Tag: career opportunities

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What Makes The Ultimate Radiology Job?

Recently, I received a question from one of my readers about the ultimate radiology job. What kind of job would it be? I was about to spit out the dull answer: there is no perfect job for everyone, which is true. However, I thought about this question more deeply. I figured I could get a little more down and dirty because there might be a perfect job for a specific person. So, I will do just that. 

Let’s talk about the ideal job for three different particular kinds of radiology personalities. The first would be the perfect job for the lifestyle radiologist. The second would be for the academic radiologist. Finally, the third would be the money-loving radiologist who wants to pay off all their debts as quickly as possible. At the end of each description, I will give you what I think would be a reasonable but high-end salary for the job I describe. You can’t have all the lifestyle features with all the money. And, you can’t be hardcore academic and always have the best lifestyle. But you can find a radiology job with at least one of these features!

Lifestyle Radiologist’s Ultimate Radiology Job

Optimal Working Time

Picture this. You get up late at 10 am without a furrow in your brow after taking a stroll with your dog down the street. Afterward, you return home and start working at 11 am at your own pace. You encounter nary an interruption. After a few hours of work, you have had enough for today. So, you take a shower and plan your next vacation to Thailand. Of course, you have 16 weeks of vacation per year, so finding time for this next adventure is not too difficult. You spend a leisurely dinner with the family, and the day ends smoothly.

The next day, you get up a bit earlier because you had gotten more than enough sleep the day before. Today is your day to come to work. Out of every three days of work per week, you stay at home one day, the other one you come in for, and the third is a miscellaneous day to catch up on the practice’s studies in no particular place and without hurry.

Friendly Practice Situation

As you arrive, all the techs and nurses greet you excitedly and are happy to see you. You are well-liked in the imaging center. Because of the complexity, you start reading through interesting films in your subspecialty that no one else can read. Of course, there is a smattering of normal cases every once in a while in between. Lunchtime finally arrives around noon. You meet with your colleagues for about an hour and go to a fancy restaurant to chat and enjoy the lunch break like you do when you go to work. You return to work unrushed and unfettered, in no rush to complete the rest of the day because you could always finish the rest some other time. 

The following day, the last one of the week, you help the practice catch up on occasional studies. You log on from home and leisurely read your cases. You make a few phone calls and complete your day’s work in a few hours. Of course, you may not get paid like other radiologists who do more. But the time off is worth it!

Radiologist Pay:350,000 dollars

Academic Radiologist’s Ultimate Radiology Job

Out of every five days of work, you have three full days to work on your academic research. Of course, that does not include the eight weeks out of every year that you receive paid speaking engagements or have time for continuing medical education (CME). Moreover, you have the support staff that most others can only dream about. These include two statisticians, a research coordinator, and your secretary. And you have the software and backup to quickly garner the resources to create well-sourced papers at the drop of a hat. Additionally, you have the administration’s help to obtain grants from private and public sources. This help includes multiple connections that overcome many hurdles other academics may encounter. 

Then, you have several days every week to resume clinical work. But, you have the help of your resident, fellow, and junior attending. They do most of the dictation; you get to edit and sign off on their reports. Your residents, fellows, and observers also do much of the work to help you create your following research paper. 

Also, you have easy access and collaboration with multiple specialties throughout the institution. No one is at each other throats. Everyone is willing and able to help each other to come up with great ideas for projects. It’s an environment that fosters learning and research.

Finally, you have already accumulated tenure at your institution. There is almost no way that you can be “canned.” You have put in the time, and the work has paid you back. 

Radiologist Pay: 550,000 dollars

Money Loving Radiologist Ultimate Radiology Job

This radiologist is willing to work as hard as it takes to repay all their student loans as quickly as possible and accumulate enough income to retire as soon as possible. That is the prime goal of this radiologist. And they have found the job they need to meet this goal. 

First, they found a job where the practice pays them precisely what she is worth for each case, plus a stipend from the hospital because she is in a somewhat underserved location. Her days are busy, but they go by fast. They read 200 cases daily, and the caseload is light on findings but large in number. Fortunately, she also works in an area where the case complexity is relatively low and the payer mix is quite high. Of course, they don’t take much of a break during the day, but they work hard all day and reap the rewards.

They also have the backup they need to increase speed regarding radiologist support. These include radiology assistants, a fabulous computer IT department, and an excellent dictation system. They work five days a week, and she gets paid a lot of extra money when they work on the weekends. But most critically, they can do that when they want. Finally, they get lots of vacation, but only take a few weeks out of the year to go away because they don’t want to do this job for the rest of their lives. She would rather have the cash instead. 

Radiologist Pay: 800,000 dollars

The Ultimate Radiology Job- What Do You Think?

You may or may not think that any of these jobs sound great. And that is OK. However, these scenarios are perfectly reasonable for these individuals and can present an ideal situation for these individualized career paths. Let me know if you have an idea for the perfect job, and I can devise another scenario for you!

 

 

 

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Best Radiology Electives for the Senior Resident

radiology electives

It’s getting toward the end of your 3rd year, and you are studying intensely for your core examination. All of a sudden, you get a phone call from your chief resident. He says, ” We are making the schedule for next year. What would you like to do for your senior year radiology electives?” You realize you haven’t thought this through, and you are not sure what to do. He just assigns you to a standard fourth-year schedule.

Believe it or not, this is a situation that often happens to most residents. Choosing your fourth-year electives is not a decision you should take lightly. You should not have the choice made for you, nor should you choose without thinking deeply about what you want. Your senior year elective decisions can have repercussions upon your comfort zones in private practice. This decision can also influence your practice patterns for years to come. Today, we will discuss what not to do when you decide upon your senior schedule, which standard rotations are the best for senior electives, and finally, some innovative ideas for creating rotations on your fourth-year schedule that will really enhance your residency education and your career.

Which Fourth Year Radiology Electives Should You Avoid?

Don’t Repeat Your Fellowship!

When you create a schedule for your fourth year, I recommend avoiding adding scheduled rotations that duplicate your fellowship. Several times, residents have requested six months in mammography when they have already signed up for a mammography fellowship. What’s the point in that? In most residency programs throughout the country, 90 percent of residents eventually do private practice. And, only 10 percent work in academia. So, chances are you will not be working only within your specialty. In fact, according to many articles (1,2,3), most radiology job descriptions want the new radiologist to not only practice in one subspecialty but also to cover other areas within radiology. So, if you decide to do a half year in your fellowship’s subspecialty, you are also decreasing the opportunity to learn subspecialties outside of your comfort zone. And, you are also reducing your desirability for being hired by a private practice.

For instance, if there are two candidates, one who wants only mammography work and another that feels comfortable reading MSK MRI and being sub-specialized in mammography, which candidate will be chosen by a private practice? It’s relatively simple. It’s almost always the one that can do both. You are missing out on a potential opportunity if you choose to duplicate your fellowship.

Avoid What You Already Know

I would also avoid choosing fellowships that are within your comfort zone. If you feel like you know MSK MRI well, it doesn’t make sense to do half the senior year in the same subspecialty. In private practice, you generally do not want to pigeonhole yourself into only a few areas of a subspecialty. A series of fourth-year electives or “mini-fellowships” in only subspecialties that you are well-versed in will limit your ability to learn other subjects and ultimately prevent you from being comfortable in these modalities after you complete a residency.

The Conventional Fourth Year Elective Approach

If you are going down the conventional route of fourth-year electives, there are two routes I would choose. First, it would be reasonable to select an emphasis in an area that you are interested but in which you are not doing your fellowship. Since you will be completing these electives reasonably close in time to looking for full-time radiologist work, you will have a second area of subspecialty confidence and diversify your competencies when looking for a job.

Second, I would choose electives in areas of weakness. Residency is the time to get to know the different subspecialties and get your hands dirty. The more competent you are in all aspects of radiology, the more desirable you will be for private practices. It behooves the budding radiologist to get to the point of basic competency in as many areas as possible.

The Unconventional Fourth Year Elective Choice

What is the difference between a good and a great radiologist? It’s pretty simple. A good radiologist can generally make the correct imaging calls. A great radiologist can make the right call, understand the call’s deep clinical significance, and predict the subsequent patient outcomes. If I had to redo my residency again, I would choose the unconventional radiology elective approach.  Why? Because correlating imaging with the practical deepens these great clinical radiology qualities.

So, how do you arrange an elective choice such as this? It definitely will take a bit more work on the part of the radiology resident, and you will have to go out of your way to communicate with other specialty directors. Still, it pays to arrange a few weeks or a month rotating on a medical or surgical rotation with correlative imaging.

Example Of The Unconventional Elective Choice

For example, if you are interested in musculoskeletal radiology, I would highly recommend calling the surgical director of orthopedics and ask him/her if you can watch and participate in the clinical workup of patients, orthopedic surgeries, and the subsequent follow-up of patients. Then, when you work up a patient with a medial meniscal tear, you will have seen the surgery and the after-care follow-up of these patients. You will understand how the imaging fits into the equation and the significance of your imaging calls. The learning that you achieve will stick with you for the rest of your radiology career.

I would also recommend washing, rinsing, and repeating. If you can arrange this elective in multiple subspecialties, in whatever specialty area interests you, it would be a highly effective way to have a tremendous diverse overall fourth-year experience that will last a lifetime. Also, you will have clinical knowledge of the imaged patient that most other radiologists do not have.

Final Thoughts About Fourth Year Radiology Electives

The fourth year of radiology residency is a time to explore in more depth the subspecialties that you have encountered during your first three years. Because you are so close to becoming a board-certified practicing radiologist, fourth-year radiology electives take on a vital significance where the learned subjects will make a difference in your clinical practice. So, please pay attention to creating a tremendous fourth-year elective experience. Don’t squander the opportunity!!!