How much patient interaction is possible in Radiology?

[deuce924]

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What the title says... I am wondering about Diagnostic as well as the Interventional Subtypes. Thanks

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Interventional is a no brainer. You spend your day doing procedures, rounding, sometimes seeing patients in clinic. Can't ask for more than that.

With DR, its entirely a function of how many procedures you end up doing, usually. It is never gonna be like a purely clinical profession, but you can usually bank on 1-3 per day depending on the subspecialty. Body sees a lot, MSK sees a good bit usually. peds does as well.

 

[RisingSun]

Agree with the above. Interventional is very much like surgery in terms of patient contact. Also, breast imaging is extremely patient oriented, with time spent going over images with patients and doing U/S- and MR-guided biopsies.

That being said, most of your day in DR will be in a dark room with a dictaphone, however you will be interacting with other physicians all day long.

 

[deuce924]

Thanks for the replies. I know IR has more patient interaction than does DR but I didn't know too what extent. Thanks again.

 

[Vince]

Pediatric Radiology also has a fair amount of patient interaction compared with other subspecialties of radiology. Also, I think it has more interaction with clinicians....but that may just be my experience. Agree with other posters. IR and Mammo have lots of patient interaction.

You can sort of have as much or as little patient interaction as you want in radiology. When I was on call overnight in the reading room, I would often go into the ER to talk to patients, do a quick focused exam, etc.....the clinical history we get from the Emergency Department is about as useful as a single piece of toilet paper....stuff like "R/O Pathology" or "R/O Mass/Abscess/Malignancy" really pisses me off.

I would just introduce myself to the patient...."I am Dr. ________, your radiologist. What brought you into the Emergency Department tonight?"

 

[Donvb]

Pediatric Radiology also has a fair amount of patient interaction compared with other subspecialties of radiology. Also, I think it has more interaction with clinicians....but that may just be my experience. Agree with other posters. IR and Mammo have lots of patient interaction.

You can sort of have as much or as little patient interaction as you want in radiology. When I was on call overnight in the reading room, I would often go into the ER to talk to patients, do a quick focused exam, etc.....the clinical history we get from the Emergency Department is about as useful as a single piece of toilet paper....stuff like "R/O Pathology" or "R/O Mass/Abscess/Malignancy" really pisses me off.

I would just introduce myself to the patient...."I am Dr. ________, your radiologist. What brought you into the Emergency Department tonight?"

Sounds like you had a lot of time on your hands when you were on call!? How many studies were you doing a night and still had time to go talk to patients in the ER... Most residencies I rotated through the resident had a hard time keeping up, so got ZERO patient contact over night.