I feel fairly comfortable managing patients in IM even as a student. I notice many of the non-IM residents often don't know what the standard of care is for simple IM problems and they must rely on consults. Of course they may also be covering their buts, but who knows.

As far as the Cardiology recommendations goes, I have thought of that before, but I really don't like cardiology, maybe because I don't understand it enough. I would be lying if I said I didn't like interacting with people and seeing the affect first hand and their appreciation, but I also enjoy the intellectual and technology aspect of Radiology. You are correct in that there will always be a need for IM doctors as most people don't go into the field because they feel they are underpaid.

Honestly, the financial aspect of Radiology is nice, but it isn’t that important to me. I would hate to work just 4 days a week, what would I do the other three? Heck, a salary of just $250 would suffice; I don't need $500K, what am I going to spend it on?
 
Honestly, the financial aspect of Radiology is nice, but it isn’t that important to me. I would hate to work just 4 days a week, what would I do the other three? Heck, a salary of just $250 would suffice; I don't need $500K, what am I going to spend it on?

:laugh: Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight... :laugh:

Man oooohhhh man, the things med students say...NEVA-A-DULL-MOMENT!.
 
Honestly, the financial aspect of Radiology is nice, but it isn’t that important to me. I would hate to work just 4 days a week, what would I do the other three? Heck, a salary of just $250 would suffice; I don't need $500K, what am I going to spend it on?
250K? I'm only looking for about 95K. What do you plan on doing with 250K! 🙂
 
I would hate to work just 4 days a week, what would I do the other three? Heck, a salary of just $250 would suffice; I don't need $500K, what am I going to spend it on?

What? I thought you already answered that question in your first post. I guess you weren't serious otherwise you would have remembered such great aspirations.

But, if I did choose radiology, I could utilize the extra $100K I would make in that field to start foundations and fund medical trips to underdeveloped countries.
 
I would agree with some of the above posts re: missions/international work. There are fewer opportunities to do radiology work in developing countries, however, there seems to be a significant need for teaching (esp. u/s). I guess you could do clinical work without being certified... there is such a dearth of medical understanding that even a first year medical student can be of service in the treatment of 3rd world ailments. However, if you don't want to be a primary care doc here in the states... what makes you think you'll enjoy it over in Africa? You will probably be of greatest service by finding the opportunities to do what you know best... radiology... if that's what you ultimately pick.
 
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