Hypothetical Q about IR and disability

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witzelsucht

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If one were, say, 5 years out from an integrated IR residency and you lost your hands or something in an accident, would you have to do an entire rads residency if you wanted to read films for a living? Would it even be worth it to retrain, or would you just collect disability and be volunteer faculty at a med school, like the Hogwarts ghosts? Would the necessity to do procedures in residency make retraining impossible, or might they make an exception if you were just head-over-heels in love with reading films?

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Call the disability insurance company and ask them.
 
If one were, say, 5 years out from an integrated IR residency and you lost your hands or something in an accident, would you have to do an entire rads residency if you wanted to read films for a living? Would it even be worth it to retrain, or would you just collect disability and be volunteer faculty at a med school, like the Hogwarts ghosts? Would the necessity to do procedures in residency make retraining impossible, or might they make an exception if you were just head-over-heels in love with reading films?

No. Whichever pathway you train for IR, you are board certified in diagnostic radiology, and interventional radiology (dual board certification). That is, there is nothing stopping you (in theory) from doing pure diagnostic radiology after you train in an integrated IR residency.
 
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No. Whichever pathway you train for IR, you are board certified in diagnostic radiology, and interventional radiology (dual board certification). That is, there is nothing stopping you (in theory) from doing pure diagnostic radiology after you train in an integrated IR residency.

After 5 years of not doing DR your skills will atrophy and also it is hard to justify to your future employer that you are capable of doing it. Doable but needs lots of work to refresh.
 
After 5 years of not doing DR your skills will atrophy and also it is hard to justify to your future employer that you are capable of doing it. Doable but needs lots of work to refresh.

I think you're generalizing this. Most private practice jobs currently require a mix of DR and IR, and a decent number of academic "100% IR" jobs still have DR incorporated (e.g. CTA C/A/P of endograft follow-throughs). Will you have to do a refresher course for some DR skills? Probably, but ultimately you're not learning a new skill set, and if you're board certified you can market yourself to do both DR and IR.
 
I think you're generalizing this. Most private practice jobs currently require a mix of DR and IR, and a decent number of academic "100% IR" jobs still have DR incorporated (e.g. CTA C/A/P of endograft follow-throughs). Will you have to do a refresher course for some DR skills? Probably, but ultimately you're not learning a new skill set, and if you're board certified you can market yourself to do both DR and IR.

My impression is that the OP asks about doing 100% IR job. Otherwise, it is no brainer that someone who is doing IR + DR in private practice can give up his share of IR and do only DR in his group. I was talking about not doing DR at all for 5 years.

Last year we hired a neuroradiologist. One of our candidates was a very good neuroradiologist in academics for 7-8 years. Eventually the group decided not to offer him the job because our position needed doing 40-50% general radiology and everyone thought that he had lost it. My 2 cents.

Groups in desirable areas and in desirable practices have several choices. For a job that does not have any IR work, why should I choose an IR person over a fellowship trained MSK radiologist or neuroradiologist?
 
There are certain disability insurances that have very specific language stating that the policy will go into effect for very specific reasons. Hypothetically if you for whatever reason you are not able to function any longer as an IR but could still function as a diagnostic radiologist, you'd still get paid full disability because you can no longer do IR.

MetLife and Mass Mutual come to mind
 
Disability insurance is an incredibly complicated beast, particularly for physicians. If you structure your policy with a tight "own occupation" definition of IR, then you'd be covered if you could no longer perform as an IR attending. It's very important as a physician to include some "own occupation" structure, else your insurance company could turn around and cancel your policy if you're able to, say, fold jeans at the Gap or flip hamburgers at McDonalds.

Anyone looking to buy disability insurance owes it to themselves to find a lawyer or financial planner versed in this stuff to look over your policy. There are tons of little details like that which could screw you over.
 
Disability insurance is an incredibly complicated beast, particularly for physicians.

Agreed - but physicians are intelligent enough to understand if presented with the options in a non-biased manner (not always the case).

If you structure your policy with a tight "own occupation" definition of IR, then you'd be covered if you could no longer perform as an IR attending.

The insurance company will look at the billing codes. For instance, if a radiologist earns 50% of income from IR, and 50% from DR; becomes disabled from IR but can still do DR, then they would be considered partially disabled and receive 50% of their total disability benefit (the better policies will pay 100% of the monthly benefit for the first 6-12 months of a partial disability claim).

It's very important as a physician to include some "own occupation" structure, else your insurance company could turn around and cancel your policy if you're able to, say, fold jeans at the Gap or flip hamburgers at McDonalds.

Correction - as long as the policy is "guaranteed renewable" (most individual policies are) the insurance company cannot cancel the insured's policy for any reason except for non-payment of premium.

Anyone looking to buy disability insurance owes it to themselves to find a lawyer or financial planner versed in this stuff to look over your policy. There are tons of little details like that which could screw you over.

Even better, work with a physician disability insurance specialist. It is best to approach the financial industry like medicine; seek a specialist in the area of finance/insurance that one needs assistance with.
 
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Makes me wonder, will IR specialists be still board-certified in DR as well even after IR becomes a completely separate specialty from DR (which I think happens in mid-2020's)?. If that's the case, what would be the point of doing just DR? Shorter training time? If IR's are going to be certified in DR as well doesn't it just make DR a "lesser" (for lack of a better term) specialty, especially since, after complete separation, IR fellowship won't be offered to DR?

EDIT: I don't know if the surgery-then-plastic-fellowship route is still offered, but afaik this won't happen for DR-to-IR anymore in a decade or so.
 
Makes me wonder, will IR specialists be still board-certified in DR as well even after IR becomes a completely separate specialty from DR (which I think happens in mid-2020's)?. If that's the case, what would be the point of doing just DR? Shorter training time? If IR's are going to be certified in DR as well doesn't it just make DR a "lesser" (for lack of a better term) specialty, especially since, after complete separation, IR fellowship won't be offered to DR?

EDIT: I don't know if the surgery-then-plastic-fellowship route is still offered, but afaik this won't happen for DR-to-IR anymore in a decade or so.

If you see IR as the ultimate goal of doing radiology then your statement is true. Otherwise, no.
 
IF you have the right definition that does not have some of the language that the supposed own occupation plans put in there then if IR is what creates the majority (some use 51% some use 65%) of your income at the time you become disabled and can no longer do that specialty then full benefits would be paid regardless of future occupation income. Today there are 7 carriers in the USA that have that definition however there are about 25 association, group, and a few individual plans that claim it in the sales material but clearly state it that is not the case the policy language and the Policy Language is what matters. Always read the definition of disability because language does matter. Here is a link to that will show you the different types of 'own occupation definitions of disability that suggested' www.MDDisabilityQuotes.com. Toward the bottom of the page you will see a 'download physicians guide', in that guide it more appropriately titles the definitions of disability so that will let you know what your definition really is.
 
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