Valuable Tech Skills Question:
Hello,
I am a 3rd-year medical student interested in radiology (especially the tech side of the industry). I’ve heard that 4th year allows for some more free time, and I’d like to put some of that time towards learning a new technology-related skill (like coding, software design, etc.) In that vein, what are some tech-related skills/hobbies that you think would be valuable to focus on as someone interested in radiology? I’d love to bring a unique skill set to my future residency/career.
Any advice is much appreciated! Thank you.
Answer:
Great question about valuable tech skills! If I were a medical student today, I would become well versed in the world of PACS and EHR. I would want to know how they work, the programming languages they use, and all the information tech related to it. Even though not directly a reason for hiring a new candidate, I think it would be extraordinarily useful to know. Why? It would be great to help out your future practices to choose which of these systems to use. But also, you would be able to customize the packages to the needs of your site of work.
What else? Well, I would get to know all the physics and mechanics of the hardware that we utilize in radiology. This hardware entails the CT scanners, the MRIs, the ultrasounds, and the fluoroscopy equipment. Again, if you want to be the “go-to” guy for choosing these pieces of equipment, it would be better than relying upon a sales representative that sells the same things. It would even be better than relying on a physicist because you would know the direct needs of the radiology practice better.
You could also concentrate on the website and social media production. Do you want to be able to help your private practice to create an excellent website, “on-the-cheap”? Well, that could be incredible cost savings for the practice. Plus, it is always helpful to have someone computer and internet savvy to fix it. That would involve learning HTML, WordPress, etc. Also, you would know how to attract customers to your practice.
However, all of this depends on what you want to do when you get out there. Do you want primarily to work in IT, or do you want to be more clinical? Regardless of the decision, you will have a lot of clinical tasks before getting to these points since radiology residency, even at the most academic places, is primarily clinical. So, don’t forget to learn your clinical basics as a medical student!
Regards,
Barry Julius, MD
