I'm interested in radiology but am concerned about radiation exposure. Is this a valid concern? Any evidence out there? Thanks.
Radiology
- Thread starter nek
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Just like any other aspect of medicine, if you take special precautions to protect yourself, you should be fine.
Ofcourse there is the risk in everything in medicine, not only radiology, so if you really enjoy this field, go for it without any hesitation!!!
Rob
WesternU/COMP MS II
[This message has been edited by Future DOc (edited 03-23-2000).]
Ofcourse there is the risk in everything in medicine, not only radiology, so if you really enjoy this field, go for it without any hesitation!!!
Rob
WesternU/COMP MS II
[This message has been edited by Future DOc (edited 03-23-2000).]
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Radiologists read films most of the time and are only minimally exposed during fluoroscopy such as barium enema and upper GI. Of course more so if you're interventional radiologist.
The biggest risk involves pregnant females and thats why few females are in radiology.
The biggest risk involves pregnant females and thats why few females are in radiology.
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Seems like you're from the British system.
Nowadays getting into Radiology has become brutally competitive, so the GP route is DEFINITELY not recommended.
As a Radiologist, you're trained in Radiation Protection and Physics and, if you follow some very simple guidelines, your exposure is negligible. I prefer it to being more exposed to TB (Internal Med) or other blood borne diseases (Surgery). So you see, we all have our own risks.
Nowadays getting into Radiology has become brutally competitive, so the GP route is DEFINITELY not recommended.
As a Radiologist, you're trained in Radiation Protection and Physics and, if you follow some very simple guidelines, your exposure is negligible. I prefer it to being more exposed to TB (Internal Med) or other blood borne diseases (Surgery). So you see, we all have our own risks.
Thanks X-ray Guy.
Actually, I'm Canadian and am considering getting an army scholarship for med school. The catch is I have to do a 2-year fam med residency and serve them for 3-4 years.
If I did this, would radiology programs have a bias against me? Would I still have to do that 1st year of int med? Would I be excluded from the 1st round of the NRMP? It seems that radiology is still less difficult to match in than say surgery, derm?
I have a lot of questions, but I hope you'll be able to answer some of them. Thank you.
Actually, I'm Canadian and am considering getting an army scholarship for med school. The catch is I have to do a 2-year fam med residency and serve them for 3-4 years.
If I did this, would radiology programs have a bias against me? Would I still have to do that 1st year of int med? Would I be excluded from the 1st round of the NRMP? It seems that radiology is still less difficult to match in than say surgery, derm?
I have a lot of questions, but I hope you'll be able to answer some of them. Thank you.
nek;
Yes, if you start out straight from medical school you have to do a preliminary year in Internal Medicine before radiology. I'm not sure if you'll need this year if you've already completed a family medicine residency, however.
Atleast in the US, radiology is very competitive even though the Match rate was down for the past few years. Radiology programs continue to take only very competitive applicants.
There is some concern in the future re: job security... With the advent of telemedicine many hospitals (particulary in rural areas) have found it cheaper to download images taken in their facility and send them to large tertiary centers for official 'reads' than to staff their own radiology depts with radiologists. If this trend expands to include more hospitals it may mean fewer jobs for radiologists.
Of course, radiologists are needed for invasive tests/procedures. However, there is a turf battle between radiologists and specialists who order the tests. Used to be that cardiac catheterization was a radiologist's job: now cardiologists do these... Same may happen in the future with cerebral angiography, is it the radiologist's job or the neurologist's? The turf battles continue...
Sure, there's always a niche and new procedures to do so the future is open to good radiologists and entrepeneurs...
Yes, if you start out straight from medical school you have to do a preliminary year in Internal Medicine before radiology. I'm not sure if you'll need this year if you've already completed a family medicine residency, however.
Atleast in the US, radiology is very competitive even though the Match rate was down for the past few years. Radiology programs continue to take only very competitive applicants.
There is some concern in the future re: job security... With the advent of telemedicine many hospitals (particulary in rural areas) have found it cheaper to download images taken in their facility and send them to large tertiary centers for official 'reads' than to staff their own radiology depts with radiologists. If this trend expands to include more hospitals it may mean fewer jobs for radiologists.
Of course, radiologists are needed for invasive tests/procedures. However, there is a turf battle between radiologists and specialists who order the tests. Used to be that cardiac catheterization was a radiologist's job: now cardiologists do these... Same may happen in the future with cerebral angiography, is it the radiologist's job or the neurologist's? The turf battles continue...
Sure, there's always a niche and new procedures to do so the future is open to good radiologists and entrepeneurs...
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The beauty of radiology is that it is never going to decline at least for the next 20-30 years. New types of imaging modalities are constantly being developed. Plus the old modalities (x-rays, ultrasound) are not becomming obsolete. Infact the number of imaging tests being ordered increases every year. The end result is increased demand for radiologists but the residency spots have increased by very few. Plus as long as we have lawyers in this country, other MD's will never be authorized to read films. To me, I can only see better days for radiologists.
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Actually there are many places where non-rads read and bill for image interpretation. This happens quite frequently in the outpatient setting.
I know of several large orthopedic and neuro-neurosurg. groups that have installed their own MRs and frequently bill for the technical as well as the professional fees. This is not a new phenomenon. Family docs had x-ray equipment in their offices for many years.
In the inpatient setting you need priveleges to do any kind of procedures including film interpretation. It gets more difficult for the non-radiologist.
I know of several large orthopedic and neuro-neurosurg. groups that have installed their own MRs and frequently bill for the technical as well as the professional fees. This is not a new phenomenon. Family docs had x-ray equipment in their offices for many years.
In the inpatient setting you need priveleges to do any kind of procedures including film interpretation. It gets more difficult for the non-radiologist.
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There was a trend for some non-radiologists (mainly, ortho & neuro/neurosurg) to buy their own magnets and try to interpret them. Most of these experiments failed miserably for various reasons, but the main reason was they simply weren't trained to deal with the complex cases and the radiologists weren't about to bail them out. Additionally, they'd usually rather be in the OR or treating pts than trying to read studies. Now there are a lot of non-radiologists who have their own magnets, but hire out the interpretation to the radiologists (they may bill for interpretation but this goes to the rad). Personally, I'd like to see radiologists refuse to read any of these studies without having equity in the magnet (and in fact, this is happening in a lot of areas).
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Unfortunately, many groups do contract out. My last group of 10 convered four cities. At one of the cities, the competition with nonradiologists was fierce. particularly in regard to MRI. At first there was the one and only MRI facility (which was free-standing) that the hospital sent patients to. The hospital decided to get its own. At the same time, the major orthopod group and a neurologist got their own machines. The orthopods sent their films to be read three hours away in Chicago (This happens a lot). The neurologist failed miserably to attract nonneuro business and was not competent to read on his own. So we eventuallly got his business anyway.
What was laughable the attempts by general surgeons to encroach into Mammo screening and work-up. The general surgeons bought their own US machines. Whenever recommended US and possible guided biopsy, the patients disappear as these surgeons wanted the money for the procedure, but weren't qualified to read Mammo and do the complete workup. Or because the renumeration is not that great just for screening without a procedure and intervention.. Another general surgeon started complaining about the quality of our Mammo reports, and sure enough - after having taken a week-long Mammo reiview course in Sweden, he considered himself competent to read his own Mammos. What a fool! He had subjected himself and therby had violated so many federal and state regulations, all because of greed. It will take only one case for everything to come crashing down on him!
What was laughable the attempts by general surgeons to encroach into Mammo screening and work-up. The general surgeons bought their own US machines. Whenever recommended US and possible guided biopsy, the patients disappear as these surgeons wanted the money for the procedure, but weren't qualified to read Mammo and do the complete workup. Or because the renumeration is not that great just for screening without a procedure and intervention.. Another general surgeon started complaining about the quality of our Mammo reports, and sure enough - after having taken a week-long Mammo reiview course in Sweden, he considered himself competent to read his own Mammos. What a fool! He had subjected himself and therby had violated so many federal and state regulations, all because of greed. It will take only one case for everything to come crashing down on him!
