- Joined
- Feb 28, 2008
- Messages
- 56
- Reaction score
- 7
saw this online, thought it might be interesting: I think they are working with surgeons pretty closely
http://www.cc.nih.gov/centerio/index.html
http://www.cc.nih.gov/centerio/index.html
Is there any threat of the medical oncologists possibly attempting to hijack these procedures from IR?
There is always a theoretical risk, but onc is already pretty busy with trials, new meds, and chemo treatment and recovery. Do you see med onc people taking over rad onc? Surg onc? Subspecialty surgery? The complexity of the disease process is such that the multidisciplinary approach with skilled team members will remain the treatment of choice, assuming that IO people continue to be involved in patient management, multidisciplinary conferences, and continue to stay up appropriate clinical management.
I guess I was looking at it more from what happened with the cardiologists perspective--cards became trained in these interventions for the heart and then since they control the market share and saw the potential capital, took over this work.
What would preclude the medical oncs from following in cardiology's footsteps especially with the recent cuts in chemo reimbursements? I mean if a cardiologist can learn a similar technique in 1-2 years of interventional fellowship surely a med onc could as well for the various oncologic procedures.
I ask this because as a medical student interested in IR, I am truly worried 10-20 years down the road IR will be paved with PICC lines and scraps from what the medical/surgical specialists don't want.
Are these legit concerns?
I'm not in the know at all (just MS3) but I feel like it's different. Cards guys are used to doing interventional procedures so I would assume it wasn't too hard for them to pick some of the stuff up. Med-Onc isn't as procedure driven and IR is getting more control of patients with clinic and stuff like that
If you do not see yourself doing anything, but procedures go to a surgical subspecialty. IR is not a good choice. It can be very beautiful, but you may need to do a lot of DR besides.
Most IR jobs are a combination of IR and DR with DR almost 50% of what you do. The same is going for cardiology. They do almost 60% general cardiology. It is the environment in the pp, forget about your university.
And there is always turf issues. Be prepared to go back to DR. You may lose your turf to vascular surgeons. What happens if the oncology clinic starts sending the chemo-embos to vasc surgeons? I know, many IR people may start to argue. Even if it does not happen in a large scale, it may happen in your area. Nothing is in the realm of IR that can not be done by a surgeon. Don't forget that 15 years ago people where laughing at vascular surgeons and cardiologists for putting the catheter in IVC instead of Aorta. And now, IR fellows are begging for PVD cases.
Unfortunately many medical students choose IR as a short track to surgery. To many it is a way to escape the hardship of 5 years of surgery residency.
Don't take me wrong. IR is one of the greatest fields in medicine. It will likely thrive and expand. But always be prepared to switch back to DR and if you hate it, do not do IR. You have to do at least 50% DR in most places, job market may not be as good in the future, you may lose the turf at least locally and many other factors.Surgical sub-specialty is on the safer side.
Just know what you are doing to your life.
The above comment is just simply wrong.