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So, uh welcome to the first amount of the time hosted by the Glasgow University Radiology Society. Um We are here today with a very special guest. Uh I'm very pleased to introduce doctor. Uh he's a consultant radiologist, specialist in head and neck and that radiology. Um And he's passionate about promoting radiology amongst medical students. Um He is also co-founder of Rad Cast. This is an amazing educational resource for aspiring radiologist. Um amongst other things, they have a um monthly podcast which I very strongly recommend definitely go check that out. Um But today, Doctor Nara is here to give you a good rundown on why you should become a clinical um radiologist. So without further ado uh I hope you guys enjoy the talk and get away. Uh Doctor Nai, thank you Emily for the introduction. Um Hi guys. Um I can't see who's in this, so I hope some people have turned up and you can hear me. Um I'm basically gonna give you a rundown of radiology. Um Why I went into it, why I think it's a good um career and sort of give you a heads up of what sorts of things you need to be thinking about um if you want to do radiology after you graduate because it's becoming more and more popular and more and more competitive. So, um I hope you find this interesting. Um I did give this talk last year, so um I have updated it um a little bit um to where, where relevant um apologies if you did see this last year and I told the same jokes. Um but hopefully it'll be a good refresher even if you have seen it before. So, um, basically gonna cover my personal journey into radiology. Um, the um application process, um, tell you a bit about red cast and how we can help you, um, maybe get into radiology and then answer any questions um at the end and if you, if you have questions as we go through and you want to put them in the chat or ask them, I'm happy to sort of, um, interrupt as I go through. Ok. So, um my personal journey into radiology, um, so, um, it used to be said that um, no one goes into medicine to be a radiologist. Um, that's lesser the case now, but certainly when I started um, med school, um that was, that was the case. Um So in med school I wanted to do surgery, um, that was my first sort of passion. Um This is a picture of me and my brother scrubbed in. Um, this is actually in foundation when we were working in the same hospital and I still had um delusions of um being a surgeon. Um But then, um after I sort of graduated, um I did a foundation job in anesthetics and I found that really interesting and for a lot of foundation, I actually was very set on doing anesthetics and was sort of gearing my portfolio towards that. Um And what I liked about anesthetics was that it had a lot of variety. So it's a sort of multisystem specialty where you get to sort of deal with conditions and pathologies across all of the part of the body. Um There's lots of, you have a big department with lots of different doctors. So there's a lot of camaraderie. Um You don't have to do a lot of the dog work that doctors have to do on the wards like ward rounds. Um You get to sit down a lot and play. Um Soko and you get lots of regular coffee breaks. So that was the stuff I liked about anesthetics. Um But then there was a lot of stuff that I didn't like about anesthetics, which I had to admit to myself. Um around the time I was applying. So I didn't actually like sick patients, um didn't like class calls, didn't like itu labor ward, um frequent night shifts and carrying a bleep. Um And actually if I was being honest, um that was actually most of the job and only about 20% of the job was the stuff that I liked. But if you look at the light column, um another specialty which that, which thinks a lot of those boxes and is a much larger proportion of the job is radiology. So, um shortly before applying for job, so I switched from anesthetics and through in a radiology application on the off chart that I might get a number and I was successful. Um so I got a training job in Liverpool. So I moved from London to Liverpool and did my foundation training that my sorry radiology training in Liverpool um from se one to se five. And then after CCT I did a fellowship at Guys Hospital in London, um specializing in head and neck radiology. And then um finished that in 2021 September 2021. And shortly after started my consultant job in Liverpool where I am still base and very happy. So, um that's enough about me. Um So what makes radiology great? Ok. So um you have the variety, I think this is one of the the major selling points of radiology is that on uh on, on any day you get to report um imaging studies and um of across the whole um variety of body systems. So, um you report um MRI heads and see brain tumors, um report CT chest and see interstitial lung diseases. Um report um um abdominal CT S and C pancreatitis in a single list, you might um report all of those studies and it just keeps it quite um varied and interesting and, and no two scans are the same. And, and you also um get to report um studies across the range of modalities. So there's CT, there's MRI, there's ultrasound, there's nuclear medicine, there's fluoroscopy. So, um across when you look at the range of um modalities, you get to um interpret and also the variety of pathology and body systems, you get to, you get to report studies related to, there's a lot of variety in radiology and it's often said that radiologists are the last true generalists in hospitals because so much of medicine now you'll realize when you graduate and start working is really a subspecialist. So if you're a general surgeon, you might be a colorectal surgeon and spend all your time doing um colectomies or, or, or, or cholecystectomy and not really touch any other part of the body. But in radiology, you still get to maintain that, um, keep your finger in all of those pies and, and maintain that sort of generalist um element which keeps things interesting. Um, the lifestyle is also a big selling point of radiology. So, um you generally work in big friendly departments and even though radiologists have sometimes a bad reputation in terms of maybe being a bit um, er, antisocial, um that's really only the case um when they're dealing with our specialties and amongst themselves radiologists are always very friendly. Um So this is just a picture of me out with my colleagues and I was of guys and they all the happy smiley faces, very, very pleasant people. Um You get to work in a nice air conditioned office rather than running around on a really busy ward and being stressed out. Um and not being able to take sort of breaks and go to the toilet and getting yelled at by patients. Um, it's quite nice. You can sort of, um, listen to music while you're working, which I really enjoy. Um, not just for the novelty but actually it's, um, it helps you concentrate when you're reporting. So I usually put on some generic sort of classical music or, or, or some low five beats, some Spotify playlists and, and just sort of, um, get to report while listening to that and it, and it's quite soothing and relaxing. Um, you get unlimited coffee breaks. There's no one sort of, generally there's no one keeping tracks of tabs on what you're doing. Um, you don't really answer to anyone really, particularly as a consultant. So you can, you can really work at your own pace. Obviously, you want to be, um, working hard. But if you, um, want a coffee break or you want to just have a walk or have a chat, you can, you can do whatever you want basically. So you have a lot of autonomy and freedom and then you've got a lot of flexibility which is allowed by new technologies like teleradiology. So the ability to report scans remotely, um so you can um report for your hospital at home or even abroad. Um You can do on calls from home, which is really good and a luxury that other specialties don't really have. And then also that's useful for private work. So whether it's um doing um work for a teleradiology company or reporting for a different hospital, um the, the fact that you can do it remotely gives you um lots more opportunities for that. Um Speaking of flexibility. So um I um as Amy mentioned, so I do the RA class podcast and the person I present it with is um Jamie. He's, yeah, he's my core and um this year he left his job in a hospital in Liverpool and moved to Dubai and now he's now working for a tan company reporting UK studies. Um But living in Dubai, this is his reporting set up in his apartment in Dubai with his dog next to him. And these are just some nice pictures of his um of what he's been spending his time doing um for the last er few months. So that's like really unique to radiology. There's no other medical specialty where you could really um be doing NHS work but living in wherever you want in the world way of an internet connection. Um So sorry, another s really good thing about radiology is the training. So you have the fact that it's run through training. So as soon as you graduate, you do a foundation and then you apply for radiology and once you get into radiology, um you don't have any more sort of applications or interviews until you come out the other end. Um As a after CT after ST five, and then you apply for consultant jobs and radiologists are in such demand now that there are so many consultant jobs going that really the consultant interviews are a formality. So you really have your pick of consultant jobs at the end. Um This is in contrast to other specialties, like other um specialisms like surgery where you do foundation. Um And then you have to apply for core training um which is CT which is three years. And then after core training, you then apply for specialty training in your particular subspecialty of surgery. And then after that, you then apply for a consultant job. And unlike in radiology, um there's often a lot fewer consultant jobs in other specialties. So it's a lot harder to get a consultant job. After training, often people end up doing one or two fs after training, not because they necessarily want to, but because they have to, whereas in radiology, people do specialties because they, because they want to. So I did a specialty because I wanted to gain extra experience, but not because I had to and often people in radiology, say, ah, just, there's no point in doing a fellowship, you may as well start your job and learn on the job. Um, just because it's so easy to get a job. So that's, that's a real difference between radiology and so surgery. Um, when you're actually, when you're in training you're actually getting trained, um, rather than being used for service provision. So, generally, um, as a radiology trainee you are what is called supernumerary, supernumerary. So whether you're there or not, the department will function. So it's not like you're needed to do discharge summaries, um write out drug charts, um be a clerk basically on the ward round, you're really there to learn. So um the whole training is really focused around your learning. You get lots of one on one time with the consultants. Um you get lots of protected teaching time. So it's really good in that respect. Um You don't really have to carry a bleep. Um There are some sort of um service requirements and a lot of um training schemes. So you will do on calls. Um You might have a session a week where you're maybe the duty radiologist where you answer the phone calls from clinicians on the wards um about scans or answer queries from radiographers. But even that is sort of a learning experience because you have to do that as a consultant anyway. And so everything is really geared towards your learning as a radiology trainee. Um and it's generally quite a pleasant experience. So um technology is another big thing in radiology, quite unique to radiology, the um extent to which technology is really um integral to the practice of, of the specialty. Um So, and this is something that is one of the reasons a lot of people go into it. Um So artificial intelligence, I'm sure a lot of you have heard about it um by now and its potential use in radiology. Um back a few years ago when it was first spoken about, there was a lot of genuine fear and anxiety about the unknown and whether it was going to take radiologist jobs. But as time has gone on and both within the um A I um space, the companies realize how complicated radiology is and how you actually need to work with radiologists and, and these um tools are gonna be sort of assisting radiologists, not replacing them. Um There, there's a, the narrative about um A I in radiology has changed a lot and, and it's definitely not going to um replace radiologists, but there are tools which are coming in now um very slowly. But um but over time, um so you've got, for example, this is a um lung nodule detecting algorithm. Um And um this would be used in lung cancer screening. So this is something that I'm involved in um where basically the um in lung cancer screening patients will have a CT scan and the A I runs and picks up the nodules and then you go through them and decide whether you think they're significant or not. And also look for nodules in places where the A I might not be as good at looking for them. So maybe like near the hila or um in the lung base. So that's an example of how you sort of work together with A I and then sort of ramic. That's another um interesting development in radiology in terms of technology and using um complicated um sort of computer algorithms to look at information beyond what you can see vis visually um in on the image. So extracting data from the image that you wouldn't be able to perceive visual eye, which might give you information about maybe the sort of genetic of a lesion or, or, or um some tissue. So these are all sort of interesting technological developments happening in um in radiology. And we've covered a lot of these in our podcast. So we recently did um an episode with a doctor called Doctor Benjamin Hunter who is a, an, an oncologist in Imperial. And they had made the, the news um with er by developing a radio mixed algorithm which could um help the te nong cancer. So we did a podcast with him um and spoke to him about it and just discussed the, the development. So um our, our podcasts are a good sort of resource if you want to find out about some of the new, the new technologies in radiology, cos we, we've covered them a lot in, in, in loads of different episodes. Um So, yeah, as a radiologist, you are, another sort of good thing about radiologist is you're sort of seen as the doctor's doctor. So you're essential to patient care and um other clinicians will often come to you um when they're seeking advice. So, um it's nice to be in a position where generally you're in a position where people are coming to you asking for things rather than you going to them. So um it's a good sort of dynamic um to be you're on the right side of that dynamic and it's good to provide sort of advice um up to c conditions on the best type of imaging to do or um or, or how best to investigate the patient. And they really do value your input because to non radiologists, imaging is really quite sort of alien and they find it all very complicated. So um they really appreciate um sort of the radiologist input. And similarly in MDT S, the radiologist is often at the center of the MDT going through the imaging um providing important information like the staging and then advising on um really having an input into the most appropriate um management for a particular condition. So, um some of the misconceptions about radiology, so the fact there's no patient contact. Um, there's certainly not as much patient contact as you might have in, um, medicine or surgery. Um, but certainly in my mind there's, um, enough patient contacts. Um, so you do lots of practical, most radiologist, most radiology subspecialties have a practical element, whether that's ultrasound, um, as I'm doing here or fluoroscopy or if, if you can even do interventional radiology, um where you have AAA lot of patient contact as much as a surgeon. Um And it's good to sort of have that interaction with the patient, but then you get to give them back at the end of the day or at the end of the session and you don't have to worry about doing all the other stuff which becomes a bit tedious, like as I say, the job charts and, and the um dealing with complaints and so on. So, in my mind, you have just enough patient contact. Um There's also um the misconception that all you do is report. Um whereas most radiology job plans are quite varied. So um I've just, this is actually my job plan in my consultant job. Um So in a typical week, um I'll have four sessions of reporting. Um Then I also have um time for MDT and MDT preparation where you're just going through cases and working out. Um If it's a cancer MDT, the staging and what um the most appropriate um sort of management for that patient is and then you discuss that with the rest of the team in the MDT. I also do a chest meeting where I go through um chest cases with the chest um with the lung, uh the respiratory physicians. Um And then I have a um session where I do ultrasounds and fine needle aspirations and core biopsies as is taking place here. Um And then I also have a session um where I'm off. So, and I, I have a day where I'm off. So on Thursdays, I'm off in the morning and basically doing off site admin in the afternoon. So I actually work four days a week, which is quite nice. And my Tuesday um day is actually done from home. So I'm only on in hospital and three days a week and working for four days a week and that's a full time consultant um job plan. So it's quite nice. It's varied and you have the sessions at home and the off days and it, and it breaks up the week nicely. Um And yeah, radiology is antisocial. It, it's not antisocial um that, that you get lots of interaction with your colleagues and other conditions as well. Um Just to touch on interventional radiology, which is um something that um may appeal to some of you guys. Um So this is basically minimally um um minimally invasive image guided procedures. Um And it may be for those of you who sort of like maybe are interested in surgery, but don't necessarily want to, uh, don't necessarily want to go down the surgical route, but you want to be doing procedures. This is certainly, um, something that is, uh, would be very appealing to you um, with normal, with diagnostic radiology. Um, the training is from ST one to ST five. if you do interventional radiology, there's an extra year um on the end of it. So it goes up to ST six. And interestingly, in order to try and sort of get more people into radiology who are focused on um interventional radiology from the start. Um They have introduced a new IR theme of training which was introduced last year. Um And um essentially you sort of indicate when you go into radiology that you're interested in IR and so your training is slightly tailored towards IR and you also have priority to get an IR um subspecialty, uh an IR um training post in ST four when sometimes there's a competition for places after between ST three and ST four when people actually want to go into IR. So those who have elected to be on an IR themed training scheme from the beginning will have priority to get that ST four trading post if there is a competitive um sort of bottleneck in their training scheme. Um So with IR, um there's loads of different sort of sub areas within it, um you've got vascular ir. So that would be like the insertion of, um this is an Eva stent, so to treat an aneurysm. So you've got a stent in the, in the aorta and some stents going into the renal arteries. You've got interventional oncology, um which is a developing area of interdental radiology while you're using um minimally invasive procedures to treat cancers. So it's often sort of ablating lesions, whether it's with radiofrequency or with um heat or even cold. So, cryoablation and that's pretty cool. Um because you're actually treating cancers um and having a real impact and sort of definitive management. Um And unlike with vascular ir when you have to kind of compete with vascular surgeons for some of the same cases, and there are um some um what we call turf wars um between interventional radiologists and vascular surgeons in some regions with interventional oncology. It's really only interventional radiologists that do that. So it's sort of they have it all to themselves. And then you've got interventional neuro radiology, which is for those real sort of thrill seekers, that's sort of very, very cool, very high stakes, but um really rewarding. So, um what we have here is a, a thrombectomy procedure, which is now sort of the gold standard treatment for acute strokes. Um So this is an angiogram which shows um there's a lack of contrast in this bit of the vessel because there's a clot in it and they pass a wire up through the um through the carotid artery this would probably be the um middle cerebral artery and they pluck out the clot and then the flow is restored to that area. Um and patients will go into um a procedure with complete hemiplegia or not being able to speak and then you put out the clot and they're suddenly back to normal with no neurological deficit. So, um that can be like a really miraculous um life saving procedure that's very rewarding. Um So yeah, lots to do in interventional radiology. Um So I suppose it's not all um fun and there are some um less fun things about radiology, um particularly um physics, some people um don't really like the physics aspect of radiology. So, um when you start in your first year, um you do um the FCR part one exam and that includes a physics component. Um So there's a physics and anatomy exam. Um and people do find the physics difficult. Um Often it's the first time people have done physics um since a level, um people don't generally go into medicine um because uh to do physics. So it's a bit, it takes a bit of getting used to, but most people um deal with it no problem. And then once you've done the exam, you really don't use that much physics on a daily basis, but you do need that sort of basic understanding, particularly with things like um MRI um a major problem with radiology is just the fact that there's not enough radiologists. So there's a sort of never ending, ever increasing workload and it's increasing at a much faster rate than we can produce more um new radiologists or fund of new radiologist. So it does mean that there's a lot of work, there's a lot of demands, a lot of demands put on you. You're always being handed to report urgent scans, which can be a bit demoralizing sometimes, particularly if you're not able to get around to a scan and then you find out, oh, the patient missed their um cancer um treatment or cancer um appointment because the scan wasn't reported. So just the the constant barrage of work um which is quite intense um is, is definitely a drawback but hope. But with time um as we are recruiting more radiologists and, and getting more people into the specialty, hopefully that will sort of level out and then as A I comes in and maybe assists us more and makes us faster again, that should, that should help in that respect. Um MDT si enjoy MDT S, it's an opportunity to sort of sit down with the clinicians and, and discuss cases with them and, and show off and present all your nice imaging. But um they are as with all demand and radiology growing. So um the head and neck MDT that I do on Wednesdays, I might have to look at the imaging for 20 patients um in preparation for that MVT and look at all of their um their scans, they might have multiple scans of complex cancer imaging and it can take a whole day to prepare and you might end up preparing some cases at home. So um M DTs can be, can take their toll. Um There is still maybe the lack of recognition um from um uh of how important radiologists are um both within and outside of medicine. Um particularly outside the medicine. Most people don't know that radiologists are doctors or they'll confuse you with a radiographer um within medicine though this is definitely changing. Um Just because everyone's jealous, jealous of us now because we have a much better work life balance than they do. And just because imaging is really becoming um so integral to the management of all patients and you can't really very few patients now go through a hospital stay without having some form of imaging and you, you really are crucial to the patient journey. So um most clinicians um now really recognize the importance of radiologists. Um And then, yeah, there is the idea that you kind of cease to be a real doctor um because you just des skill in um in o hours of medicine. Um So I, I don't even think you need advanced life support to be a radiologist. I think I, I know only need basic life support and my kind of worst nightmare is being on a plane and them asking is there a doctor on the plane? And me like having to volunteer when I, I'm not even sure I can remember how to do CPR, which is not great to say. But yeah, you do d skill in other areas of um of medicine. But then you also gain a lot of other skills that other people don't have and you're not gonna remain an expert in anything. So you just have to deal with it. I used to sort of stress about this in ST one, but now I, I kind of don't care. Ok. So, um, on to actually applying for radiology. Um, so it is becoming more and more competitive. Um, it's kind of a flight to safety basically as the NHS falls apart and it becomes more and more hostile working on the wards and doing anything else, more and more people are applying for radiology. Um, it used to be that people would sort of apply for radiology as a secondary thing. So they'd apply for surgery and, er, and then throw in a radiology application. But now the vast majority of people, um, who do apply for radiology really want to do it as their first choice. So I suppose this slide, um, can be a bit alarming. Um, it's not really meant to scare you, it's just to indicate that it is getting more and more competitive. Um, each year, um, last year the competition competition ratio was almost 9 to 1 And if you compare that to other specialties, um it's, it's more competitive than most of the sort of, most of your um typical hospital specialties. Um not quite as competitive as some of the more niche ones like ophthalmology, but it, it's getting there and that's just a reflection of the increasing popularity of the specialty. So it's good to be prepared. Um So what can you do now to um give yourself the best opportunity of getting that precious radiology number? Um So the, these are the sort of sub, sub sorry, the categories um that you're scored on in your radiology um portfolio at the moment. Um You, we, you have, you get awarded points in each of these categories. Um The scoring criteria does change um from year to year. Um and every now and then every er over a sort of longer periods, it, it, it changes completely to er, so it may not even be the, these sort of headings, but for the past two years had a commitment to specialty section um where you get points for having done taste a weeks, um having done a radiology elective. Um So at the end of your medical school, maybe think about doing an elective, that's a radiology focus through it. And um also going on radiology focused courses. So those are the sorts of things that score your points in the commitment to specialty section. Um Each section is scored out of two so they'll be um what you need to do to get two marks and then one mark or no marks. So for example, um this year in commitment to specialty, to get full marks, you needed to have done two, take a weeks in different areas of radiology, um or in different radiology settings. So one of them could be in AD GH and another one could be in a tertiary hospital or one of them could be in diagnostic radiology and the other one could be an interventional radiology. And then you also needed to have, er, attended a radiology focus course. And if you did both of those things, you got full marks. I think if you did it only one case a week and one on a course, you got one mark and if you haven't done any of that, you got no marks. So it's that sort of vibe, um, additional degrees, er, post graduate degrees and prizes again, they sort of change what they will and won't give you points for from year to year. But generally you do get points for indicated degrees, you'll get two points if you have a first, maybe one point, if you got 21, you get two points if you've done. Um, and it's, it's an IV or so if you take any of these, you'll get, you can get two points for them. Um, MRCP or Mr CS if you do those, um depending on how long you've been graduated for, you can get points for that. Um And then if you've got any prizes um in medical school or um after in foundation, um you often get points for those. So that's additional degrees. Um quality improvement projects and audits. So, um you usually get points for audits um having done maybe one a year or more than one a year. Um Often you'll get more points if they're radiology focused audit. So you should always, particularly if you're at this stage, now you're in university and you know, you want to do radiology, definitely focus on doing things which are really tailored towards radiology. So if you want to do radiology, then a, a surgical audit is perfectly reasonable. But if you can do a radiology focus audit, that's a lot better. So um be sort of tailoring your portfolio um as early as possible. Um If you, when you do do audits, um I don't know how much you guys will know about audits yet. Um But often there's an initial cycle where you basically assess the performance of a particular thing. Um you then um present the results and often the results are rubbish and then you propose an intervention. Um and you, you um do the intervention and then you re audit it and do a second cycle to see how much of an effect your intervention has had on that process that you're auditing and that, that's a full cycle So, um, if you just do the first step and you audit it and you present the results but you don't do an intervention, you often won't get as many points as you will get if you've done the full cycle. Um, and usually you'll have to have presented your audit, um, at least regionally. So that'll be like in the local audit meeting. But sometimes, uh, yeah, that, that, that usually suffices, um, publications and presentations. So, yeah, um these are difficult. I mean, I have one presentation, er, one publication to my name um in my whole medical career and it's about radiology, podcasting. So it's not even a real publication. So don't stress really about publications if you can get them. Um then that's brilliant. Um but often people don't have publications. Um So, yeah, if you can get a publication, it's good to be first so far. It's good if it's radiology focused um with presentations, definitely again, radiology focused, all the same things apply. So try and be first so far. Um make it radiology focused and then present it at a national or international conference. Um And then with teaching. Um so generally you want to do radiog focus teaching. Um you want it when you're, when you're, when this is more when you're a foundation doctor, but when you do the teaching, you arrange it, um you want it to be on as big a scale as possible. So you can sort of do teaching within your hospital, which will be sort of a, a local regional thing. But if you can create a national teaching program, which is much easier said than done, you'll often get more points. And if you can do something internationally, that's even better. Um, you also often get points for, um, going on sort of recognize teaching courses like a teach teacher course. Um, or, um, I'll, I'll tell you about a me class course. Actually, that does get you points for teaching in a second. And whenever you do teaching, make sure you're collecting feedback of the teaching as proof um that you've done it and also as something to reflect on because being a reflective practitioner is all, is like all the rage at the moment. So, yeah, that's not too bombard you with stuff. Um It's just um to sort of give you a heads up. Um, you're in medical school. Um I mean, I didn't know I wanted to do radiology until just before applying. So the fact that you guys are here and interested in medical school means you're already well ahead of the game. Um So you can maybe just start thinking about ways you could maybe tick some of these boxes, often, a lot of the stuff that um you do in medical school, not all of it will count. So, um it's more to have in mind when you um graduate and you're in foundation, you have sort of two years to really work on all of that stuff. But certainly, um, you can do publications now if you can get publications. Now. That's, that's really good. And, yeah, being forearm is forearmed. So, um, what is broadcast? And how can we help you? Um, so, yeah, so we started it up in 2015, 18, basically back then. Um, radiology was still sort of a bit. I'm cool. Um, and no one, people still weren't that interested in it. And certainly in medical school, um you really got no exposure to radiology. I remember, I basically got no radiology teaching or, or exposure um as a medical student. So, um one of the main reasons we set it up was to actually um try and increase exposure um of people, the people had to radiology, um which we do through the podcast and also like doing talks like this. So it's quite cool because doing a talk like this is definitely one of the reasons we set it up in the first place. So it's good to be able to sort of um sort of um for that to actually play out as it has. Um So, yeah, with the podcast, um we release an episode um every month, um we somehow usually manage to stick to that schedule. Um We cover um topical issues in radiology, whether it's about sort of the workforce issues or technology or just sort of radiology, lifestyle stuff, um or talking about how Jamie's getting on in Dubai. So, um and we've, we've, it's been pretty cool how that we've spoken to a lot of very prominent figures in the, in, in the space and there's, there's about 60 episodes now. And so there's a decent back catalog. And I think if as someone who doesn't know much about the specialty, um if you listen to all of our episodes, you'd get a very good overview of what's going on in radiology. Um And you'd have a lot of stuff to talk about in an interview. So, yeah, I definitely recommend that sort of not even a shameless plug, but as a fairly easy way to digest our or consume radiology content, um check out the podcast. Um We also do have various courses um which um it, um which, which you can have a look at a lot of them aren't going to be relevant to you as um medical students. Um But something to maybe be aware of when you graduate and they're thinking of applying for um for radiology. Um But the ones which you might want to have a look at, um we got a, a course on audit um and sort of clinical governance and that's, that's like 15 quid, I think. Um So this is a good sort of basic um teaching you the basics of audit and what an audit is and how to carry out a good audit and so on. So that, that that's, er, one that's quite good and it's quite funny, Mohammed made that and he made it quite, sort of, it's actually quite funny the way he did it. So. Yeah, that's quite good. Um, and then also the radiology crash course. So that sort of teaches the basics of um, actual radiology, image interpretation. So you've got, um, like AAA module on chest x-rays, abdo xrays and basics of CT, um, basic ultrasound. So, again, that's, that's, that's a course which you might wanna check out, but none of them are particularly essential, particularly, um especially while you're still in med school. Um Something that probably I would highly recommend you to um sort of um get involved in um just, just as a sort of exposure to radiology um is our anatomy competition. So this is the, as far as we know, only um international Radiology anatomy competition, um it's set out in the structure of the part one anatomy exam. So it gives you an idea of what to expect when you eventually get into radiology and sit that. And um we've run it for two years in a row now. Um We just did the second sitting in July. Um and we had, I think 100 and 30 entrants from around the world and there's only one winner, but everyone who um competes gets a certificate and as I say, it's just a good thing to, to have a go at and get some radiology exposure. Um, so it's very cheap 20 quid and we, we, we do it once a year, so we'll be doing it probably next summer. So we'll advertise it. But keep a look out for that as something that's open to medical students and junior doctors. Um, we also have various social media accounts which, um, we're not the most active on. We generally use them to sort of promote our events. But, um, again, give us a follow. Um and you can keep up to date with um any um sort of competitions we're doing or courses we, we're, we're running um and any sort of just updates. So we, we often will post about the radiology applications and things relevant to that. So yeah, by all means, give us a follow and yeah, if you want any general advice about radiology, um you can email us at, hello at broadcast dot co dot UK. Um You can give us ad m on social media or you can visit our website and that's it. So I'm happy to take any questions. That's fantastic. Uh assum uh and enjoyable presentation as always. Um uh Yeah, if people have any questions, just pop them in the chat. I do have a few questions. But um oh we've got one, I don't know if you can see them. Um Let's see, let's see if I can see it. Let's go back on metal. Um Yeah, that's one I'm still showing, aren't I so you can see multiple fine and no, no. So in the UK, how many scans you all in, in one important session? That's a good question. Um So different hospitals will have different ways that they do the reporting. Um some hospitals will. So in the UK, it's in, it's a contentious thing but there's no actual set minimum um amount that radiologists are meant to report and some radiologists, a lot of them are resistant for that to be introduced because they don't want anyone sort of saying, are you, you're not reporting enough or be benchmarking? You also um in the UK, you're not paid per scan, unlike you are in um like on a pri in private system. So I suppose there's less of an incentive to sort of break your back and report um as fast as possible, which I probably shouldn't say. I al I always report as much as possible, but um these things um are probably do have an impact. So all that, all that is to say, um it's generally accepted that a consultant, radiologist should report 3 to 4 body parts in an hour. Um So that might be a chest, it might be a head, it might be an abdomen. Um or, or, or so, or any combination, maybe like a chest, have their pelvis or count as two body parts. Obviously. Um No, two scans are the same. You might spend half an hour reporting a really complex post-surgical CT abdomen or head, uh MRI neck and then two minutes reporting a, a CT head um in some hospitals, they will allocate on that basis. So for example, Warrington Hospital, which is another hospital in the Northwest in the region. I work, they generally in a four hour session will allocate about 12 to 15 scans to their radiologists um in uh so that might be, as I say, a combination of MRI and CT and you'll have some head, some abdomen, some chests. Um, where I work they don't assign scans nor do they keep track of what you're doing. So, really, there's no minimum requirement but as a sort of responsible and um, conscientious professional, um you work, you report as much as you can. And so, yeah, I, I don't know, in, in a normal session because I do head and neck and it's quite complicated. I might report 10, 10, 10 to 12 scans. Um, depending on whether I have trainees who I'm teaching and how many emails I have to answer. That's, yeah, I think I've answered that. Oh, that's a lot of, of scam. I like to keep track of or you, it's amazing how much faster you get. Um, I'm, I've, I've never been the fastest before you get people who are just like really fast at reporting. You have fast reporters and so reporters, it's not so much. Um, even about how good you are. Um, some people as soon as they start report quite quickly. Um, like Jamie, the guy, I do broadcast with, he reports really quickly whereas I've never been someone who reported really quickly. Um, but even I have got a lot faster so, I mean, a normal MRI head, I can report that in two minutes or, or, or like, yeah, and mo mo it, it's rare that I'll spend more than 20 minutes on any scan now. Whereas which, which is just a factor of experience. Um, and I'm, I'm not particularly far so you, you can, you can get through it and there, there'll be some scans which are really, really easy, do them in, as I say, a matter of minutes and then there'll be some scans which might take you half an hour, but it usually averages out to about 15 minutes of scan. Um, I had a, I had a question about, um, the podcast. Actually, I was wondering if you have a favorite episode? Oh, that's a good question. Um, so off the top of my head. Um, so there's a, there's an episode which we did, um, when we, uh, it was at the European um Congress of Radiology ECR which is in Vienna. And we interviewed, um, a lady called Hedvig Reac and she's like a quite a big dog radiologist in America. She works at a memorial Sloan, um, Kettering, like big Can Hospital in New York. And I think she was like on Obama's, um, advisory board for health and stuff. And um we actually did that episode in the hotel lobby um of yeah, in the hotel for a really like fancy in the lobby for a really fancy um hotel. And it was just like difficult to arrange and then we did it and, and it was like quite a good achievement getting it done. So that, that, that's up there in terms of the whole process. Um We did an interview um uh the, the first interview we did like that was, again, it was an American person that we did it remotely. That was the first interview we did with someone in America. Um which I also think is a good interview. It was about a I um it's with a guy called um Martin Willer. Um It's about sort of the data issue in radiology and how you can have all these algorithms, but it's difficult to actually get the data to train them and anonymize it and, and, and have like reliable data. So we spoke to him about that and I think it was um yeah, it was a good interview and it was our first one with someone in America. So, yeah, yeah. Um oh Another question on the chart. Um Do you know if you can take on top of the, you, you can, so you wouldn't take it if you were going to stay in the UK? But if you want to move to Australia um you would, you, you can sit it and you would have to sit it if you want to move to Australia. Um Australian Radiologists. Um, it is very appealing for radiologist. Cos they earn a lot of money in Australia a, a lot more than they do in the UK. So people do move over there. But it's, yeah, but it's very far away. But, yeah, if, if you wanted to work in Australia, um apart from some sort of unique arrangements like teleradiology, you would have to do there, the France er exam. Um I was also wondering um just since I, I think people in, in this event are undergrad medical students, I believe just wondering what you consider is like the, the main of radiology or like the, the bread and butter of it, like what, what radiology skills or areas should undergraduate medical students focus on, on mastering in that degree? Um I mean, the main thing about radiology is, is anatomy actually um anatomy and pathology. Um though though in terms of the practice of radiology, um like if you know what the organ is, that's sort of a large part of the um of, of the battle one. and then having a list of differentials for that particular top part of the anatomy. Um So in terms of actually the practice of radiology, um definitely being good at anatomy. Um I did, I wasn't interested in radiology in medical school and I certainly wasn't interested in anatomy. So that's something that I found difficult to start with. Um, you do pick all these things up, um, as, as you go along, but certainly having a good foundation in anatomy, um, is very good, um, especially as it's examined in the part one exam as well. So, um, straight off the bat, you're going to be quizzed on that. Um, in terms of like getting, uh in terms of getting into radio and sort of your more port portfolio stuff. Um I would definitely say that, I mean, publications are very difficult to come by. Um And um and II, I remember when I was in medical school, it seemed like everyone was like had loads of publications and everyone was doing loads of stuff and I was always really stressed and then you sort of graduate and you realize that no one actually has any publications. Um But if you can get a radiology publication, um and it will obviously depend on what center you're based at and how much research is done where you are. Um I've never really, I mean, at uni I probably could have done it, but Liverpool's not that um there aren't that many academic radiologists, so it does depend on the center you're at. But if you can get a publication also tailoring your um if you do it inter if you do intercalate um doing um like a medical imaging or a physics um ation Um, definitely, if, if I was in medical school and interested in radiology, I would, I would do that. Um, because, um, it, it's an opportunity to maybe get a publication. Um, and also it gives you, um, stuff to talk about in your interview where you can really show that you've had, uh, an interest in radiology that you've sort of acted on for a long time. Yeah, that's brilliant. That's brilliant. There's some really good tips there. Um Definitely um I'll take that into account for my, the rest of my degree, maybe look towards doing an inter as well. Um Yeah, yeah, I would definitely recommend that if it's an option, obviously, if it's not an option then um don't, don't um don't stress but yeah, if you can integrate and do one that's imaging focused, that's the easy, easy sort of score points. Um I just thought I'd quickly share just the feedback form to everyone in the chat um for everyone to claim their attendance certificate it um it's good to have a certificate to, to show your interest and and so on. Um So if people could just click that link or um yeah, hope hopefully you see that in the chart, you can click it and you can, you can claim your certificate. Um And if you have any more questions, just just let us know. Um and as soon we, we do his best to answer them. I actually do have one more question, I keep thinking of things but I was wondering, um, because you're specializing in, in head and neck and, and chest. Um, is there a particular reason as to why you chose that? Um Subspecialty? Um So generally, often people have one primary subs specialty and then a sort of secondary one. it's rare for people to be, well, it's less, less common for people to have just one subspecialty unless they're working in a really specialized center. So, say you're working in like the Brompton in London, then you might just be a chest radiologist and, and you, you do have people single specialty radiologists but, um, often people do too, um, head and neck and chest in particular. We've head and neck. You, you, you get a head and neck and neuro radiologist, um, which makes sense because, um, you, that they're close to each other and the disease is similar. Although it's, it's very, it's, you'd be surprised how different, um, this is to that basically, like the blood brain barriers, they get all sorts of different pathologies. So, yeah. Um, um, but head and neck and neuro is they go together well, or head and neck and chest. That's the other sort of, um, combination. Um, the head and neck and neuro radiologist tend to be more sort of specialized, really specialize in that and not much else. They're usually neuroradiologist who do a bit of head and neck. Um, whereas the, um, head and neck and chest. Radiologists tend to be a bit more head, neck, head and neck, chest, and then more body more, more general. Um rather than the newer guys, the new head and neck guys who tend to be a bit more sort of limited to that um head and neck and chest goes together. Well, because with most head and neck cancers, um they metastasize to the chest. So in the staging of any head and neck cancer, it would involve some neck imaging, usually an MRI neck and then a CT chest. So you report CT chest anyway, as part of the staging. Um So then that, so then you, you might as well do a bit more chest. Um And yeah, it, it because I, I do like being quite general. Um the, the head and neck and chest thing sort of lends itself more to being sort of head and neck and body rather than head and neck and Euro, you do tend to just really focus on, on that area. So, yeah, that's, it sounds like good fun. I'm keen to, to get more into that. I think we're coming up to, to that topic in, in the second year soon. Yeah, everyone, people were really. So one of the reasons I chose having that is because I'd like to be a bit contrarian and everyone hates head and neck because they find it hard. Um because it is hard because the anatomy is very intricate and so, like if there's like a reporting list, er, an, an acute reporting list, um, no one will touch the, the, um, neck studies and always leave them and then, like, send them out to me to report them. Um, whereas, um, so non head and neck radiologist won't go anywhere near a neck study. Um, whereas even if you're not a G I radiologist, everyone will report a CT abdomen. Even if you're not a chest radiologist, everyone can have a go at reporting a ct chest to maybe not amazingly, but you can have a go. So I thought if I do head and neck, um I can report that and then at least I can have a go at the other stuff. Whereas if I don't do have the neck, um I just won't ever be able to look at a, a neck. So um is that rationale as well? That does make sense? Um We've had another question, by the way in the chat. Um is that, do you think an interco is worth the year out and safe points only awarded for relevant interco also? What about previous degrees? So I think it is worth doing an interco. I cannot say let me um so I'm going to, I am I still sharing my screen? Uh Yes. Yeah. OK. Um You can see all my documents which I suppose isn't great, but let me check, let me find the scoring co I wasn't sure about putting this in the actual um presentation cos I thought it might be overload. But um while we're chatting, I'll just show you actually what the scoring was for. Um That's the, wasn't that what the scoring was for the previous year? So you can get an idea of here we go of what people got points for. So in terms of interrelation, so to get two points, um first class integrated BS C. So it, it didn't have to be radiology, it didn't have to be imaging focused, but it, if you integrated, you got a first class, you got two points. If you got a 21, you got one point. Um So and, and generally you have been Internation has scored points for as long as I can remember, I did hear rumor that they were maybe going to stop that because um it was seen as being unfair because some people have opportunities, some people don't, which I think is nonsense because I mean, it's medicine, it's academic, like you're not gonna be assessing people on academics and what's the point. But um I still think you do get points for it. Um It's subject to change as all of those um points are, which is why it's not good to sort of um obsess over each particular point cos it can change. But um I think doing an indication is worth it. Um no matter what you do it in and hopefully it will still score your points by the time max whenever you're applying. Um What about previous degrees? Um Let's see. Um uh for uh so I, I know in the, no, so you didn't get any points for previous degrees last year, I think you have in previous years, but you didn't get last year. So yeah, that the scoring last year didn't get any points for previous degrees. Yeah, hope that answer your question, Max. Um If anyone has any other questions, um otherwise we we're running a bit over, over time. So, so uh questions and you can email us if you want more advice. Um If you have anything. Yeah. Um I just uh hello at if you want. Yeah, if you wanna email, feel free to advise you, that's wonderful, but no one has any other questions. Um I think we'll wrap this up and I'll thank, thank Ursa so much for coming. Um You have been absolutely wonderful. Always enjoy your talks. Um And I'm sure everyone else did as well. Um So thank you everyone for coming to our first event of the time. Uh This has been been been a blast. Um And as I said as well, uh if you have any more questions, you're welcome to, to email. Indeed. We're here to help. Ok.