How tough is Radiology..

[Insomniac12]

compared to other specializations?


I am still in high school so I have no idea about med school so anyone care to provide me with some information on this as well?..

I do know that you get a bs and apply to a medical school and then specialize from there.

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[cdql]

What do you mean when you ask about "toughness"?

Work schedule?

Or the complexity of the work being done?

 

[Insomniac12]

The complexity of the work you have to do in Radiology in Medical School compared to other specializations like Cardiology, Neurology..etc

 

[banner]

Radiology is very complex. You often have to make a diagnosis from MRI, CT, Ultrasound or plain film based on very subtle findings. Certain findings can be caused by a variety of diseases and you have to figure out which disease is the most likely culprit in the patient.

Also, we have a lot of responsibility in medicine in terms of determining the diagnosis of the patient. For example, a patient who comes into the ER for abdominal pain... The ER doc often has no idea what is causing the pain. But, by interpretting the CT scan, the Radiologist determines if it is appendicitis, kidney stones, colitis, etc.

 

[salmonella]

Radiology is very complex. You often have to make a diagnosis from MRI, CT, Ultrasound or plain film based on very subtle findings. Certain findings can be caused by a variety of diseases and you have to figure out which disease is the most likely culprit in the patient.

Also, we have a lot of responsibility in medicine in terms of determining the diagnosis of the patient. For example, a patient who comes into the ER for abdominal pain... The ER doc often has no idea what is causing the pain. But, by interpretting the CT scan, the Radiologist determines if it is appendicitis, kidney stones, colitis, etc.

The main disadvantage of being a diagnostic radiologist is that you don't directly treat the patients, and you don't see how your patients get better over a time period. Say if someone comes in with heart attack, if you were a clinician, you would make treatment decisions and fix the patients. There is tremendous amount of satisfaction managing patients' diseases and watching them leave hospital to go home after you fix their problems. Also, if your family member or neighbors had quick questions about certain medications, or ask you for help, you won't feel comfortable writing them prescription because you have been out of clinical medicine for so long. OP: you are still so early in your career, it's better to keep your options open until you are third year medical student. Don't just look at radiology for its face value (lifestyle, money). It is not a career for everyone. You really have to try it out and see if you are passionate enough for this field.

 

[colbgw02]

The main advantage of being a diagnostic radiologist is that you don't directly treat the patients, and you don't have to see how your patients over a time period.

fixed for you

 

[banner]

The main disadvantage of being a diagnostic radiologist is that you don't directly treat the patients, and you don't see how your patients get better over a time period. Say if someone comes in with heart attack, if you were a clinician, you would make treatment decisions and fix the patients. There is tremendous amount of satisfaction managing patients' diseases and watching them leave hospital to go home after you fix their problems. Also, if your family member or neighbors had quick questions about certain medications, or ask you for help, you won't feel comfortable writing them prescription because you have been out of clinical medicine for so long. OP: you are still so early in your career, it's better to keep your options open until you are third year medical student. Don't just look at radiology for its face value (lifestyle, money). It is not a career for everyone. You really have to try it out and see if you are passionate enough for this field.

1. Agree, don't do anything for just lifestyle an $$, you must like it.

2. I'm not sure if you've done your internship yet, but many of the patients you see are never truly "fixed" as a clinician. This was actually one of the things that drove me away from things like IM. There's certainly no shortage of gomers in the hospital.

3. As a radiologist, you could answer most of the questions family members friends ask you if you wanted. And writing prescription in an emergency for correg or a z-pack is pretty easy. Beyond things like that, no physicican should be writing prescriptions for their family members, unless you live in the middle of nowehere and there are no MDs for hundreds of miles. Most of their questions are really dumb anyway and they could probably answer it themselves. It's not satifying to have to deal with this stuff at family gatherings, etc. In fact, it downright imposing and annoying especially after have been in the hospital for 80 hours. Definately not a pro for clinical medicine.

 

[salmonella]

2. I'm not sure if you've done your internship yet, but many of the patients you see are never truly "fixed" as a clinician. This was actually one of the things that drove me away from things like IM. There's certainly no shortage of gomers in the hospital. .

By "fixing" things, I was referring to small-scale things like fixing a patient's hyponatremia, treating a pneumonia, correcting someone's blood sugar, or giving antihistamine eyedrops for allergic conjunctivitis. Isn't it exciting to see someone's blood glucose drop after you increase their insulin, or watch the potassium go down after you give kayexalate, or witness how adenosine corrects SVT realtime?

 

[Docxter]

Actually I feel very qualified to answer a broad number of questions to friends and family members. I am not overjoyed by people asking me questions the entire time I enter a family or other social gathering, but I don't get annoyed either. I remember one night when a lot of family were around and I got asked about ligamentous tear of the knee and recurrent kneecap dislocations, stroke and carotid dissection, excess fluid around a baby from a pregnant cousin, cysts in the sinuses, liver cysts, someone's cardiac stress test being inconclusive, breast cancer, a newborn with excessive tearing and closed lacrimals, and maybe a few more. I didn't enjoy the party otherwise that much given the time spent talking to everyone, but I felt good that I was able to help them, educate them, point them the right direction, or just reassure them. When we were driving home, I told my wife that I could do what I did, and know about such diverse things, only because of my radiology training. Doctors in other specialties, save maybe a family physician, could not do it. That I night I felt very good about being a radiologist, and my friends and relatives were appreciative too. Of course, when it comes to psych and derm problems, well I don't know much at all except what I remeber from medical scholl and internship.

 

[hans19]

By "fixing" things, I was referring to small-scale things like fixing a patient's hyponatremia, treating a pneumonia, correcting someone's blood sugar, or giving antihistamine eyedrops for allergic conjunctivitis. Isn't it exciting to see someone's blood glucose drop after you increase their insulin, or watch the potassium go down after you give kayexalate, or witness how adenosine corrects SVT realtime?

ZZZZZZZZZ.... Call me superficial, but dramatic change is more impressive to me. You do get 'some' follow-up in radiology. For instance, with cancer patients, lymphnodes are either same, bigger or worse with mets. With pre-op and post-op studies, you get to see the before and after. And in radiology you always compare with priors, so even if you don't get follow up, you get to see the trend in most patients.

When it comes to 'fixing things' IR is awesome. A Patient comes in with a huge abcess, you see it on CT, you put the drain in, that nasty foul puss comes out, problem solved! NEXT case

Patient comes in with a lung tumor (the one that WE biopsied earlier). Next time around we stick in a radiofrequency probe in it and ablate the hell out of it.

The same goes for the pelvic bleeder from trauma- he/she is literally bleeding to death, you see the bleeding on angio and you embolize it "in real time". Next couple of days you check on him to see if he's still bleeding. And you get follow up of sorts-- the very next week you put in an IVC filter on the same guy, b/c hes gonna be bedridden for months.

Thats what I call seeing results!

-H

 

[Hurricane95]

Medical school is the same for all students in the class. You don't specialize until after medical school. During fourth year, you send in applications for residency and interview for the specialty(ies) you want at that time. Everyone walks during graduation for the MD degree with the same background (unless you shadow or do a program outside of the standard school curriculum in a certain field). After that is where you go your separate ways. But that's still way off OP, concentrate on getting into a good college and then once you're in doing the best you can.