Radiology & Volunteering Overseas

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bbpiano1

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I was looking at the MSF-Doctors Without Borders website and they, understandably, tend to recruit primary care type physicians (as well as surgeons). Do you any of you know what kinds of opportunities exist out there for radiologists to get involved? Instead of reading films, can radiologists temporarily assume a more primary care type of role (assuming they are still good at dealing with patients)?

I'd appreciate your thoughts, comments, and/or past experience with this kind of work.

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I was looking at the MSF-Doctors Without Borders website and they, understandably, tend to recruit primary care type physicians (as well as surgeons). Do you any of you know what kinds of opportunities exist out there for radiologists to get involved? Instead of reading films, can radiologists temporarily assume a more primary care type of role (assuming they are still good at dealing with patients)?

I'd appreciate your thoughts, comments, and/or past experience with this kind of work.


Few options. At times, faculty from the US has gone overseas to mentor the development of radiology training programmes for local docs, but MSF and the like need GPs and sometimes surgeons, not barium-pushers.
 
If you still have good clinical skills your services would be accepted at many such programs. Make sure you have these skills though, otherwise you may do more harm than good! You will lose a lot of your clinical skills as a diagnostic radiologist. There's nothing wrong with that it's going to happen. You will hone your skills in one area (radiology) and lose them in others.
Remember, your license is first and foremost to practice medicine and surgery. As a radiologist if you wanted to start practicing cardio-thoracic surgery you theoretically could (forget the fact that you would never get OR privileges or referrals....).
Good luck in this altruistic endeavour...
 
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