Pro and Cons…
Pros: Millions per annum and off by 4 pm.
Cons: Must get accepted to medical school (and graduate).
What stage is your medical education? that specialty will certainly requires a fellowship. Unless you are in the residency already, you really cannot think of a radiology specialty too early.
My Emergency Room Doctor friend has already working in a hospital for years and could not get a fellowship, so he cannot further his specialty to another level.
“Cons: Must get accepted to medical school (and graduate)”
and after graduating from med school, then match into prelim/transitional(?) internship program (1 year), followed by radiology residency (4 years), then get acceptance in fellowship in Interventional radiology (1-2 years). Good luck.
There is also a “direct” pathway now. About 4 years.
Con: There is event risk. The technology is changing fast and you will need to be in a constant state of continuing education. Many current procedures (hopefully) will be replaced by better (non IR?) therapies.
Interventional radiology is not 9-5. Most will have on call responsibilities with real potential of being in at all hours. @JustOneDad I don’t know any full time radiologist who works 9-4 including myself. And while we make good money, millions per annum is off by an order of magnitude. Training is changing to a separate interventional track.
i am in MD year 1, middle-tier Med school
IR is a great field if you want to work with your hands. However, the hours are quite long and there is significant call responsibility. My IR rotation hours were 5:30 AM - 7 or 8 pm on weekdays with overnight and weekend call responsibilities. We were called into the hospital approximately 50% of the time overnight and the weekends were long (even longer than normal weekdays). We started at 5:30 AM on my lone Saturday IR call this year and did not finish until 10:30 pm. Did cases at 5 hospitals in one day. Had a TIPS and 3 bleeds to embolize on that day while doing nephrostomy tubes, PICC lines, etc. in between.
That said, IR is still the most competitive radiology subspecialty as the job market is better than for other radiology subspecialties. But, by the time you apply, the direct pathway will be in full swing and you will no longer be doing a diagnostic radiology residency to get to IR.
HOLY SHIT IT’S NCG!!!
I knew it sounded too good to be true. Just add it to the other things you hear in med school, like “A chance to cut is a chance to cure” and “Orthopedic surgeons - strong as an ox and twice as smart”.
Thank you all for the information.
@JustOneDad but there’s still “Radiologists do it in the dark!” Plus that old duck hunting joke…
Anyone has current IR rankings in mind ? thanks!