I can see why people say/think that but IME it's just an overgeneralization that's not quite true. In residency we do have to learn a good amount of technical minutia about the imaging modalities and equipment, or the "housekeeping" as I like to call it, but not to the degree of say what rad-onc needs to know and definitely not close to what surgeons need to know about their advanced equipment. At a baseline though, due to all the bells and whistles that come with radiology and using software and computers day in day out, residents and attendings definitely need to be able to adapt to change quickly. Not convinced that any pre-existing proclivity has a large hand in this is all
Patients are too smelly... /jk
Great questions. Glad you are interested in this field already.
Night shifts are so much more bearable when there's an NBA or MLB game on.
1. Wish I knew how much clinical knowledge is really necessary to read out scans in the best way possible. I kind of blew off some of my later clerkships once I knew I wanted to do radiology since I thought all I needed to do were scans. LOL. Knowing how to put the scans in context with the latest most complicated medicine note is an art that's the bane of my life. lol. Do your rotations well, folks. All of it counts if you're going into a field as broad as radiology, EM, IM.
This AI bull**** is super overblown. How fast do people think we're going to progress? The latest AI program approved by the FDA analyzes radial wrist fractures...and only slightly better than MDs can do it. We are decades away from an apocalyptic replacement of physicians reading out complex scans like CTs and MRIs that we get on the reg.
If you prefer problem solving, I'm having a hard time seeing why you're considering psychiatry... Ahhhhh ok I see you're an incoming M1. Ok nvm. Be warned, psych IMO has very little to do with problem solving, at least not the clinical MDM type. More of "which pharmacologically equivalent drug do I switch this patient to today?" lol ok no more hate on psych now. Edit: these comments about psych are largely facetious, like many others, I don't purport to know what it is exactly that psych does.
Much better. The fact that I don't have to go through 6 years of 7a-1p inpatient rounding and clinic followup bull**** during my prime years of clinical training is enough for me. I did a medicine prelim b/c there's no frigging way I was going to do a surgical prelim and it sucked the life out of me. No way José ever again. I peace out at 6p and don't recognize any of my patients when I come back in at 9a. You show up to GI clinic to see your Crohn's patient you've known for 5+ years. Your question is a little odd. People do not choose b/w IM and radiology based on lifestyle...they choose based on philosophy. They're completely different lifestyles because of the type of work it is, so much so that the latter dictates your choice, not the former. You go into IM for the patient relationships, the House-style long ass differentials and correlated extended thinking processes. I go into radiology because I love reading scans more than anything else. An IM sub-specialist would cry at how little patient contact I have; I shudder at the thought of maintaining any relationship with a patient longer than 20 minutes at the bedside.
I have a dual degree as well. Won't say what it is b/c it would basically dox me. I don't plan on using it at all until I'm done with fellowship. I'm a little unclear about what you're saying. I don't see how an MPH would help you implement hospital policies, since the curriculum really focuses on the macro level. The best thing you can do to get involved with intra-hospital management is to network at your own hospital as a junior clinician. The second point sounds much more like the type of endeavor that would be informed by the core skills of an MPH, which is largely biostatistics, epidemiology, and population health. Most MD/MPHs I see and know are use it for 1) research purposes, which could include the type of project you mentioned, or 2) to work in some overtly public health-oriented position (think public health officer, coordinating smoking cessation programs, etc.). The ones that just work in straight up government don't necessarily use their public health knowledge, just more of their clinical and policy knowledge.
Aways are weird and difficult to manage, esp in radiology, hands-down. The shift nature of the work and non-continuity makes it hard to work around. Probably the most important thing you can do is to establish clear communication preferences from the get go. One of the things that irks me sometimes about students is the untimeliness of their questions; reading images is a difficult cognitive task and getting interrupted leads to inefficiency and more errors. Most attendings/residents will be grateful if you ask them how you can best fit into their workflow from day 1 in the reading room. How are films assigned in the reading room? Should you volunteer to grab new films as they show up? (Always offer to grab them and if they have a different workflow, they'll let you know.) How should you let them know when you're done with a read to go over with them? Who do you report to? Accept that you won't be shifting the needle as you do in other clerkships, meaning hardly anyone relies on med students to finish tasks b/c you're not at the level to do so yet. You're still reading to learn. Don't take it personally, that's just how the field works.
Yeah man I know, I didn't make it clear that I was being quite facetious and having some fun with that comment. Even during the psychotropic games there's no shortage of critical thinking, of course. Lemme go back and edit the points of clarity in lol
You're very welcome. It certainly is a very different experience but all attending and resident radiologists at any teaching institution should be cognizant of that fact and be willing to accept you in your role with open arms. Should anyone give you the feeling that they don't, in my book, it's an important enough warning sign to note. Personalities differ, of course, but DR services are known to be some of the chiller ones so don't sweat it too much anyway. You know the drill from your mothership (hopefully), just rinse and repeat with a little bit more gravity on the aways
The lifestyle can be great for two reasons. One, no overnight call, not many weekends; what's a breast imagery emergency? Two, variety: imaging, reading, procedures (read: biopsies), screening, clinic, breast people do it all. They actually carry their own patients and generally have longer term relationships. They only look at boobs, all. day. long.
Interesting. As someone who hasn't looked into the private practice model much given my career trajectory, I didn't know about this but it makes complete sense. I learned something from my own AMA. Nice.
About to start doing aways in DR, couple questions:
I was in a similar boat as you starting MS3 - was heavily leaning surgery. I feel pretty confident that after third year you'll have a very good idea where you stand on this issue.
Not too much. Give me better indications for why they need to scan. Understand that they are the clinical correlation, not me. I only have the scan in front of me, not the patient. I understand that radiologists might recommend clinical correlations too frequently to the point of irresponsibility, but it's really not in my job description or capabilities to give you a differential in the read. One of the funnier Gomer Blog articles: http://gomerblog.com/2016/05/bored-radiologist-clinically-correlates-everything/
See my above response on this. I'm a bit out of the loop for med student level stuff...honestly I wasn't the best med student lol. My co-residents speak highly of Herring's Learning Radiology and I've seen some students here carry it. Felson's CXR book is also good I've heard. Maybe radiopaedia.org? I don't really think you need to do much. Most of the time you'll find yourself shadowing and bumbling through random things yourself and then someone will tell you to peace out at 2:30pm
Surgery IMO is nowhere near instant gratification level stuff, unless you're talking about real vanilla stuff like outpatient lipomas or umbilical hernia repairs. Most other surgical subspecialty patients are very sick and require long hospital stays pre-/post-surgery (or both) and you'll have to manage them throughout that time. Ego? You can surely get away with a big ego in a surgical field but I'm not sure the work itself does much to stroke it on a daily basis. The idea of the powerful surgeon waving his golden scalpel and strutting around isn't really how it goes at most hospitals.
