Rads is perfect for me, except that.....

[Ruban]

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Rads ought to be the field for me. I love technology and computers, have stellar board scores, have a personality that fits rads, and have had many people tell me out of the blue that I ought to go into rads and that I'd make a great radiologist.

My problem? I'm not so good with anatomy/3D visualization. Part of it may be that I haven't spend enough time learning anatomy well. But I basically think I'm just not very "3D." This seems like it would be a fatal flaw in a radiologist.

Anyone else have this dilemma?

 

[cdql]

Hmm...I think that would probably be the smallest problem possible!

The hard part of getting into rads is the board scores, the appropriate personality, and actually deciding that this is the field you want to get into.

I would say that skill is something you can pick up with experience. I doubt many people are born with an innate ability to visualize items in 3D. (I know I hated classes that required me to do this!) I'm sure after an entire residency in radiology, you'll be able to do that with no problems.

 

[USAFGMODOC]

If RADS is what you really want, I'd go for it rather than settling for something else, only to end up kicking yourself in the head for the rest of your professional career. Who knows, you may turn out to kick butt at rads and the "perceived" 3D thing was only an insecurity issue.

I'm sure if you apply yourself , you'll do well so I'd GO FOR IT!

 

[bruinkid]

what board score must you have for radiology?

 

[Uncus]

what board score must you have for radiology?

234

 

[RonaldColeman]

234

Don't listen to this troll. The actual number is 233.

Joking aside...To the OP: I was in a very similar situation. I thought there was no way I could ever learn how to read CT scans, x-rays, etc. Then I took a radiology elective, and I realized it wasn't as difficult as I thought. For other reasons, I did not end up choosing radiology, but fear of being unable to read scans was not one of them. Take an elective and see what happens.

 

[trouta]

what board score must you have for radiology?

Depends on where you want to match. The most competitive programs have higher cut-offs for their scores. There is no absolute number that anyone can give you. Remember that radiology is a huge specialty in terms of the number of spots. Only really low scores will make it hard for you to match. That being said, you have to be realistic about where you apply based on your score and the rest of your application.

 

[bruinkid]

are great letters of rec better than average grades? and if you have a good step one score ~230, average grades, and good letters...what are your chances?
how do you decide where to apply? how do you find mean stats for the schools?

 

[Dr.RosenRosen]

bruinkid...are you joking?? Use the search function or go start your own thread homeboy....seriously.

To the OP. Actually, one of the main reasons I like rads is that I felt very comfortable with the whole 3D thing...only time in medicine that something came naturally to me. Check it out, study and practice...you may be surprised.

are great letters of rec better than average grades? and if you have a good step one score ~230, average grades, and good letters...what are your chances?
how do you decide where to apply? how do you find mean stats for the schools?

 

[BenHoganFan]

The best way is to develop the 3 D reconstruction in your mind is to learn the anatomy cold. Pull out a textbook and atlas and use the spatial relationships to reconstruct those things in your mind.

Pattern recognition is a more important facet of radiology and recognizing what is 'abnormal' or realizing that something is an anatomic 'normal variant'.

The main situations where reconstructing things in your mind is when you are doing procedures in interventional radiology, biopsies using Ultrasound or CT, and actually performing an ultrasound (i.e. axial, sagittal, radial, antiradial, coronal, transverse orientations). These things can be learned. Do not get discouraged. There are staff however that can look at the CT one time without having to scroll up and down on each organ/structure and come up with the diagnosis - those people represent the exception and not the rule when it comes to cross sectional imaging.

With the technology today, a 3 dimensional Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP) can be created to confirm or negate what you may have thought by looking at the 2 dimensional images (i.e. pulmonary embolism when in fact it was secondary to partial volume averaging.

 

[dz88]

could someone tell me what the appropriate personality for radiology is?

 

[cdql]

There is no one appropriate personality. But if I were to say the most compatible, then it would be a person who doesn't mind not seeing patients every day. This person also has to be a team player as he/she will be working with other departments of the hospital and providing information from the films/xrays/etc...

 

[tigershark]

could someone tell me what the appropriate personality for radiology is?

Introspective intuitive thinker

 

[scully]

Introspective intuitive thinker

Intuitive? really? It would seem to me that intuition is much more important when dealing with actual patients. In radiology, all of the information is laid out in front of you. I am not sure how intuition fits in. (I do hope you are right though, because that description fits me!)

 

[tigershark]

Intuitive as it applies to the Meyer-Briggs personality types, it has more to do with how you process and analyze information rather than what information you have.

 

[flux=rad]

I took that years ago and was INTP, hurrah.