Re: Clinic, pt relationships, and being a “technician”
- Ouch : ). This is the unfortunately stereotype of the field with some threads of truth. Both at my previous and current institutions we have clinic and evaluate patients/have relationships with them similar to surgeons. We’re not a primary care specialty, so patients are referred to us for potential issues/procedures. We then evaluate patients, talk to them about their goals, and decide what we can offer them. No one tells us to do a procedure any more than a general surgeon is told to do cholecystectomy. Here are the caveats. For some simple procedures (e.g., abscess drainage, temporary dialysis access, biopsies) you do fell a bit more like a technician. Conversely, for some conditions (e.g. HCC, vascular malformations, PAD), you tend to have longer relationships because these patients need longer follow up and often require multiple procedures over the years.
Re: Improving the Seldinger technique
- Woh, I’m not smart enough to improve upon such a beautifully elegant medical innovation. Maybe in the future.
Re: DR/IR duel certification and DR fellowships
- There’s a great comparison of training pathways on the RFS SIR website’s residency application advice page. All 3 pathways lead to dual certification in diagnostic and interventional radiology, the difference is how you get there. So no worries about not having DR to fall back upon if your back gives out. Lots of IRs complete a DR fellowship as well. The best way to do this with the current options would be to do ESIR or independent IR training after your DR residency and fellowship (the latter adds an extra year unfortunately).
Re: What prelim/internship
- Ah the age-ol’ question. The general recommendation is to do a surgery prelim. I’m instead doing a demanding TY. Here’s my logic for what it’s worth. I think IR is blend between clinical and surgical skills, so in my program, I get to do surgery rotations for 5 months, 2 months of MICU, a research month, and some electives in relevant medical subspecialties like hepatology. I think this will provide me a better foundation than being a pure surgical or medicine resident all year. That said, there are many who would disagree. I think a lot of it is what you make of it and this route seemed right for me.
Re: Is IR DO-friendly
- One of my mentors in IR is a DO, so it’s definitely possible. As a competitive specialty, you probably will have to apply a bit broader to overcoming the DO-bias in interview invitations. That said, if you have solid board scores, clerkship evals, some extracurriculars illustrating your interest in the field, and some solid LORs, you should be fine! Also, DR with the ESIR pathway is definitely doable as a back up plan!
