Brains Versus Breast: Which One To Choose?

Both areas can make for an excellent career, but it all depends on what kind of environment, pressures, and lifestyle you want. To help you out I can give you a little summary of the critical factors about I would be thinking.

First of all, let’s start with the general pressure of work. In Neuroradiology, if you miss something in a film, it can be the difference between immediate life and death. On the other hand, if you miss cancer, the results are not as immediately devastating. However, the patient is more likely to sue you for your mistakes. So, I think that your choice in this department depends on what you feel you can handle. Moreover, you will be more procedure and patient-oriented if you pursue the mammography angle since you will be performing biopsies and seeing patients. As a non-interventional neuroradiologist, most see very few live patients and do fewer procedures.

Next, the lifestyles for both specialties can overlap. However, the mammographer can find more jobs that tend to be five days a week or part-time gigs without call. For the neuroradiologist, most do some inpatient hospital work, so it leads you to find a career with more weekends and nights. Indeed, this lifestyle does not apply to all neuroradiologists, however.

And finally, the job market for both specialties is relatively hot. Both neuroradiology and breast are the most needed radiologists out there. There is no lack of jobs at present. And, if I use my crystal ball, I don’t see any significant change coming through the market shortly. Of course, radiology job markets do change with the economy and macro-factors that I can’t predict. However, as long as the economy remains vigorous and radiologists continue to retire, you can expect a continued hot job market. If we look out to the more distant future, when that changes, so does radiologist job availability.