Interventional Rad. hard to get??

[ERCP22]

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Noone seems to talk much about IR these days on this forum. I'd love to do IR . Is it really competitive? Is it hard to get? I get the idea that it probably isn't despite HUGE MONEY since it requires an extra year of training?

Anyone has an opinion with regard to this?


😴 One wonders..

 

[MacGyver]

IR is actually pretty easy to get into, provided that you match into gen rads. The fact is that most general radiologists are fat and happy and dont want to work fellow-type hours just to make an extra 100k or so when they are already banking 450k.

Of course for the top programs its harder but to get into a generic IR fellowship is not hard at all.

 

[durfen]

Noone seems to talk much about IR these days on this forum. I'd love to do IR . Is it really competitive? Is it hard to get? I get the idea that it probably isn't despite HUGE MONEY since it requires an extra year of training?

Anyone has an opinion with regard to this?


😴 One wonders..

I thought all rad specializations (Body, MSK etc.) require an extra year?

 

[cliffhanger]

That is correct. Most fellowships are 1 year, Neuro is often 2 years, INR is up to ~3years. Since most radiologists do fellowships, the extra year for IR fellowship is not really the prohibitive factor.

The more demanding lifestyle of IR is the prohibitive factor.

 

[Future Doc B]

That is correct. Most fellowships are 1 year, Neuro is often 2 years, INR is up to ~3years. Since most radiologists do fellowships, the extra year for IR fellowship is not really the prohibitive factor.

The more demanding lifestyle of IR is the prohibitive factor.

What is the typical lifestyle of IR?

 

[lokobo]

What is the typical lifestyle of IR?

I'd say its pretty comparable to most surgical subspecialities

 

[mh82ai3]

"I'd say its pretty comparable to most surgical subspecialities"

In what ways are the IR and surg subspeciality lifestyles similar? Is it the call schedule? the number of procedures? Do IR docs take their own inpatients & do daily rounds? It seems like in some hospitals patients staying in house after IR procedures are taken care of by some surgical service like vascular or neuro, depending on the procedure.

 

[f_w]

In what ways are the IR and surg subspeciality lifestyles similar? Is it the call schedule? the number of procedures? Do IR docs take their own inpatients & do daily rounds?

All of the above.

If you are part of a diagnostic radiology group, your call is maybe 1:10, and if you have a nighthawk company you can go home at 11pm. Most IR call-groups (often within a larger rads group) have 1:3 call or worse. And as people tend to get shot and flip their cars at all times of the day, you have to come in quite often to plug some leaky holes (place some emergent dialysis access, lyse some thrombosed fem-pop etc).

Depending on your practice setup, you will often have your own inpatients. Either simple post-procedure patients (e.g. Uterine artery embos, chemo-embos), thrombolysis patients or unplanned post-procedure admits (e.g. the I/E biliary stent-change that goes septic on you). From a certain size on, IR groups often hire PAs to do some of the 'doctor' work like rounding and pre-procedure consults, but still, you have inpatients, you have inpatient issues to deal with.

It seems like in some hospitals patients staying in house after IR procedures are taken care of by some surgical service like vascular or neuro, depending on the procedure.

That is the 'old' model of IR. The 'proceduralist' that can't be bothered with seeing patients. It is going the way of the dodo.

 

[yenchen]

ok my husband is an Interventional radiologist in an academic setting. Work hours are long, 7am to 7pm(sometimes 8 or 9), calls is 1:4. IR isn't hard to get in but what is sad is that many procedures are being taken up by surgeons like UAE by Gynecologists, arterial procedures by vascular surgeons. I guess that war will stay, IR might lose a few procedures but new procedures are introduced too.

About lifestyle: Well being a spouse of an IR attending I do feel he is exhausted and tired at the end of the day. The job is mentally and physically exhausting but when he describes his successful procedures I feel happy for him. I guess IR gives you immediate results and thats exciting. Its a challenging field comparable to surgery. But since my husband loves it I am happy. DO it if you're really interested in it, and dont sweat about lifestyle.
But i guess mostly people who take up radiology have different reasons to do so and IR is very different from genereal radiology.

thats my 2cents

 

[OHMAN0125]

That is correct. Most fellowships are 1 year, Neuro is often 2 years, INR is up to ~3years. Since most radiologists do fellowships, the extra year for IR fellowship is not really the prohibitive factor.

The more demanding lifestyle of IR is the prohibitive factor.

Yeah I feel most radiologists went into the field for the controllable lifestyle and good money (and their interest of course). If you wanted to work surgeon type hours on vascular stuff, you might as well have been a vascular surgeon.