[ariesanurhani_334]

Hi, welcome to the forum.
Some of the heavily discussed items on this board are:
– Salary discussions (RVUs, CMS cuts, academic vs pp vs corporate)
– Impact of AI on the future outlook
– Corporate takeover of radiology as a field and its consequences (particularly sensitive topic of this board)
– New technologies and companies that go public
– Political debates
I’d say stick around and you’ll find plenty of answers on this board! You get to have a sneak peek of all the answers to your questions as you lurk around this board.
Good luck!

[g.giancaspro_108]

Take what you read on this forum, particularly regarding the future of radiology, with an extremely large grain of salt.

That said, all of medicine will be very different in 20 years and radiology will still probably be better than most other specialties.

[ariesanurhani_334]

In 20 years, the world will probably be a very different place.
Think about how different it became from 2000 to 2020.
I’m not sure if the rate of change will keep up like that, but who knows.

[leann2001nl]

Take what you read here with a grain of salt. Boards like this draw people who are unhappy almost by definition… lot of them complain yet probably wouldnt be any happier doing anything else

Rads is great , the intellectual stimulation and wide variety of pathology is unmatched in any other specialty. You can go into endless detail in any field and there is true lifetime learning possible.
You can also learn to optimize/improve image quality which can also be very beneficial.

The reality is that salaries in medicine have been very strong for a long time and will likely trend down to match the rest of the world . How or when that will happen is anyones guess , might as well pick something that is mentally stimulating.

The lack of BS in rads is just priceless. For what you described your medical interests are it seems like a perfect fit.

[Unknown Member]

All of medicine is changing, admittedly Radiology may be changing more than most. I don’t have specific advice for you about whether you should or shouldn’t do radiology. My general advice is that whatever you choose, let it be something you will still be satisfied doing if you don’t get paid as much as you’d like, or live where you’d ideally want, or have the hours you’d wish to have. Income, job availability, lifestyle, none of those are guaranteed. What you should feel entitled to is to practice the type of medicine you have chosen, be it radiology, surgery, or medicine, and to find something meaningful in that, and enough of a living to live comfortably but not extravagantly. Because that’s the direction medicine appears to be heading. Long story short, if all fields of medicine were paid the same low-ish amount, what type of medicine would you want to practice. You want to avoid being like the doctors – including those on this forum – who are preoccupied with finding an exit strategy so they can escape from the work of being a physician. If, in your heart of hearts, you just want to make a lot of money, or to make enough money and have a 9-5 job with weekends and nights free like normal people, there are better ways than medicine to achieve that.  

[CSRajan]

In private practice radiology, generally speaking, you will sit alone at a desk in a dark office and crank through a large number of studies every day. For many people, this is great but its not for everyone. I might have switched out of radiology if I had not found IR. I still do a little diagnostic and find those days to be the most challenging. Its hard to focus on the same computer screen for 9 or 10 hours and to be honest it gets kind of lonely not being able to joke around with the nurses and techs while you work. But thats me, for many people its really a great gig.

[bunnie_face_936]

Wow, there’s been some great insight in here. I appreciate everyone’s time who responded.
 
I can’t really see myself doing any other specialties other than radiology with this point without squinting pretty hard or doing something like allergy/immunology that is relatively less involved. I just get nervous by the amount of pessimism on the forums and from an occasional angsty surgery attending who says radiologists will “be replaced with robots.”
 
Mentally stimulating and avoiding a lot of the BS are huge reasons for me, glad to see them echoed here.
 

[Unknown Member]

I thought I might want to do Allergy/Immunology during med school too, just because I liked the basic science stuff, but I absolutely HATED the rotation.  You want to look up peoples’ noses all day?  Gawd no.

[william.wang_997]

-Love the diagnosis of medicine, treatment is typically more boring to me  : Plus, same here. 
-I like to work with people, but don’t particularly enjoy the doctor-patient relationship (especially to the many people whose solution to life’s woes could be solved with a prescription pad)  : Plus, same here
-OR is fine, don’t love it  : Plus. I don’t like OR at all.
-love tech/computers  : Plus, same here
-fantastic board scores, limited research experience, state school in midwest  : Plus, same here
-important to have a life outside of medicine, nice to have a salary >300k  : Plus, same here
-may or may not want to live in a rural-ish area : Plus. I don’t live in a rural area but it will be a plus for you.
 
You will be extremely happy and successful in Diagnostic Radiology. Everything that describes you today fits ! You may change as a person in a few years with different perspective and that’s another topic of discussion.

[ljohnson_509]

[link=https://www.radiologybusiness.com/topics/leadership/radiology-mentally-demanding-physician-workload-burnout]https://www.radiologybusi…ician-workload-burnout[/link]

Think long and hard before going into radiology. The future risks are high for you and the profession.

[anabarcelo_18]

[link=https://www.auntminnie.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=aic&pag=dis&ItemID=131111]https://www.auntminnie.co…=dis&ItemID=131111[/link]
 
“Although their performance improved after using the algorithm, the radiologists could not reach the model’s standalone performance level…”
 
machine alone >> human + machine
 
yea, i’d echo the above.
 
i think rads will be dead in 15-20 years. the tech is in its infancy and you won’t reach attending level for quite a while.

[bunnie_face_936]

Quote from coldfeetmike

[link=https://www.auntminnie.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=aic&pag=dis&ItemID=131111]https://www.auntminnie.co…=dis&ItemID=131111[/link]

“Although their performance improved after using the algorithm, the radiologists could not reach the model’s standalone performance level…”

machine alone >> human + machine

yea, i’d echo the above.

i think rads will be dead in 15-20 years. the tech is in its infancy and you won’t reach attending level for quite a while.

 
Yeah, sometimes this scares me as I’d like to have a long career. The thing is I’m not sure how the market forces will fare for the radiologist, as I think it will be a complicated picture moving forward. The value of imaging is going to continue to improve, with or without AI but especially with AI. Who knows the number of studies that will be ordered in 20 years, maybe requiring some significant level of oversight. The problem is I’m not really sure what else I’d want to do at this point anyways, maybe pathology but that faces the same pitfalls.
 
I’m curious on that study you posted as well, it seems like the dataset had >3:1 ratio of cancer to noncaner, which obviously isn’t indicative of the real world. I wonder how that affected things.

[satyanar]

Quote from ArticMan

I’m curious on that study you posted as well, it seems like the dataset had >3:1 ratio of cancer to noncaner, which obviously isn’t indicative of the real world. I wonder how that affected things.

 
You are already thinking critically which is something a large portion of the contributors here lack, especially those predicting the demise of radiology due to AI. You will do well, you will enjoy it and radiology will be here for you a long time. Go for it. 

[Unknown Member]

Many rads on here are giving advice based on the millions they have already made in radiology.  If you want real advice, I suggest you ask people on this forum what they would advise their children in terms of pursuing radiology.  I am grateful for radiology, and I would love to have my children do the same thing I do…who doesn’t right?  Even with all that, for their well being, I strongly advise against radiology unless this is something you are passionate about like a hobby such as drawing, dancing, playing football, playing video games.  Any job that is a hobby for you and you can make good money, do it!  I doubt any radiologist feels this way about radiology, for the majority its a means to an end (money)…and in that regard there are much better options out there.  

[julie.young_645]

I do a little work with the medical school in our town, basically do some one-on-one advising with the students. 
 
I had a long talk with one kid (they are so damn YOUNG!) who was hesitant to tell me that he wanted to do Family Practice. Why? Because his classmates were taunting him over that choice. “Do DERM!!! Better Lifestyle!” I gently reminded him that he would be doing whatever it was he chose to do the vast majority of his waking life for the next 30-40 years, and so he should pick what HE liked. He brightened up and responded, “No one has ever told us that before!” 
 
What a concept…do what you like to do…

[julie.young_645]

I do a little work with the medical school in our town, basically do some one-on-one advising with the students. 
 
I had a long talk with one kid (they are so damn YOUNG!) who was hesitant to tell me that he wanted to do Family Practice. Why? Because his classmates were taunting him over that choice. “Do DERM!!! Better Lifestyle!” I gently reminded him that he would be doing whatever it was he chose to do the vast majority of his waking life for the next 30-40 years, and so he should pick what HE liked. He brightened up and responded, “No one has ever told us that before!” 
 
What a concept…do what you like to do…

[Unknown Member]

We are doctors. We could always retrain, but more likely the radiology profession as a whole will simply continue to adapt like it has in response to other new technologies.

[ester.mancuso_108]

Quote from Drrad123

[link=https://www.radiologybusiness.com/topics/leadership/radiology-mentally-demanding-physician-workload-burnout]https://www.radiologybusi…ician-workload-burnout[/link]

Think long and hard before going into radiology. The future risks are high for you and the profession.

 
WTF? This is the best damm job in the world.
 
I would suggest doing peds radiology. You get less out of touch with the world because you remember there are actual patients behind your computer screen due to more patient interaction, and peds clinicians still come down for in person consultations which is one of the highlights of a career in radiology. Also, kids want to get better and usually aren’t actively trying to make themselves sick like most adults are. Its a lot harder to get jaded in pediatric radiology. 
 
[link=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00247-019-04569-0]https://link.springer.com…007/s00247-019-04569-0[/link]

[jtvanaus]

The sky is falling

Everybody will be replaced by computers

All hail our new robot overlords

[tdetlie_105]

Quote from knightrider

The sky is falling

Everybody will be replaced by computers

All hail our new robot overlords

 
Yeah, kinda think that all bus/cab-drivers, fast-food workers, and possibly even pilots, will be replaced by our new robot overlords before we are.  Also when AI fails who gets sued? 

[ariesanurhani_334]

Also banks, groceries store workers, cashiers, customer service phone reps, social services, librarians, firefighters, construction workers, all could be replaced with robots lol

I would think health services should be the last thing that people would trust robots to take over