IMG issues upon returning to US

[GeorgeMD2B]

Why is Radiology such a difficult specialty for IMGs? From what I have heard, a lot of Radiology work is going to be outsourced in the coming years which might result in lower salaries and fewer jobs. I heard the same is happening with Pathology, where a lot of work is going to be outsourced.

[october]

Originally Posted by GeorgeMD2B

Why is Radiology such a difficult specialty for IMGs? From what I have heard, a lot of Radiology work is going to be outsourced in the coming years which might result in lower salaries and fewer jobs. I heard the same is happening with Pathology, where a lot of work is going to be outsourced.

Because it is a relatively painless training c/w say general surgery, internal misery, pediatrics. This combined with a decent salary make it attractive for usmg's

human nature= do as little as possible and earn as much as possible

[jgriggs]

Well, for most of my life I have always assumed I would go into internal medicine. All of my volunteer work and exposure through family and friends has been in this specialty. However, after observing cardiac surgery during a summer program at Yale I am finding myself drawn in a different direction.

Hopefully this will all become clear during school and clinical years!

[wcb22]

which is why it is good to leave as many options open as possible. some people start out saying, "all i want to do is family medicine." they find out they are fascinated with cardiology, but they get stuck with family practice because it's all they can get.
if you get a 240 on step 1, and still want to do internal medicine, great. you'll have a lot more options in internal medicine residencies than if you had a 185.

[wcb22]

which is why it is good to leave as many options open as possible. some people start out saying, "all i want to do is family medicine." they find out they are fascinated with cardiology, but they get stuck with family practice because it's all they can get.
if you get a 240 on step 1, and still want to do internal medicine, great. you'll have a lot more options in internal medicine residencies than if you had a 185.

[Picard]

Do well in school, do well on the boards, and things will fall into place for you. Yes, Ortho, Derm, Optho are tough to get... but everytime someone says that, some SGU grads get into these residency slots. I have plenty of classmates in ER, Surg, Radiology... etc. Highland (Alameda County) Hospital's ER program, one of the best in the country and traditionally takes only folks from UCSF and Ivy League schools, have been taking SGU grads.

As for outsourcing Radiology... yes, telemedicince has made it possible. Our hospital subscribes to the regional "night hawk" system where off-hour CT's are read by someone in Palo Alto and faxing the results back to us. However, I don't see outsourcing going out-of-state (or out-of-country) any time soon because in order to be able to legally read a film taken on a patient in California (or any state), the reading radiologist must be licensed in the state of origin, and be covered by malpractice in that state. And plus now with all the HIPPA regulations... We will see.

P

[emt036]

Actually, the hospital ER I was working at outsourced "wet" reads of digital films (CT/MRI/US/etc --ERMD's read plain films) on the overnight shift to a company in Australia. Day shift and final reads is still being done by the local radiology group. But oddly enough, the reports from Australia are coming in quicker than the ones from 50 feet away... So who knows, it might all get outsourced...

[Picard]

Well, the issue again is licensure and malpractice coverage. Radiology groups outside of your home state cannot legally and officially read the films for your ER unless their radiologists are licensed in your state. Otherwise they will have a felony charge for every film they read, for "practice medicine without a license." This is why you only get "wet reads" and the final official reading has to come from your local group. And what if your local radiology group's final official reading disagrees with the wet read from Australia, and you've already based your clinical decisions on the wet read... and what if bad things happened because of this? Who will be sued? This is why our hospital decided against "wet reads" from out-of-state groups not licensed in California. So, in this day and age of medicolegal environment, I don't see radiologist groups in India taking away jobs of American radiologists.

P