I will just regurgitate what I answered one of your colleagues to a similar question in the past:
Here is the thread:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=225461
Some information for medstudents from the society of interventional radiology:
http://www.sirweb.org/gradEdu/graduateEducations.shtml
Here is some info on the newer tracks to get into IR:
http://www.theabr.org/VIR_DIRECT.htm
http://www.sirweb.org/gradEdu/VIRpathway.shtml
http://www.sirweb.org/gradEdu/ClinicalPathwayInstitutions.shtml
And here is the initial reply to the question when it was asked before:
> How do you get into IR?
Typically by doing an internship, a 4 year diagnostic radiology residency and a typically 1 year fellowship. (There are some new pathways including 2 years of surgery training, but I don't think they have produced graduates yet).
> Hours?
Depends on the size of hospital and the spectrum of procedures. If you are the single IR at a 75 bed community hospital in the styx, you can afford to run your practice 9-5 and take wednesday off for golf. If you are at a major academic center with busy trauma, transplant and vascular surgery services, you will spend long hours in the hospital and be busy on call.
> Lifestyle?
At a busy place: Closer to general surgery than to radiology. Definitely not the place for you if you are in it for 'lifestyle'. You would be better off doing derm.
> Interesting procedures they do?
- peripheral vascular disease / renal artery stenosis / carotid stenosis
- aortic aneurysm repair using stent-grafts
- treatment of inoperable HCC using chemo-embolization embolization with radioactive glass/resin beads.
- embolization treatment for various acute bleeding situations such as GI bleeds or pelvic trauma
- pre-operative embolization of bone and soft-tissue tumors (to reduce intra-op blood loss).
- treatment of uterine fibroids with uterine artery embolization
- treatment of varicocele
- treatement of 'pelvic congestion syndrome' (female varicocele)
- treatment of varicose veins with radiofrequency or endovascular laser-ablation
- RF ablation of liver or kidney tumors in non-surgical candidates
There is lots of other stuff to do, but most of it is fairly routine and not necessarily interesting (such as dialysis access maintenance, central catheters, chest-ports, drainages, chest-tubes, various biopsies.)
> Competitiveness to get into?
The hurdle these days is getting into a diagnostic radiology residency. The good fellowships are somewhat competitive, but most people who want to do it find a good place to go to.
> Salary?
Good.
> Future of the field?
Glass half full / glass half empty.
A good share of the peripheral vascular work seems to be shifting into the practices of vascular surgeons and cardiologists. Both groups have direct access to these patients because they see them for other problems. If PVD comes up, they rather keep the procedure revenue in their own practice rather than referring the patient to an interventional radiologist.
What seems to be developing quite nicely is the entire 'interventional oncology' field. Radiofrequency or cryoablation of various lesions. Chemo-embolization or 'radio-embolization' of liver tumors etc. In addition, the routine stuff I mentioned earlier pays the bills quite nicely (if you have a well organized interventional radiology department).
Send me a pm if you have questions. Are you a medstudent ? What year ?
