Radiology VS Medicine ( GI FELLOWSHIP )

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Rico

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Hello there,

I need an advice before I make my decision.

I applied to Medicine and Radiology and I got few interviews in both,

I'm pretty confident that one of the hospitals where I did my Radiology interview will rank me high...but the more I do electives in Medicine, GI, Rheumo... I feel like I'm gonna get bored after a while ( means few years) sitting in a dark room whereas I love the interaction part of medicine.,...
I like the network and connection I can make with patients, phramreps etc...

I need to choose between Med categorical and Radio-medicine prelim..

any input or feedback would be greatly appreciated.


Rico
 
Do a search for Apacheindian. This cat lays it out plain and simple on which choice one should make. Good Luck to you....

Rads all the way
 
Rico said:
Hello there,

I need an advice before I make my decision.

I applied to Medicine and Radiology and I got few interviews in both,

I'm pretty confident that one of the hospitals where I did my Radiology interview will rank me high...but the more I do electives in Medicine, GI, Rheumo... I feel like I'm gonna get bored after a while ( means few years) sitting in a dark room whereas I love the interaction part of medicine.,...
I like the network and connection I can make with patients, phramreps etc...

I need to choose between Med categorical and Radio-medicine prelim..

any input or feedback would be greatly appreciated.


Rico
Click to expand...



Did you find anything? Should I point you in the rite direction?
 
Hah.. although apacheindian was hilarious, this is a good question. many radiology residents including myself are getting a bit bored on a daily basis but it's tolerable. I've had two friends quit rads after the first year. I'm sure you can always switch into an IM residency however switching into rads is difficult.
 
Peduncle,

About being bored, may I ask what year of residency you are in? Is the boredom due to repetition, sitting in the same place all day etc? Just curious as I am interested in rads but have somewhat of a short attention span.
 
I'm doing a transitional internship now and all I can think of when I think of clinical medicine is "mental masturbation".

You can easily get lulled into thinking that medicine is great after a few months of medicine or electives as a 3rd or 4th year medical student.

It's a whole different world when you become a resident. They hours are very long, call is always around the corner, and they shove all this **** in your face. From what I see, it doesn't get that much better as an attending.

But hey, if medicine turns you on, go for it. There will always be someone who wants your radiology spot.
 
peduncle said:
Hah.. although apacheindian was hilarious, this is a good question. many radiology residents including myself are getting a bit bored on a daily basis but it's tolerable. I've had two friends quit rads after the first year. I'm sure you can always switch into an IM residency however switching into rads is difficult.
Click to expand...

I don't know any statistics on ppl quitting their residency, but I think more ppl quit IM than Rads.

It's like two restaurants across the street from each other, one is jam packed w/ ppl and the other is lonely. Anybody would assume that the busy restaurant serves better food, right? Thus, don't you think the specialty that is more competitive and that many ppl are lining up to get into is better than a specialty that hardly anybody wants to go into?
 
While I see what you are trying to say, the example that you are providing is quite a fallacy. You are assuming, that each of the restaurants is serving the same type of food. The assumption would be fair if Radiology and Int Med were producing the same end product, which is entirely not the case.

Just think, that damn good restaurant that everyones at serves Mexican food, and the one not so popular, but still in business serves Thai. And you dont like Mexican food cause it gives you gas, so you will go to the Thai restaurant by default. And also, you are there for the food, hopefully, and not its perceived reputation as "the spot to be".

Just a caveat, now having said all that, I like Mexican food, so for me I just had to work a bit harder and put in more time to get my seat at the table. 😎
 
Sorry to not be more specific. Yes, both restaurants would be serving the same type of food, same price range, etc. Like for ex, two Italian spots across the street w/ same price range. (Thus I am correcting for the variables that might confound the variable that we are interested in, the quality of food/medical specialty). One is jam packed, and the other is lonely. The only difference would be the quality of the food/medical specialty.

Internal medicine and radiology are in fact serving the same end product. They are both specialties that medical students have to choose from when we graduate. I don't understand how you could say that they make different end products?

Internal medicine has wonderful patient interaction but crappy compensation; radiology has wonderful compensation but crappy patient interaction. I'm not totally sure which one works longer hours, but I don't think it's too much difference. I do think that patient interaction is horribly overrated.
 
If you assume that cards, GI, and radiology take all six years to finish (3 for residency + 3 for fellowship for cards and GI and 5 for residency and 1 for fellowship for radiology) and that all three fields make roughly same income, what's the big difference between radiology and cards/GI? It's the hours. During those six years, you will be working 80 hours per week during residency and 100 hours or more during fellowship (since there are no caps for fellows) for cards/GI. You will average only 50 hours for radiology. This is a huge difference in the quality of life. This is why radiology residents seem so much happier than IM residents. When I told a GI fellow I was going into rads, he told me how much better of a life I will have than going his route.

I think the key to happiness in medicine is don't follow patients. You can have very little patient interaction such as radiology, anesthesiology, and pathology. Or you can limit your interaction with them in clinic such as in derm or rad onc or acute settings such as emergency medicine. These fields are all highly regarded as the happiest fields in medicine and I believe it is because you don't follow patients. If you follow patients like you do in IM or surg, your life is terrible. If your patient is in the hospital, either you or your partner has to see them every freaking day, even if it is a weekend, holiday, or on your vacation. By not seeing patients, you also will have better hours because of no writing daily progress notes and rounding.
 
"get bored after a while ( means few years) sitting in a dark room whereas I love the interaction part of medicine"

I mean if you feel this way at all - isnt the choice easy?
 
Rico said:
I feel like I'm gonna get bored after a while ( means few years) sitting in a dark room whereas I love the interaction part of medicine.,...
I like the network and connection I can make with patients, phramreps etc...
Click to expand...

That will happen no matter what you do, even those with dream jobs.

I'm sure pro golfers eventually feel their "work" becomes a daily grind.

You don't think scoping people's rears will get boring eventually?
 
Osteopathology said:
"get bored after a while ( means few years) sitting in a dark room whereas I love the interaction part of medicine"

I mean if you feel this way at all - isnt the choice easy?
Click to expand...

I bet we all are going to get bored no matter what specialty we get ourselves into, that's just the nature of having a job. 'Same 'ol $&!%, different day'.

Seriously, putting scopes in ppl's rears is not more pleasing than sitting in a dark room all day.
 
Hi M8, I was in your exact position 2 years ago. In fact if you ask your radiology friends, many of them went through the exact same dilemma you are going through, in particular with GI. I myself chose GI.

Truth is I was attracted to the lifestyle, money, and relative ease of radiology. Then I did the rotation and I hated it and I turned away from it. I recognize that all med students get bored on their rotation as they are not actively reading and don't know what they're looking at. Also radiology has some inherent negatives which I won't get into on this forum.

I chose GI because I personally believe it is the ultimate field. It is not primary care, your job is primarily to perform endoscopies. 15-30 minute procedures with high reimbursement. I personally don't like clinic either but I think its a whole another story when you are a specialist, getting referrals for specific questions, and particularly when the whole point of clinic is to see if the patient needs a procedure that you provide in your own clinic. I guess what I am trying to say is that becoming a GI takes a lot of the crap (pun intended) out of IM. It still has its headaches, don't forget, including clinic, some paperwork, and of course the dreaded call and emergent procedures in the middle of the night.

I hope you make the right decision. I don't regret mine -- I may if I don't match into GI. And that's something very important to keep in mind. Make no mistake, IM residency is a huge pain in the arse. You will seriously wish you chose radiology more than once a week. Also there is the psychological beating you get from seeing your peers in medical school already match into their career and you yourself are slaving through a second slavery to get to where you want to be. And getting into GI is no joke. With only 400 spots, you need to do your best clinically, kiss the right arses, and perform research. Its difficult and the stress of always having to impress other people can get to you. Its difficult but it can be done if you have the right motivation.

Good luck with your career decision.
 
GiHunter said:
Hi M8, I was in your exact position 2 years ago. In fact if you ask your radiology friends, many of them went through the exact same dilemma you are going through, in particular with GI. I myself chose GI.

Truth is I was attracted to the lifestyle, money, and relative ease of radiology. Then I did the rotation and I hated it and I turned away from it. I recognize that all med students get bored on their rotation as they are not actively reading and don't know what they're looking at. Also radiology has some inherent negatives which I won't get into on this forum.

I chose GI because I personally believe it is the ultimate field. It is not primary care, your job is primarily to perform endoscopies. 15-30 minute procedures with high reimbursement. I personally don't like clinic either but I think its a whole another story when you are a specialist, getting referrals for specific questions, and particularly when the whole point of clinic is to see if the patient needs a procedure that you provide in your own clinic. I guess what I am trying to say is that becoming a GI takes a lot of the crap (pun intended) out of IM. It still has its headaches, don't forget, including clinic, some paperwork, and of course the dreaded call and emergent procedures in the middle of the night.

I hope you make the right decision. I don't regret mine -- I may if I don't match into GI. And that's something very important to keep in mind. Make no mistake, IM residency is a huge pain in the arse. You will seriously wish you chose radiology more than once a week. Also there is the psychological beating you get from seeing your peers in medical school already match into their career and you yourself are slaving through a second slavery to get to where you want to be. And getting into GI is no joke. With only 400 spots, you need to do your best clinically, kiss the right arses, and perform research. Its difficult and the stress of always having to impress other people can get to you. Its difficult but it can be done if you have the right motivation.

Good luck with your career decision.
Click to expand...

Is there any worry that they will cut reimbursement for endoscopy or that technology for virtual colonoscopy will improve to the point that it will greatly reduce the number of colonoscopies done? Obviously, radiology is also under-the-gun, but at least it seems more diversified than simply relying on endoscopy for $$$$.
 
fun8stuff said:
Is there any worry that they will cut reimbursement for endoscopy or that technology for virtual colonoscopy will improve to the point that it will greatly reduce the number of colonoscopies done? Obviously, radiology is also under-the-gun, but at least it seems more diversified than simply relying on endoscopy for $$$$.
Click to expand...

It's been said many times in this forum, don't pick a specialty based on current reimbursements, as everything will most likely change in the coming years and it's almost impossible to predict in what way. Cards is already getting very badly hit by the reform, as well as IR and nukes and rads. Surgery already got hit several years ago. All procedure-based specialties will most likely be affected some way or another, as the administration believes there's too much discrepancy in salaries between them and primary care.
 
GiHunter said:
Hi M8, I was in your exact position 2 years ago. In fact if you ask your radiology friends, many of them went through the exact same dilemma you are going through, in particular with GI. I myself chose GI.

Truth is I was attracted to the lifestyle, money, and relative ease of radiology. Then I did the rotation and I hated it and I turned away from it. I recognize that all med students get bored on their rotation as they are not actively reading and don't know what they're looking at. Also radiology has some inherent negatives which I won't get into on this forum.

I chose GI because I personally believe it is the ultimate field. It is not primary care, your job is primarily to perform endoscopies. 15-30 minute procedures with high reimbursement. I personally don't like clinic either but I think its a whole another story when you are a specialist, getting referrals for specific questions, and particularly when the whole point of clinic is to see if the patient needs a procedure that you provide in your own clinic. I guess what I am trying to say is that becoming a GI takes a lot of the crap (pun intended) out of IM. It still has its headaches, don't forget, including clinic, some paperwork, and of course the dreaded call and emergent procedures in the middle of the night.

I hope you make the right decision. I don't regret mine -- I may if I don't match into GI. And that's something very important to keep in mind. Make no mistake, IM residency is a huge pain in the arse. You will seriously wish you chose radiology more than once a week. Also there is the psychological beating you get from seeing your peers in medical school already match into their career and you yourself are slaving through a second slavery to get to where you want to be. And getting into GI is no joke. With only 400 spots, you need to do your best clinically, kiss the right arses, and perform research. Its difficult and the stress of always having to impress other people can get to you. Its difficult but it can be done if you have the right motivation.

Good luck with your career decision.
Click to expand...

Thanks for coming to the Rads forum to give some good insight, very appreciated.
 
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