Radiology and Patient Contact

[dozer]

Hello all, I'm a first year med student that could use a little help. I'm really enyoying my initial brushes with radiology and want to look into it as a possible specialty pursuit. However, I really enjoy patient contact and was wondering if there were any fields within radiology that would provide substantial patient contact. Thanks!

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[Docxter]

Hello all, I'm a first year med student that could use a little help. I'm really enyoying my initial brushes with radiology and want to look into it as a possible specialty pursuit. However, I really enjoy patient contact and was wondering if there were any fields within radiology that would provide substantial patient contact. Thanks!

Interventional radiology has a lot of patient contact. In diagnostic radiology, you get patient contact in ultrasound, fluoroscopy, mammography, spinal injections, and doing biopsies/drainages.

 

[f_w]

IR>>mammo>>peds>>rest

You will never be a PCP, but if you want patient contact as a significant part of your practice, IR is your field.
Some patients become 'your' patients as you see them frequently (liver cancer and biliary stricture patients), but for most your patient contact is limited to maybe a floor-consult or clinic visit, the procedure and maybe a follow-up appointment.

 

[Zap]

"Patient contact" is a very vague term. If you mean being in the same room with a patient for a brief period of time, then areas like ultrasound, fluoroscopy, mammography, etc. do have some patient contact. However, I think for most people the definition of "patient contact" includes building long-term and significant relationships with patients. To do that you have to A) see patients more than once or twice and B) actually talk to them. Neither of these are big aspects of diagnostic radiolgoy, even IR. If patient interaction is truly important to you and you like "imaging-heavy" fields, you might consider Radiation Oncology.

 

[f_w]

I think the question was 'which of the radiology subspecialties', not 'should I do family practice or rads'.

 

[Zap]

I think the question was 'which of the radiology subspecialties', not 'should I do family practice or rads'.

Touchy, touchy. Actually, the question was "which of the radiology subspecialties" offer "substantial patient contact". I guess I should have made my answer more clear: none. I'm not sure what family practice has to do with it, but in case the OP really likes imaging AND substantial patient contact, there are other fields out there that might be a good match (Rad Onc being one such example).

 

[f_w]

Have you done IR yet (and I mean in a department running their own clinic/inpatient service)?

You only follow a small subset of patients longitudinally (mostly HCC, biliary strictures, permanent neph-tubes and dialysis access), the ones you do are known to your staff on a first-name basis. Most other patients are a one or two-time contact (not different from an subspecialty ophthalmologist for example)
Sure, if patient contact is what you are looking for, there are other specialties that provide more of that than IR. (I didn't want to go into radiology because I wanted to be a 'real doctor' dealing with patients rather than sitting in a dark room all day looking at a screen. After 3 years in the clinical trenches I decided that I didn't care for patient care that much and that sitting in a dark room all day is a perk of radiology, not a drawback. Now, doing mostly IR I have found a field to split the difference and I am happy with it.)

 

[dozer]

Have you done IR yet (and I mean in a department running their own clinic/inpatient service)?

You only follow a small subset of patients longitudinally (mostly HCC, biliary strictures, permanent neph-tubes and dialysis access), the ones you do are known to your staff on a first-name basis. Most patients are a one or two-time contact (not different from an subspecialty ophthalmologist for example)
Sure, if patient contact is what you are looking for, there are other specialties that provide more of that than IR. (I didn't want to go into radiology because I wanted to be a 'real doctor' dealing with patients rather than sitting in a dark room all day looking at a screen. After 3 years in the clinical trenches I decided that I didn't care for patient care that much and that sitting in a dark room all day is a perk of radiology, not a drawback. Now, doing mostly IR I have found a field to split the difference and I am happy with it.)

Thanks for the replies! I haven't had any experience with IR yet, but I'm definitely going to check it out. Right now I have similar thoughts about sitting in a dark room all day vs. being a 'real doctor' but radiology just seems so interesting too, and I want to explore everything.

Thanks to everyone for the replies!

 

[f_w]

PS: If you want to be a pioneer, consider the 'clinical' or the 'DIRECT' pathway to IR. Both will get you board certified in diagnostic radiology, but there is more emphasis on the clinical training (and as you are not a 'nondesignated prelim' you have a right to have a predetermined set of rotations and are less likely to become the fetch-a-stick for the surg 2nd years.).

http://www.sirweb.org/gradEdu/VIRpathway.shtml
http://www.theabr.org/VIR_DIRECT.htm