Should Radiologists in India be allowed to compete for Clinical Superspecialization (DM)-Debate on social media

This is a thread from the facebook debate about Radiologist being allowed to compete for clinical DM as well. What do you say fellow Radiologists? This debate on our famous RRC (Radiology Resident Club) on facebook. A radiologist started this debate by this post and following this are the replies and comments::

Radiologist 1

Hello friends, colleagues and my seniors,,,,

Today we are standing at the cross-roads.. We entered the stream of radiology with hopes and aspirations considering it to be one of the most challenging branches in the fields of medicine... But for last few days, few questions are buzzing my head after I have encountered the real lyf experiences... I want to share them wid you...

- I strongly feel that we are treated as a "second class citizens" in the field of medicine.... Al of us would agree to the point that there is a vast difference between the current scenario in radiology compared to the yesteryears.. Now, radiology is studded with the most brilliant brains in the field of medicine. But somehow i feel all our brilliance comes to an end point due to incompleteness of the subject itself. 

- I feel that our potentials are never exploited to the fullest extent.. We deal with all the branches in the health sciences and we are better acquainted with pathological anatomy of the body then any one else... So I hv few questions to discuss wid u people where I also need ur valuable suggestions...

We should be allowed to do DM in the branch of Gastroenterology and Neurology to which we are intrinsically and indispensably related... Except for the part of endoscopic procedures, we almost do all the imaging as well as interventional procedures with in depth knowledge of all the diseases included in these branches,, My point is if a MD paediatrician is allowed to persue DM in these branches without getting exposed to some f the disease processes(E.g., Alcoholic liver diseases), then why should we be deprived from doing the same.. Another good example is that a biochemist is allowed to do DM in the branch of Endocrinology... We are quite capable of doing justice to the patient if we are allowed to pursue these courses,,,

So kindly think over it and put ur valuable suggestions..

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Sumer Sethi i think u ve put across a valid question but need of the hour is not fighting for clinical DM but having our own subspecialities and practises... better would be to have DM Gastro-rad, DM Neuro-Rad, DM MSK, etc...time has come for people to realise that going for pay packages is not the only goal of life, idea is to be good at what u do.. and we need Sub-specialization in India Radiology soon...  if we have to treated with respect by super specialists we need to be good at what we do...

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Radiologist 2 ....superspecialisation is only going to solve the problem partially. cases will still be sent by a so called clinician who will not give you any clinical information . entering into the clinical field as initial post has suggested is a much better option. be the king of yourself

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Radiologist 3 agree wt you,  i specially feel so 4 neuro..

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Radiologist 4 i completely agree with sumer..we ought to subspecialise..it will definitely be more involving and satisfying work - wise..

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Radiologist 1 Thanx to all.. I have just shared my thoughts wid u.. My idea is not to earn money by becoming a clinician, but to work in a better enviroment.. I think all of us wil agree that we have to gv a gud amount of incentive to the clinicians for every cases .. Which reallly make me feel bad... N idea about doing DM is to open a new horizon for the radiologist.. Coz I think, there wil be a long list of radiologist who want to do sumthng more than wat they do rite now..

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Sumer Sethi Radiollogy in essence is about diagnosing and we have to best in what we do, improved training and subspecialization is need of hour.. if u want to be a clinician-- interventional radiology is ur forte..

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Radiologist 5 if any body thinks that we r not clinician it is wrong. my teacher scolded us so many times for not considering clinician. without clinical knowledge and training one ant come up to diagnosis and without diagnosis on cant intervene it ( so called clinicians/ interventional radiologist).

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Radiologist 6  Also clinicians with no qualifications (radiological) whatsoever should not be allowed to practice radiological modalities and should be considered as malpractice....If they think they are better than us they should be made to give md exams just as we do after procuring pg seats like we do.....

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Radiologist 7  I totally agree wid Dr, sumer, sub specialty is the order of the day. I have been following Dr sethi for quite some time, I also subscribe to his views on radiologists not accepting pay package handed out by the clinic/diagnostic centre owners. I understand kaushik and akshay's genuine concern as they prepare themselves to face the world as professionals.

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Sumer Sethi yes problem is radiologists like any other professional is lured into working for other by pay package.. let it be profit sharing relantionship only..

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Radiologist 8 i totally agree with intial post....md radiology should be considered eligible for dm in gastroenterology, neurology and pulmonary medicine.....if md pediatrics is allowed to do dm in gastro....why not us......n i think who else see the abdomen more than us.....the horizon of radiology should be enlarged.....odr than endoscopic procedures we are capable of doing all imaging and interventional procedures.....we do all d diagnosis n interpretation n clinicians take the appreciation from all.....lets change the system.....

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Radiologist 2 why do you think we are not capable of endoscopy we actually are and can perform similar endoscopies or even better the same way as they think they are equal or better to us in radiology

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Radiologist 3 ..ur teacher had to scold u for not considering urself clinician...it means before ur teachr scolded u, u dint consider urself as clinician....so dre must be some reason for considering urself as non clinician....u seem to contradict ur own opinion....n again in ur previous post u said....sabkuch hum karenge to CLINICIANS kya karenge.....here whom do u refer as clinicians....atleast u dint include urself by saying clinicians....dat means u r not a clinician.....newys....what Poster has suggested seems great....if we fight n get it .....we wl be d kings....

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Radiologist 2  my view is very specific and very harsh too. So called clinicians think they know more radiology than us and try to humiliate us using their clinical knowledge which is wrong. It is their legal responsibility to provide us with specific clinical details and clinical differentials it is what they have been trained for, paid for and govt spends lakhs for which they are not doing. It is the responsibility of senior radiologists in institutes to stringently ask for clinical details corm the clinicians. These branches of medicine have been devised to work as a team and not to use as weapons against anyone. make a rule of providing clinical details in writing and legal implications of not doing so and you will see change in standard of radiologists also. d worst part is our knowledge and expertice is measured and examined by d so called clinicians , who (not all) has atleast less radiological knowledge than us.....if they say that reporting was correct....its gud....n if they disagree, even if they r wrong....radiologists have to be blamed.....

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Radiologist 1 d career of a radiologist is very uncertain....our job is time bound....even though u r called a consultant radiologist u r alwys answerable to d owner/clinicians....u wl have to wait for patients or must be available according to patients convinience....no one is going to wait for u.....most importantly u wl have to work in a way so that it pleases the clinicians.....may it be time factor or reporting....we are so much dependent on odrs.....how long wl d radiologists keep doing such things....where is our self respect...where is our dignity.....frends dont u thnk we should do somethng to change this?????? someone said that clinicians so solely dependent on us....yes its true....but when they send a patient to u they think it d odr way....if a clinician sends a patient to a radiologist, he/she thinks that its d clinician who has helped us providing our roti....n on d odr hand we think we have helped them....ofcourse we help them but our help is never acknowledged....rather we have to thank them for sending d case...inspite of providing d illegal cuts...

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Sumer Sethi lets discuss two things separately, academic side of it and business side of it... it is some of the radiologists who started the cut practise and we cannot blame the referring physicians fully for this, you cannot clap with one hand... however, academically speaking we need much more improvement in quality that we are seeing right now... and subspecialization will get our respect back if not business...

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Radiologist 1  i have been a follower of u, sir, even before i entered radiology....we have lot of scopes for improvement academically....sir...need ur guidence alwys....bur a points feel that even the bestest of the radiologist is not properly recognised for his/her work.....d fight is for all radiologists...for our existance....

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Radiologist 9  sir,if u r interested in clinical superspeciality u can do intervention radiology.., if u r so much intersted in doin gastro or some other DM den u should hav joined MD GEN MED OR MD PAED..,its u who choose MD RD..,so y now worry bout spilled milk..,lets put our creative energies on how to improve radiology - academically & economically.

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Radiologist 10 todays scenario is clinicians refer patient for radiological investigations and think that they are providing roji roti and completely forgetting the fact that radiological opinion is atmost important for his stuck up management without diagnosis...this mind set will not change even after radiologist do sub speciality..academically it will satisfy radiologist and few of the genuine referring peoples also ( by the way do they really exist?) else nothing will change much..and after doing subspeciality radiologist will stuck up with that limited group of referring people...ortho people still will feel they know more MSK MRI than a radiologist who has done sub speciality in it and so will the neuro people.... 

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