Thursday, July 15, 2010

4th year and radiology

So, I've decided to go into radiology and am starting the last year (#8 - can't believe I've spent nearly a decade here) with a radiology clerkship. Since I last took radiology before 3rd year actually started, now that I've actually experienced a lot of what medicine has to offer, sitting behind a resident or attending while they look at images actually isn't that bad. In a previous post I complained about how med students don't get the most exciting experience in radiology, but I've learned on this rotation, that you actually can. The best way to enjoy radiology is to do it yourself. With 3rd year behind me, I can actually make a reasonable attempt at reading some images. So the advice that I've been given (which works pretty well for me) is to find a free computer in the reading rooms and look through the new studies on your own and try to come up with a diagnosis. Then when the resident or attending go over them, you'll get much more out of their discussion. Amazing how in a few weeks those images that I could make little sense of actually start being somewhat meaningful (I'm looking at you ultrasound).

4 comments:

  1. I'm sorry, but ultrasounds will never make sense.

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  2. Lies! I love ultrasound! I'm a mere boneheaded emergency doc, but ultrasound is the only imaging modality I really enjoy!

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. welcome back(I guess your blog should be called beyondthelongcoat now).

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