Interventional Rads sounds like a potentially very rewarding field with ample patient interactions and interesting procedures, and I think it is much more similar to ophtho than diagnostic radiology. Diagnostic radiology involves sitting in a relatively dark room intrepting images. I know several people that like diagnostic radiology because of the lack of patient interaction, the easier schedule, and the income, as well as the prospect of working from home in the future and having a lot of time for moonlighting during residency.
People in ophtho must enjoy the patient interactions because you will see many patients a day. If you don't like being with patients, then please stay away from this field. Humans have an innate fear of going blind and/or having anyone poke them in their eyes, and they deserve a compassionate doctor who will help them in a sensitive and professional way. If you do like patient interaction, then this is probably the best field in medicine. I've never met an unhappy ophthalmologist. The residents are all glad they are in their programs, and they feel lucky to have found it as a career. You work with the young and the old. Vision is important, the eye is very complicated, it's fragile and scary to most other doctors, so you are well-respected and appreciated by patients and other collegues. You are focused on just 1 organ, but you are involved with the diagnosis, the imaging (FA, US, OCT, and on and on), and both medical AND surgical treatment - it's a unique continuity and completeness. You have long term follow up with many patients, and you are still involved in short term ones as well. The technology is amazing, and gadgets are fun, and you use a lot of cool equipment. Eye surgery is exact, permanent, high stakes, often predictable, and very rewarding. Ideally, you should love using your hands, have good depth perception, and good visual acuity. The cases are usually relatively short, but you may do many of them in a row. The field is diverse with many career options. Eye problems are very common, and with the baby boomers, the demand for eye surgeons and vision research will greatly increase during our careers. The field involves a lot of procedures, and you have the potential to see many patients a day, and thus is will be above average in pay despite the decrease in physician reimbursement. My impression (admittingly speculative) is that the low end is about equal to an average PCP, the middle range is above average, and the high end represents some of the most lucrative jobs in medicine. So there are a lot of options out there. It's a very busy career, contrary to stereotype, but that means you are very busy during your work hours seeing patients quickly and efficiently, and most evenings, nights and weekends are off. Derm, rads, and rad-onc might have easier schedules because they don't see as many emergencies that happen in ophtho, but ophtho allows time to be very involved with family and outside interests. I think it's a good balance. Many of the world's blind can be cured, they just don't have the resources. I think international leaders in the field are needed to help build the infrastructure in the 3rd world to have sustainable services there. There's a lot of opportunity, a lot of excitement, and I would really encourage anyone to strongly consider going into ophtho.
