Practice C orner Career

Choices

in

Richard

Radiology’

S. Hdilman,

guished ultrasonographers and gave a talk that was

I had a high school teacher who was fond of offering bits of real life advice during class. Her favorite comment was the observation that the really happy people in this world are those whose work becomes their play. It was certainly true for her. The energy and enthusiasm she put into her career set a standard in career satisfaction and teaching excellence that still impresses me. I thought of her one day this past spring when a former resident stopped to visit me on his return to a large private practice after spending a few months in the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm. Each resident is unique, and this one had been a particular favorite. Early in the program, he expenienced some of the settling-in problems that occasionally trouble older residents starting training in

lously

radiology,

sional

and

whether medicine. “Helmut box that lights

he

had

been

heard

to wonder

he had made a mistake in leaving During the first year, he created [sic] ofKnowledge,” a marvellous was wired with flashing red and

and

was

never

Though

to be

worn

used,

it served

during

aloud

internal the plastic green

resident

quiz.

as a reminder

that

some elements of the radiology training process can be taken too seriously. During our visit, he described how when faced with particularly complex imaging or management problems in his busy practice, he would try to imagme how the faculty in the training program would have solved them. He thanked me for having played a part in his training, and he seemed a little wistful that the practice he was resuming didn’t include the chance to play a larger part in shaping the careers of radiologists in training. I’m not sure it helped when I told him that the thanks worked both ways-that one of the greatest satisfactions in academic radiology was being able to work with people as bright and gifted as our residents and that, as corny as it sounded, in a very real way my work had always been my play. Shortly thereafter, one ofAmerica’s most distin-

Index

terms:

#{149} Radiology

Editorials

RadloGraphics

1991;

and

radiologists

11:1139

From

Coichester cepted (

RSNA,

November

the

Department Aye,

of Radiology,

Burlington.

September 1991

1991

5. Address

VT 0540 reprint

Medical 1 . Received requests

Center

ofVermont,

4. 199 1 ; ac-

September to

the

111

author.

organized

and

came so lucid

presented

to the department and so marvelthat

even

those

of

had barely heard of the chonion were nveted. If there are a thousand points of light among the researchers and teachers in radiology, this man us who

is certainly

one

of the

brightest,

and,

although

he

is

only in the middle of his career, he is one of the handful of men and women who have made radiology the most exciting specialty in medicine. The debt that the radiologic community owes him and the others who operate on the radiologic world stage is akin to the debt that trainees owe the faculty who operate in less visible fashion training residents, and the satisfactions of each are unique and profound. All of this is not intended to belittle the importance ing

and

worth

careers services can

of those

patient be

who

in private provided

transformed ofus

proud

spend

practice. by

their

profes-

Clearly,

these

the

practitioners

care

around

ofwhat

they

the do.

world, But

imaghave

and

all

as more

and more teachers and researchers leave academic life for the financially greener pastures of private practice and as fewer trainees stay on at the centers that train them, it seems important to emphasize the extraordinary satisfaction that can come from a career in academic nadiology. Although I recognize that honest people can disagree about the value of money, those radiologists who have frantically busy and lucrative professional lives simply to make enough money to allow early retirement seem to miss much ofwhat can make a career in radiology so rewarding in the broadest sense. Thoughtful department chairs (and deans) are crucial to happy careers in academic radiology, and fair remuneration and benefit packages that do not require hair shirts and impoverished old age are similarly

important.

With

the

worrisome

levels

of

indebtedness that plague so many finishing trainees, it seems particularly important that no one should have to take a vow of poverty to teach or to do research. Extremely pertinent are the proposed changes in payment schedules for radiologic services, which suggest that salary differences between private and academic practices are likely to narrow. If these changes become reality, the unique satisfactions

I

MD

of a career

in academic

radiology

come more appealing to those who ing and research or who are finishing are torn by difficult career choices.

Heilman

U

RadioGraphics

might

have left training

be-

teachand

U

1139