chicagoschool Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 Starting Med1 this fall. I've always admired Radiology, but it seems to have an exposure to being outsourced in an era of cost savings. Therefore I worry about the security of any given job at a given time - couldn't a Rad in a remote location just sent in Dx's from his tablet or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 Starting Med1 this fall. I've always admired Radiology, but it seems to have an exposure to being outsourced in an era of cost savings. Therefore I worry about the security of any given job at a given time - couldn't a Rad in a remote location just sent in Dx's from his tablet or something? Sure, absolutely - as long as that radiologist is licensed in the province. That is the current catch - a radiologist in another country can currently no more read an image for a fee than a general surgeon from another country fly here and do a surgery for a fee unless they both are licensed to do so. Since physicians control the licensing process we are unlikely to be in a big hurry to let that happen - and there are real issues of quality control if we need (so the person overseas read the image wrong, surgery wasn't performed as a result, and the patient died. Now who is at fault? Who can be sued? How do we easily stop this person from reading more images - we don't license them and they could be hidden withing a larger outsourcing company that subcontracts....) However the pressure of that option being out there definitely impacts the profession. People like to through around the ROAD designation a lot but radiology over time has become I think less so - we are shifting to a 24/7 staff model where images are interpreted and signed off at all hours (a counter measure to outsourcing but also more importantly providing better patient care). There is a saying one radiologist told me recently that was if you can stick a needle into someone then your job is secure - he was basically commenting on the rise of interventional procedures, and on the broader sense on various newer aspects of radiology that require the radiologist to be physically present (and I should add the interventional radiology been more surgical in nature has similar lifestyle issues at times). To point is that if radiology as a field adopted a hide in the corner, interact with no one except via radiology reports, arrive a 9 live at 4 attitude then it should and will ultimately be replaced. None of that is particularly patient centred, and in the end a structure that is not patient centred will fail. One of the reasons I chose radiology is because it is in flux - and that is exciting. It is tied to technology change and those changes are rapid and amazing at times. Radiology 15 years from now will not be the same as it is now. However that destiny to change, to evolve, is double edged. There is risk there and a real chance sections of the field will go obsolete and require retraining. There is a risk of under employment with technology shifts, there is a similar risk of over work as well (ha - imagine what happens if someone invented an MRI machine that was 4 times faster, or low intensity CT screening comes about for lung cancer, or improving CAD systems reach critical quality levels, or, or, or......it is a brave new world out there ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noncestvrai Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 I was thinking of setting up a small shop for radiologists to remotely read studies say from a tropical island, who's in? Noncestvrai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 I was thinking of setting up a small shop for radiologists to remotely read studies say from a tropical island, who's in? Noncestvrai ha! You wouldn't be alone There is a bunch of that going on. Locating anywhere with a near 7-10 hour time difference or that 11pm to 7am can be covered for the US for instance. As long as you are licensed of course it works - and actually helps the system in some ways. As for a tropical island - that better be 100% up time on the blazing fast internet, because if that fails there would be a few issues Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronjw Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 ha! You wouldn't be alone There is a bunch of that going on. Locating anywhere with a near 7-10 hour time difference or that 11pm to 7am can be covered for the US for instance. As long as you are licensed of course it works - and actually helps the system in some ways. As for a tropical island - that better be 100% up time on the blazing fast internet, because if that fails there would be a few issues Theres direct backbone feed off the coast of costa rica... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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