Nuclear medicine

[Handsome88]

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Why isn't nuclear medicine listed as one of the possible sub-specialties of IM?
Isn't it true that you could do 2 years of nuclear medicine only, and be certified?
It's an interesting specialty similar to radiology and has increasingly high pay (340k+) with regular work hours so I'm wondering why no one talks about it on here. If it's not an IM sub-specialty, can you please clarify the IM route to it for me?

P.S. How competitive is it compared to other IM specialties.

 

[CrazyWeasel]

Nuclear Medicine would be a radiology fellowship, there's no IM route into it.

 

[gutonc]

Nukes is its own strange world. It exists as both an independent specialty as well as a sub-specialty of Rads. So somebody who has done IM (or just a prelim year) can get into a Nukes program (2y) as can someone who has completed a full Rads residency 👍.

The nukes only folks will be fine at reading MUGAs and DEXAs but essentially useless at reading PET scans (which is actually the only thing I ever care about in the Nuke Med world). Your ability to get a job as Nuke-only without Rads will be very diminished.

But the answer to the OP is...Nukes isn't an IM sub-specialty because it's not. Also as far as reimbursement goes, I would caution you about interpreting those salary numbers...are they nukes trained radiologists or just nukes? My bet is the former (for the majority anyway).

If you can afford your own PET/CT scanner (what's a half million bucks between friends?) You can probably set up your own nukes practice and make bank. But if you've got a half million bucks burning a hole in your pocket you can probably find an easier way to make money.

 

[staup]

I second gutonc's thoughts. You can do Nucs as a fellowship post IM, in fact I have a friend who is doing it. You can also do a straight Nucs residency, or a post Rads fellowship.

From what I hear though, it is exceedingly difficult to get a job as a primarily IM candidate. It's mostly Rad folks who get the job offers, and there ain't a lot of them.

 

[umc]

Forget about nuclear medicine.

Just nuclear medicine residency, u almost can never find a job now. Talk to nuclear medicine residents first before you jump to this field.

Why isn't nuclear medicine listed as one of the possible sub-specialties of IM?
Isn't it true that you could do 2 years of nuclear medicine only, and be certified?
It's an interesting specialty similar to radiology and has increasingly high pay (340k+) with regular work hours so I'm wondering why no one talks about it on here. If it's not an IM sub-specialty, can you please clarify the IM route to it for me?

P.S. How competitive is it compared to other IM specialties.

 

[p53]

Nucs jobs are hired by radiology groups. In the 90s you could get a job as a nucs via im. Now you can forget it. Even if you find a job it will be in academics and worth 100k a year.