Hi all, I'm a MS3 right now deciding what to do...I've been interested in Rads, but just scared ****less that I'm going to either hate doing it as an attending or that I'm going to not be that great as an attending when I have to jump from organ system to organ when reading 80-100 films a day. Right now I enjoy looking at films and enjoy reading about what the findings are and get amazed about all the relationships there are within a single study...but my worry is that how will I be able to remember all the different things in order to come up with a diagnosis as an attending. There are hundreds of fracture types, hundreds of abdominal diseases, hundreds of tumors all across the body, how do attendings switch from organ to organ on a daily basis without feeling thrashed at the end of the day? I've heard in private practice, a lot of the studies are normal, or that once you're an attending you get used to seeing something and looking for the possible associated findings, but can someone just enlighten me on life in private practice and how hard it is intellectually as an attending. I've done numerous searches as you can see this is my 8th post. thanks!
There's a reason why it's a 4-year residency and that most people do a fellowship. It's not reasonable to expect one person to be knowledgeable about all the different types of dwarfism and be an expert on using MRS and perfusion to help diagnosis a brain tumor.
Some people have a better "eye" for radiology than others, but that shouldn't discourage you. Even people for whom findings don't jump off the screen can be competent radiologists. It just takes diligence and adherence to a search pattern.
In general, I've heard it takes about 10 years to become an expert at something, and that includes radiology. That is, as we gain experience, we rely more on type I, or automatic, processing according to the dual-process theory of cognition. Our brains recognize patterns, often times before, or even without, our conscious minds can see it or articulate it. If you've ever had an attending say to you, "I can't tell you why it's abnormal; it just is.", then you've experienced this phenomenon second-hand. In this sense, radiology becomes "easier", but it requires a high degree of vigilance to know when to switch from type I to type II, or analytic, thinking in order to avoid over-reliance on heuristics.
A person's degree of intellectual stimulation is highly idiosyncratic, so it's difficult to speak to how hard private practice might be for someone. I have heard some PP radiologists lament that they are so busy that, when an interesting or unknown case comes along, they do not have the time to research it adequately. They feel compelled to say something - anything - intelligible before moving on. If you're the type of person that enjoys mulling over a differential, then perhaps you'll find your home in academia.
