nuclear medicine

[usmleed]

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does anybody know anything about nuclear medicine
how competitive it is?
what is the scope ?
is there a good demand for it?
any input would be appreciated
thanx

 

[Whisker Barrel Cortex]

does anybody know anything about nuclear medicine
how competitive it is?
what is the scope ?
is there a good demand for it?
any input would be appreciated
thanx

Nuclear medicine physicians interpret diagnostic and perform therapeutic (mostly thyroid) nuclear medicine studies. This includes V/Q scans, cardiac scans, bone scans, PET, thyroid uptake studies, Gallium scans, red blood cell scans, white blood cell scans, and many others. The difference between these studies and most radiologic studies is that nuclear medicine involves the administration of radioactive substances attached to various particles.

Nuclear medicine residency is 2 years after at least one year of clinical medicine. It is not very competitive, but may be more so recently with the explosion of PET imaging for cancer.

All diagnostic radiologists are trained in nuclear medicine as part of their residency. Currently, 6 months of training is required (this may decrease to 4 months next year). Thus, radiologists can interpret all of the same studies that nuclear medicine physicians can. Radiology residents can also do a 2 year nuclear medicine fellowship after rads residency (not a popular option, but becoming more so with PET increasing). The effect of this is that there are relatively few private practice nuclear medicine only positions available. Radiologists can perform the same duties, but can also interpret other imaging and take call, which makes them a much better candidate for these positions.

There are still jobs out there. Many of these are in academia. Some exist in private practice in places that have enough volume of nucs. From what I have heard, it can be difficult to find a position in a locale you want.

 

[pikachu]

W.B.C. - How do you think the new radiolabeled therapies are going to affect the market for nuclear medicine? Is there any place where interventional radiologists would administer it? I sense a turf war between rad onc, med onc, and nuc med may be approaching if these therapies become more common, do you think IR would be involved in this as well? I'm interested to hear your reply as you always seem pretty well informed about this kind of question.

Peace,
p

 

[Whisker Barrel Cortex]

W.B.C. - How do you think the new radiolabeled therapies are going to affect the market for nuclear medicine? Is there any place where interventional radiologists would administer it? I sense a turf war between rad onc, med onc, and nuc med may be approaching if these therapies become more common, do you think IR would be involved in this as well? I'm interested to hear your reply as you always seem pretty well informed about this kind of question.

Peace,
p

I don't know which way these will go. As of now, I think that nuclear medicine trained physicians are in a unique position in that they oversee nuclear pharmacies, which are tightly regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commision. I believe this will give them a unique advantage in this regard. I don't see IR folks getting into the fray except for therapy that needs to be directly administered (such as SIRS spheres for liver mets). I think diagnostic rads who already administer thryoid therapy and perform nuclear medicine studies would also be able to administer radiolabeled therapies.