How Has Practicing In Canada Now That They Have Changed The Boards For American-Trained Radiologists?

[GrouchoMarx]

Now that the boards for American radiology have changed (the exam 18 months after residency, rather than before the end), I am wondering how that affects credentialing in Canada.

 

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of this? 

[W0lfgang]

Haven't heard of any change in the Canadian exam.

[rmorelan]

No change as I understand it - although to be fair we are eventually all moving it seems to a system that will require ongoing testing anyway as we continue in our careers.

[Ian Wong]

I don't think there should be any significant effect for Canadian radiologist residents. 

 

The Canadian Royal College exams will continue on.  Canadian residents devote the bulk of their study time towards these exams, and the US exam is almost an after-thought.  The Canadian exams are generally felt to be harder than the US exams.

 

Where it may come into play is that in the past, you would take both sets of exams concurrently, so studying for the Canadian exam in your PGY-5 year also simultaneously prepared you for the US exam.  Now that the final US exam has been delayed out beyond residency, I wonder if we will see many Canadian graduates simply decide not to bother taking the US exam (particularly if you are planning on doing your fellowship and final staff job in Canada).

 

Ian

[GrouchoMarx]

I've heard about that exam change in the US. 

 

How does that work regarding writing the Royal College exam in Canada? If a Canadian goes to the US and does radiology residency for five years, are they able to sit for the RC exam at the end of those five years or do they have to wait the same 18 months  to be simultaneously eligible for the US exam before they can sit for the RC?

[Lactic Folly]

I don't think eligibility to take the Royal College exam has anything to do with the US exam, as long as the prerequisites for taking the RC exam are fulfilled during radiology residency in the US.

[Ian Wong]

If you did your residency in the US, as long as you met the Royal College requirements (they list the minimum number of months required in each radiology subspecialty), you should still be allowed to take the Royal College exams at the end of your PGY-5 year.

 

The new negative for you is that your US program likely isn't going to devote as much time into boards preparation, and may not permit any study time allowances in the second half of your PGY-5 year.  It is incredibly helpful to get board review lectures and hot seat conferences while you are studying for boards.  Hearing other co-residents take cases is almost as valuable as taking the cases yourself.

 

One of the rumoured/controversial reasons that the ABR switched away from having boards at the end of the PGY-5 year was that the PGY-5's needed so much boards prep and time off studying; you are losing the services of your most capable and productive residents.

 

Ian

[radking]

Hello folks,

 

I am doing my radiology residency in the US and plan to take the royal college exam during my PGY-5 year in 2017. In order to write the exam in 2017, I have to fill out the royal college ACGME residency assessment form by April 2016 but at this point in time I do not meet all of the specific minimum requirements for subspecialty rotations. Does anyone here know if the college is flexible in this regard? Thanks.