Name: So You Want to Be an INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGIST [Ep. 47]
Uploaded: 2025-10-26T17:59:15.000Z
Duration: 12 min 29 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

So you want to be an interventional radiologist leaving the image reading in the dust in replace of hands on operations?

This is the reality of Interventional Radiology Dr.

Jubbal medschoolinsiders.com welcome to our next installment in so youo Want to Be.

In this series we highlight various medical specialties to help you choose the best fit for you.

You can find the other episodes on our so youo Want to Be playlist.

Subscribe to the channel to vote on future specialties.

Radiology can be broken down into two distinct paths, diagnostic radiology and interventional radiology.

The basic difference is that diagnostic radiology primarily deals with diagnosing disease, whereas interventional radiology primarily deals with treating disease.

Diagnostic radiologists do not usually take the images, but

instead spend the majority of their time looking at the finished scans and and providing interpretations of them for the clinical physician who ordered the scan.

Interventional radiology, on the other hand, involves using medical imaging technology to treat and sometimes diagnose conditions using imaging guidance, typically a kind of real time X ray called fluoroscopy.

Interventional radiologists often manipulate long thin wires called catheters to the site or organ of interest to then perform a procedure.

Such procedures are known as minimally invasive, as traditional invasive surgeries require far more cutting than a needle stick or small incision.

Interventional radiologists operate all over the body, including putting in lines and tubes to drain abscesses or kidneys, lysing blood clots, embolizing bleeding, angioplasty and stenting, fixing aneurysms by filling them with wire coils, stenting the liver in cirrhotic patients and removing clots causing stroke.

Interventional oncology includes treatments for liver and kidney cancer such as free freezing or microwaving tumors, dropping radioactive beads into tumors and killing off blood supply to the cancer.

This is a rapidly evolving field that's given cancer patients more options.

The first distinction we need to make clear is the difference between interventional radiology and diagnostic radiology.

Doctor's are experts in anatomy and pathophysiology throughout the body and have practical knowledge of medical physics.

The basis of their work comes down to reading and interpreting images.

The basis of their work comes down to completing image guided procedures.

However, IRs are also certified in diagnostic imaging as this is the foundation for their procedures.

Overall, the IR lifestyle is worse than doctor, but it can still vary once you're done with training.

There are IR attendings who were close to general surgery hours and others who were closer to doctor hours and doctor has one of the best lifestyles in medicine.

IR call is usually home call, meaning you can be called in from home at any hour and on weekends for urgent interventions.

These happen often, meaning you may have to go in at 3am or multiple times over the course of a weekend at a busy center or large hospital.

Scheduled IR cases can start between 7 to 8am and run until 5 to 6pm this is in addition to call.

The lifestyle hours call and procedures depend on the practice type you are working in.

For example, not all IRS operate every day.

Academic IRS may only do procedures and have a day off for admin and research.

In academic centers where a number of high end procedures are performed, IRS are usually quite busy.

In general, there are more interventional oncology and complex hepatobiliary procedures like TIPS done in academic settings as these patients benefit from having a multidisciplinary care team that may also include oncologists or hepatologists.

Private practice IR physicians often do a combination of IR procedures and Dr.

Procedure only jobs in private practice are normally the exception rather than the rule.

This means that it can be difficult to maintain the case volume needed to maintain skills for more complex procedures and that's another reason there are more of those done in academics.

However, any IR trained physician can perform whatever procedures they are comfortable with and have the staff for, and

that's why private practice IR settings vary widely depending on the specific group.

One nice benefit of a private practice IR career is that it can generally be tailored to your desires.

On average, private practice IRS will make a bit more than academic irs, as is the case for all specialties.

There's also a distinction between general IR and those who choose to specialize.

Further, more general IR involves lines and tubes and acute interventions like bleed embolization, percutaneous nephrostomies and coli tubes.

More specialized IR tends to be done at larger and academic centers and includes complex vascular and hepatobiliary work such as TIPS procedures stenting the liver in cirrhotic patients.

Interventional oncology is also becoming a subfield that includes tumor ablation and embolization.

Other niches include pediatric ir, which often deals with pediatric vascular anomalies and and neuro ir, which includes stroke, thrombectomy or brain aneurysm coiling.

Let's clear up some of the misconceptions about interventional radiology.

A common misconception is that IR is ideal for those who want to be surgeons.

You might choose to become an interventional radiologist because you have an interest in surgery, but

Diagnostic imaging still takes up a large portion of residency training and you'll need to have a deep understanding of it in order to become an ir.

If you're passionate about surgery and dislike like imaging, a surgical specialty will be a better fit.

Some have the misconception that neuroir is becoming the domain of neurosurgery and there's no longer a future for radiologists to do neurointerventional procedures.

While it's true that the majority of radiologists aren't interested in neuro ir, there are programs out there that will train interested radiologists in nir.

Becoming an interventional radiologist takes six to seven total years.

There are three options to choose from for pursuing this career path.

Training for this path includes one intern year, three years of doctor training, and

The path begins with diagnostic radiology since diagnostic skills form the basis for interventional procedures.

Next is early specialization in IR, also known as ESIR, which includes one intern year, four years of Dr.

Residents who realize early on that they want to do IR.

They'll do more IR rotations during their Dr. Years than their Dr.

Their last year of Dr. Training, year five will be mainly focused on IR rotations.

For this path, you need to know quite early on that you want to do IR in order to get the required 500 IR procedures during your doctor years.

Last is the independent IR residency which takes the longest at 67 years.

This training includes one intern year, four years of doctor, and two years of a separate IR fellowship.

Residents who realize late in residency that they want to do ir.

Therefore, they need two years of fellowship training in order to complete the necessary IR procedure volume.

Although interventional radiology is in many ways a sub specialization of diagnostic radiology, already there are paths to further specialize after becoming an ir.

Although you will gain experience with virtually all IR procedures during IR residency, some IRs develop a specific niche they become experts in, such as interventional oncology, pediatric IR or ultrasound guided biopsies.

Additional fellowship years are available for pediatric ir, which often deals with pediatric vascular anomalies, and

for neuro ir, which deals with strokes and cerebral vascular diseases.

However, the majority of IRS do not pursue these extra fellowships.

There's a lot to love about working as an interventional radiologist IR is a rapidly evolving field with cutting edge technology and new interventions being developed all the time.

This means you can help forge a young field, find R and D opportunities and make connections in the biomedical industry.

It's a huge scope of practice that enables you to intervene all over the body.

There's a large variety of diseases, organ systems, patient acuity and patient population, so there are many different niches you can establish yourself in.

IRs are also DRC certified, so depending on your interest, you can do part IR and part doctor as an attending.

There's a great deal of flexibility in ir, so you'll be able to focus on the areas that most interest you.

There's also minimal rounding and social work.

If those doctor duties sound unappealing to you, you'll also have job security as mid levels won't be doing complex IR work anytime soon and you'll earn a hefty paycheck.

Interventional radiologists like like diagnostic radiologists make about the same at over $480,000 a year, with specialists making even more.

Your income is more determined by your practice type and niche rather than whether or not you are a diagnostic or interventional radiologist.

But best of all, you can instantly help people and literally save lives through acute interventions like bleed embolizations and thrombectomies.

While interventional radiology has a lot to offer, it isn't for everyone.

First off, the lifestyle and being on call can be challenging.

Due to the nature of specialty, you will often have to come in on weekends and be woken in the night for emergencies.

Like many procedural specialties, residency won't be a walk in the park either.

Are you more interested in the money or your work life, balance and family life?

There's not a right or wrong answer here, but

it's important to understand this going in in some community practices, IR can become a line and drain service, doing all the procedures no one else wants to do.