Role of a radiologist

[Kazaki]

First things first, this isn't a "will AI take control" thread or a "job market sucks balls" thread.
I'm an MS3 this question is for the attendings and residents.
What do you think the role of a radiologist will be in the future based on what you do today?
Do you see radiologists being more involved in clinical medicine? Do you think radiologists will finally wake up and push vascular surgery/cards/neuro etc.. away from their turf with interventional work? Or has that battle already been lost, like cardiac angioplasty?
I'm curious because I'm really interested in the field, but wherever I look it's like the leaders in rads don't give two sh*ts about their speciality and what happens to it, as opposed to cards who are taking the world by storm.

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[DaTruMD]

How are cards taking the world by storm?

 

[Fenixak]

There is no way rads can compete with cards in regards to cv procedures. Vascular does like 5 procedures. IR does a whole lot of stuff all over the body. IR is only going to flourish with new procedures being developed every year. Your post comes off a tad too strong, especially coming from an MS3 that doesn't have a lot of experience.

 

[shark2000]

First things first, this isn't a "will AI take control" thread or a "job market sucks balls" thread.
I'm an MS3 this question is for the attendings and residents.
What do you think the role of a radiologist will be in the future based on what you do today?
Do you see radiologists being more involved in clinical medicine? Do you think radiologists will finally wake up and push vascular surgery/cards/neuro etc.. away from their turf with interventional work? Or has that battle already been lost, like cardiac angioplasty?
I'm curious because I'm really interested in the field, but wherever I look it's like the leaders in rads don't give two sh*ts about their speciality and what happens to it, as opposed to cards who are taking the world by storm.

Then why don't you apply to cards or other fields?

You have a very negative view of radiology and you should be stupid to even consider radiology.

 

[meister]

Not sure why you guys are so negative, kid's just repeating things he hears on the wards. NBD.

IR has a bright future. DR is fun and is a key component of any major hospital system. By your questions it is clear you could use more exposure to rads, which is expected. so try to get an elective rotation scheduled when you can.

I doubt there's a radiologist left in the country who scrubs in on cardiac cases though I'm curious if there are any exceptions out there. IR lost that turf decades ago, and practically never really had it.

 

[Kazaki]

Then why don't you apply to cards or other fields?

You have a very negative view of radiology and you should be stupid to even consider radiology.

Great, that contributed a lot to everyone's knowledge here.
If you've got something useful to offer please do, otherwise you're just being a **** for no reason.

 

[Kazaki]

There is no way rads can compete with cards in regards to cv procedures. Vascular does like 5 procedures. IR does a whole lot of stuff all over the body. IR is only going to flourish with new procedures being developed every year. Your post comes off a tad too strong, especially coming from an MS3 that doesn't have a lot of experience.

Not sure why you guys are so negative, kid's just repeating things he hears on the wards. NBD.

IR has a bright future. DR is fun and is a key component of any major hospital system. By your questions it is clear you could use more exposure to rads, which is expected. so try to get an elective rotation scheduled when you can.

I doubt there's a radiologist left in the country who scrubs in on cardiac cases though I'm curious if there are any exceptions out there. IR lost that turf decades ago, and practically never really had it.

I mean, when cardiac angio was pioneered by radiologists, cards came in and dominated the field and pretty much pushed rads out of that field.
Rads let neurology into their endovascualr
fellowships and now neurologists want in on all the procedures for obvious reason$$$
It just seems that radiologists aren't doing anything to stop others from entering IR through non-rads pathways (which defeats the purpose of an interventionalist since they need to be experts at reading film to do the procedures)

 

[ProfMD]

Not a radiologist, so I hope I am not speaking out of turn here.

You don't need a full radiology residency to interpret the films in interventional cardiology, interventional neuroradiology, etc. These involve one modality (angiography) for one system (heart, brain, etc).

The other issue is patient referrals. By and large, the clinicians get the patients. So, if they can find a way to do he procedure, they will.

That being said, interventional radiologists do use other modalities that the non-radiologists don't use (ultrasound, CT, etc).

Now, I like the interventional radiologists at my place, they are really good and I have no problem consulting them. However, the diagnostic radiologists I work with are awesome - I talk to them practically every day about challenging cases and unusual findings.

 

[DrBowtie]

I mean, when cardiac angio was pioneered by radiologists, cards came in and dominated the field and pretty much pushed rads out of that field.
Rads let neurology into their endovascualr
fellowships and now neurologists want in on all the procedures for obvious reason$$$
It just seems that radiologists aren't doing anything to stop others from entering IR through non-rads pathways (which defeats the purpose of an interventionalist since they need to be experts at reading film to do the procedures)

What you don't realize is that there is nothing inherently special about catheter work. There is nothing to stop any specialty from adapting techniques from others to fit their specialty. As said above, patient control is the key issue. The IR leaders are fighting and trying to establish a true consultative field rather than just a procedural request. How successful they will be still remains to be seen.

Your view is also skewed by being in an academic center where you have super specialists crawling around. Lots of IRs still doing PVD stuff in the community.

 

[cowme]

Why are you harping on cardiac cath? That became cardiologys realm like 40 years ago. Radiology used to do rad one therapy too, are you upset they lost that also? Honestly dude, you sound incredibly naive about basically anything to do with radiology, so I mirror the advice to do a rads rotation and learn a little more

 

[Kazaki]

Why are you harping on cardiac cath? That became cardiologys realm like 40 years ago. Radiology used to do rad one therapy too, are you upset they lost that also? Honestly dude, you sound incredibly naive about basically anything to do with radiology, so I mirror the advice to do a rads rotation and learn a little more

I'm not upset about anything, just curious.
I do have an elective scheduled for later on in the year, but you guys are right in that I have pretty much zero knowledge of how stuff is actually run in rads, hence my questions.

 

[cowme]

When Your questions are prefaced with:

"I'm really interested in the field, but wherever I look it's like the leaders in rads don't give two sh*ts about their speciality and what happens to it, as opposed to cards who are taking the world by storm."

You're not going to get a very helpful response

 

[Radz123]

You need to figure out what you want to do when you're done training, then do the residency that is most equipped to get you there.

Until you can honestly answer the question of what you want your day to day work life to be, no one on this board can truly help you.

 

[badasshairday]

Radiology Is The best. That is why others try to emulate us, but we are always a step ahead. We are also the original sharks stealing turf left and right. Others are just trying to get it back after the fact. Nobody wants to lose their livelihood to us radiologist, a paraphrase from a neurosurgeon I know.

 

[shark2000]

What is radiology?

You wake up very early in the morning on a Saturday because you have to be in the hospital at 6 am. You wear your scrubs, drive to the hospital while drinking 2 cups of coffee in 10 minutes and you curse at yourself the whole time because you have never seen the road that silent (esp here in Cali). Worse than that you start your day with a batch of boring portable ICU films (Tubes, lines, atelectasis...... tubes, line, atelectasis). You continue your day by boroing normal head CTs from ER (yawwwwn), a few fractures here and there, pneumonia, normal CXR (yawwwn), normal CTA chest in a 25 year old (yawwwwn), normal gallbladder US (yawwwn though most of them have hepatic steatosis) and simple pathologies like appendicitis, diverticulitis, stroke on brain MRI and degenerative lumbar spine ordered to rule out cauda equina syndrome. Boring, boring boring .... Boring boring boring ..... But at least not annoying. Still better than being in ER dealing with BS. Still better than rounding on patients and correcting their potassium. Still better than being in the OR doing your 1000th cholecystectomy on a 92 years old demented patient. Still better than dealing with the complication of your surgery that was done 2 weeks ago and the patient is now in the ER and his family is waiting to fight with you. Still better than doing a consult on a drug seeker with 10 risk factors for CAD and chest pain who is asking you to give him narcotics . I don't know. You may try to rationalize the boring day. It is now 11 o'clock and you are drinking your 10th coffee of the morning while opening a study. And all of a sudden you feel that you've just woke up. You look at it over and over again. It absorbs you so much that you even don't notice that the Xray tech is behind you telling you that the portable Xray that she did does not include the left lung apex and whether you want to repeat it or not. You just tell her yes or no and go back to your case. After looking at it for a few good minutes, comparing the old ones and reading the patient's chart you pick up the phone, call the referring physician and speak some smart words. After signing the report, you feel that some neurons deep in your head, somewhere between your thalamus and anterior frontal lobe are firing rapidly. You feel your brain is scratching, endorphine is releasing and a feel of satisfaction comes in. This is radiology. The only intellectually stimulating field in medicine.

 

[meister]

I like drinking coffee and reading films.