My reviewsAn intruder in the house!
Last Updated on Thursday, 02 July 2009 14:18 Written by Aditya Daftary Saturday, 04 July 2009 00:00
I was fortunate to recently be invited as visiting faculty to a radiology department upon an invitation from a good friend. The experience I must say was wonderful and it often makes me wonder why we don't do this more often.
To give you some idea about what transpired in the week, I could split them up into a few broad areas and here are the highlights:
Informal teaching and learning:
During my week, I spent most of the time in the MSK radiology reading room. Here, I went over cases with the residents as they read them and then sat with them as the attending came over to read them out with them. We discussed different view-points, interesting observations and pointers that we had learned along the way. Residents chimed in with their own opinions and added the opinions of other faculty in the department. Some of them had interests in other areas of medicine or informatics and so added more interesting insights into how we did, do and should do things. It was a great way for residents and faculty from various places to meet, greet, and discuss. I found it extremely stimulating and apart from the fact that the residents went home a little later than usual, I didn't see a significant down side.
Formal teaching:
As the visiting faculty, it was my duty to bring to the table, what little I had to offer at this leading institution. Research was obviously not going to be one of them. I do however feel I have a "gift of the gab" and some ability to misguide and so took along some of the interesting cases that I had seen during my career as well as those kindly lent to me by friends and colleagues at some time or the other. We did some didactic lectures (ala the ‘approach to" series) and followed things up with case taking sessions. As usual, it helps keep me honest and residents entertained. Somewhat importantly, it gives the local faculty a chance to catch up with the millions of things they need to!
Meetings:
My friend had made special efforts to introduce me to various members of the radiology and clinical faculty. An opportunity for me to interact and learn about how a large university works and what are the issues that concern them. Interactions with clinical faculty opened up great areas for potential collaborations pertaining to research and education. Being a radiologist starts to feel relevant again as we interact more with those who use our services.
Fun:
No good visiting week is done without a good measure of fun. My friend had carefully planned for us to spend every evening trying out some of the best food and drink in the area (made special accommodation for my vegetarian diet). Another faculty member who has been involved as a volunteer veterinary radiologist at the local zoo shared a bunch of cases and experiences from the zoo and just for good measure actually took me there, had me meet the vets and took me on a personally guided tour of the zoo. The research fellow made sure I was well taken care of and transportation was taken care of.
Overall, I must say, this was a fun and exciting experience for me. I learned a lot, met a lot of people, took in some of the local flavours, hopefully shared some of my thoughts and experiences and left with a whole host of new friends, ideas and potential collaborations.
We must try this in our own environment. Forget about personal issues, go ahead host a junior faculty from another institute for a week, let them interact with your junior faculty, residents and students (if anything, your staff might appreciate what you do for them more...if not, we all have room for improvement!). Enjoy a meal or two with them. Let them share their knowledge and see what their opinions are. Be a good host and humour them (as I am sure I was!). Share your experiences and thoughts. I think you'll enjoy it as will the rest of your department.
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Dr. Sunil Thomas
said:
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... Dear Dr. Aditya, All of us are looking forward to your further blogs which we hope will touch upon some of your experiences in the US and the various stumbling blocks and/or advantages which a Board Certification aspirant from India may face there. I am one of those fortunate enough to have a 1.0 Tesla Open MRI at my disposal here in the Gulf. The Musculoskeletal Imaging achievable on this machine is fantastic, since one can position each and every joint in the isocenter. Recently however, I have started doing shoulder ultrasounds and have found it to be very good at picking up rotator cuff tears. The initial referrals were to confirm bicipital tendinosis, but the associated supraspinatus/ infraspinatus tears are easily demonstrable if one knows how to position the arm appropriately! Hoping for some deeper insights into this from your side..........  |
Aditya Daftary
said:
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... Thanks much for your encouragement and kind words Sunil. As far as the 1.0 T for MRI goes, yes. You can get excellent images and do great work but you need to work with your magnet and MR applications person to get the best out of your magnet. Typically the installed sequences on machines aren't really great, which is quite evident on many scans you see when people don't tinker. As far as US for the cuff, it is fabulous and I am happy you are discovering the joys of shoulder sonography. There is considerable literature out there that puts shoulder sonography in the right hands and MRI at par when it comes to assessing the cuff. In both instances, best way to build your practice and get the most out of it...talk to the orthopods and confirm your pre-surgical calls with arthroscopy findings. Good luck! wr |
Dr. A. N. Reddy
said:
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... DR ADITHYA sir... recently i attended MUSCULISKELETAL CONFERENCE IN CHENNAI (BRACE 2009) , IN WHICH AN EXCELENT TALKS AND ENERGETIC QUIZ WAS CONDUCTED BY YOU. I ADMIRE BY YOUR SKILLED TALKS..... THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ATTENDING THE CONFERENCE..... DRANREDDY2000 |
