Which clinical rotations to focus on?

[emlopez2]

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Well to start I know its obvious to do as well as possible in all your medschool rotations, but besides the radiology rotation, which others are the most important if you 're interested in radiology? Also my school doesn't let us do our radiology rotation until 4th year, so I wouldnt be 100% positive this field is right for me b4 making my 4th year schedule. Would one extra radiology elective enough just in case i am?

 

[hans19]

Well to start I know its obvious to do as well as possible in all your medschool rotations, but besides the radiology rotation, which others are the most important if you 're interested in radiology? Also my school doesn't let us do our radiology rotation until 4th year, so I wouldnt be 100% positive this field is right for me b4 making my 4th year schedule. Would one extra radiology elective enough just in case i am?

Try to do as well as you can on all of your rotations, but IM and Surgery would carry the most weight.

 

[unoriginal]

Try to do as well as you can on all of your rotations, but IM and Surgery would carry the most weight.

what about 4th year electives? what clinical electives would be helpful knowledge-wise for a career in radiology?

 

[hans19]

what about 4th year electives? what clinical electives would be helpful knowledge-wise for a career in radiology?

Radiology encompasses most fields in medicine, so it would be impossible to do electives in everything, so here are some suggestions:

If you think you may be interested in IR, do a vascular surgery rotation. The future of cardiac imaging is bright and may be hotly contested in the future- do a cardiology rotation especially to learn about coronary disease and its implications for treatment.

Other than that, you can't go wrong with Ortho (MSK), Neurosurg/neurology/ENT (neuroimaging) as these are related to the hottest fellowships at the moment-- though it could/will likey change by the time you apply for a fellowship.

Oncology/surg onc (to learn staging of various types of cancer) High risk OB (obstetric imaging), Urology (GU imaging), pulmonary (thoracic imaging), transplant surgery, can also be helpful. Basically you can pursue the things that parallel your interests in the radiology subspecialties.

Things like derm, anesthesiology, pathology, general IM and EM would be less useful.

 

[AD2020]

Things like derm, anesthesiology, pathology, general IM and EM would be less useful.

I thought pathology would be useful, since image-guided biopsies are used across a lot of different disciplines. Also, I would think there is a lot of overlap among cases that go to autopsy and cases that have a ton of imaging (though I doubt you look at the imaging when the gross pathology is right in front of you).

Am I completely wrong in thinking that a pathology elective could be quite relevant to a future radiologist?

 

[hans19]

I thought pathology would be useful, since image-guided biopsies are used across a lot of different disciplines. Also, I would think there is a lot of overlap among cases that go to autopsy and cases that have a ton of imaging (though I doubt you look at the imaging when the gross pathology is right in front of you).

Am I completely wrong in thinking that a pathology elective could be quite relevant to a future radiologist?

When you take a biopsy, the cytopathologist in the room tells you when you have an adequate sample. Otherwise you are just taking cores which are basically tissue chunks you send to pathology, without looking under the scope.

Its true you have to know a lot about pathologic processes, and maybe the likely histopathology of a mass (ie- the characteristics of the mass and pattern of organ invasion looks typical for Squamous cell carcinoma) . But you don't have to know what the cells actually look like under such and such stain under 100x (which is basically capital 'P' Pathology.) IMO your time would be better served in other rotations.

 

[AD2020]

The future of cardiac imaging is bright and may be hotly contested in the future- do a cardiology rotation especially to learn about coronary disease and its implications for treatment.

I'm probably going to do a 4 week cards rotation, and I was wondering - am I going to get less teaching when I tell these guys I'm going into rads? It seems like there's a lot of resentment between cardiologists and radiologists, and I can't completely blame a busy cardiologist who would prefer spending time teaching someone going into medicine than someone going into rads. It would suck, though, to voluntarily invest a month and not get much out of it. My general outlook on 4th year is that I don't mind working hard or spending more time in the hospital, as long as I get something out of it proportional to that extra time.

I do have a genuine interest in cardiology, so I hope that will count for something.