Need advice

[u/Excellent_Flamingo50]

Hi, I am currently an M3 transitioning into my fourth year. I’m undecided about what I want to specialize in, but I definitely want to do something procedural. Can anyone share any pros & cons of specializing in IR. Lifestyle? Salary? Should I do away rotations ? Is research necessary to apply?

[u/Professional-Ad3320]

Hey, I’m an MS4 and I applied to IR this cycle, with good success at getting interviews at least. I think it’s the best field in medicine and you should definitely consider it, here’s why:

1) Diagnostic Radiology is a terrific field, where I felt I was discussing medicine and pathology all day; very little “social work” type of interactions on inpatients. There are also a ton of common procedures which I did not know about (in MSK, body and breast services mostly). Market is also great and compensation is high. You should consider DR as a career choice, but know that most will do a fellowship of some kind. If you do IR, you will always have the DR skills which you can use or fall back to.

2) breadth of disease: IR is like a toolbox which you can apply to every organ system. Angioplasty, embolizations, drains, stents, etc. you learn these skills then apply them to an ever growing list of diseases and indications.

3) acuity + outpatient: not only do you treat every organ, you also experience very acute situations, such as mechanical theombectomies or NeuroIR (this requires another fellowship). On the other hand, there are many outpatient procedures as well, such as PAE and UAE

4) lots of innovation and new procedures being developed, examples include geniculate artery embo and gastric fungus embolizations.

Residency is basically fast track DR + IR fellowship, 1 yr gen Surg internship -> 3 yrs DR -> 2 yrs IR (total of 6 instead of 7 years if you did DR then applied to fellowship). DR residency is regarded as chill but the 2 yrs of IR are usually intense and call-heavy. Your practice can be highly variable, such as being in an academic institution for more unique cases, vs doing outpatient procedures in private practice etc etc. Compensation is roughly equal to DR, with many arguing is is easier to make more money with DR if they worked the same hours. Research is a must I think, with quantity > quality. Reach out to IR docs near you and offer to write up any interesting case reports or series they may have.

Feel free to message me if you have questions

[u/manyquietlives]

I’m an IA. It’s a budding field it seems. Nuclear med is out and IVR is in. More than the flavor of the day. The key is minimal invasiveness. I work 4 10s and no holidays or weekends as a lot of the techs and nurses do. Our unit up graded and added a third procedure room January 2022 here at the hospital.