“I agree with you on the severity of the situation and the need to act soon.
What steps did radiation oncology take to establish itself as a separate
entity? Radiology residency programs have already reduced the nuclear
medicine from 6 to 4 months. Now that radiology is switching its focus from
general radiology to subspecialty training this would be a great time to
separate nuclear medicine training from radiology or reduce it further to
maybe 1 month ( just enough to know the strengths of nuclear medicine).
Correct me if I am wrong but it is my understanding that the radiology
residency training is changing from 4 years of general radiology(+/-
fellowship) to 3 years of general and 2 years of subspecialty fellowship
training. The oral boards will happen after specialty training and focus on that
specialty (and thus no longer include nuc med anyway). When they
condense 4 years into 3 they are going to have to reduce somewhere - why
not nuclear medicine? I just finished doing a bunch of board review lectures
for the radiology residents at (institution) and almost all of them feel they are
not adequately trained in nuclear medicine (and I agree with them - three
weeks prior to oral boards they should be able to differentiate a gallium vs
octreotide vs In 111 white cell study). If we reduced their training even more
or completely separated out nuclear medicine altogether, they might start
appreciating nuclear medicine physicians or Nuclear medicine fellowship
trained radiologists more. In addition, they really wouldn't be qualified to read
it so they would need to hire pure nuc med or fellowship trained nuc med
physicians. I know the radiologists in small hospitals are going to say that
there is not enough work for a nuclear medicine physician. Fortunately or
unfortunately, the comoditization of radiologists that has begun to occur with
nighthawks and some of the national radiology groups. This has made
remote specialty reading much more widespread and technically easier to
perform. As to therapies, if a nuclear medicine physician or group covers a
few hospitals, they could arrange to have a nuclear medicine physician on site
at least once a week for therapies.”
What steps did radiation oncology take to establish itself as a separate
entity? Radiology residency programs have already reduced the nuclear
medicine from 6 to 4 months. Now that radiology is switching its focus from
general radiology to subspecialty training this would be a great time to
separate nuclear medicine training from radiology or reduce it further to
maybe 1 month ( just enough to know the strengths of nuclear medicine).
Correct me if I am wrong but it is my understanding that the radiology
residency training is changing from 4 years of general radiology(+/-
fellowship) to 3 years of general and 2 years of subspecialty fellowship
training. The oral boards will happen after specialty training and focus on that
specialty (and thus no longer include nuc med anyway). When they
condense 4 years into 3 they are going to have to reduce somewhere - why
not nuclear medicine? I just finished doing a bunch of board review lectures
for the radiology residents at (institution) and almost all of them feel they are
not adequately trained in nuclear medicine (and I agree with them - three
weeks prior to oral boards they should be able to differentiate a gallium vs
octreotide vs In 111 white cell study). If we reduced their training even more
or completely separated out nuclear medicine altogether, they might start
appreciating nuclear medicine physicians or Nuclear medicine fellowship
trained radiologists more. In addition, they really wouldn't be qualified to read
it so they would need to hire pure nuc med or fellowship trained nuc med
physicians. I know the radiologists in small hospitals are going to say that
there is not enough work for a nuclear medicine physician. Fortunately or
unfortunately, the comoditization of radiologists that has begun to occur with
nighthawks and some of the national radiology groups. This has made
remote specialty reading much more widespread and technically easier to
perform. As to therapies, if a nuclear medicine physician or group covers a
few hospitals, they could arrange to have a nuclear medicine physician on site
at least once a week for therapies.”
Opinion of a Nuclear Medicine Physician - 102
