Doing a radiology residency after completing Internal Medicine

[wrkndply]

I am a current PGY2 in Internal Medicine. I wanted radiology but didnt match initially. I intend to apply to radiology this cycle and starting it after completing my internal medicine residency in a year. Anyone know if having done an IM residency will be looked on favorably or be advantageous?

I like radiology and want to do IR fellowship/ESIR. I'll be able to admit, discharge, and care for ICU patients and hope this will be looked on favorably as an applicant, especially with my IR interest.

Anyone go a similar route, meet someone in a similar position, have any thoughts on this or willing to provide some encouragement/hope?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[redoitall]

I did consider this once, but after IM prelim, just wanted to get out of that. These specialties are too far from each other honesty. I don't even mention the time lost. Practically speaking there is really almost no case scenario when doing both gives you any kind of market edge, even if it is cool.
Before doing that, I would consider trying to maybe either practice as a hospitalist/internist or see if there is not a IM fellowship you would like. I remember enjoying MICU. Cards also seemed pretty cool and you can push it to interventional cardiology/electrophysiology which are not only lucrative but also extremely procedural! Now if you really can't stand IM, sure, you can always consider Rad. THe nice thing for you is that you might be able to moonlight and make serious money while a rad resident. But this path, particularly in IR is quite brutal, and it will take 6 or 7 more years. If you are really procedural inclined, I would likely pursue intervention cardiology. I really enjoyed that. I just could stomach the extra IM residency, the rounding, the paperwork, and the social BS I would have to put up with.
Good luck.

 

[Dave1980]

Someone in my residency did IM then went into rads. I don't think the 3 years of IM helped them. They were just as bad at looking at imaging as the rest of the R1s. Which confirmed my gut feeling that IM people don't know how to look at a CT.

 

[Clean7795]

It is rare but it happens. There's absolutely no advantage to finishing your IM residency, so I'd advise you actually probably looking into switching ASAP.

Having your own admission privileges would be interesting, but realistically you will be practicing as an IR physician and not as a hospitalist, meaning you will have whatever admission privileges your IR department has. There's not enough time in a day to do IR, DR, and be a hospitalist.

 

[AndM17]

I worked with someone who did complete an entire residency before going into radiology. Being an "attending" before starting residency did not have any practical benefit. Radiology is generally quite open to people "transferring" from other specialties and it can be a very rewarding field. Transferring is definitely possible!

Realize that radiology, even with ESIR, is a four year diagnostic based program. If your passion is managing ICU patients, completing a radiology residency may be frustrating. This is a personal opinion but if you want that kind of patient care then an IM fellowship might be your best choice. I know SIR emphasizes a model of IR practice that involves managing ICU patients, but this is far from universal. There is no good data on the average practice patterns in IR but I doubt your "regular IR doc" in private practice or a a non-elite academic institution is spending half their time managing ICU floors.