Notes of a Radiology Watcher

The Radiology Department is a pivotal part of any acute and/or comprehensive health care facility. The radiologist can no longer just “hide out” there. Matters of imaging are often public concerns, larger in scope than just the scheduling and managing of a series of image tests. Rather radiology is expensive, often intrusive and in some areas earnestly and endlessly controversial. A radiologist must be attuned to these often confounding contingencies. Two recent developments in the monitoring of education of radiologists can be impacted by the content of this book. For trainees in Radiology, and for that matter, for all trainees in every medical specialty in the U.S., a new accreditation system (NAS) has been put into place under the impetus and aegis of the ACGME, the Accreditation Committee for Graduate Medical Education, the body responsible for graduate medical evaluation and oversight in the U.S. Among its many innovations, the NAS curriculum is concerned with knowledge acquired about social and economic issues pertinent to each specialty. It is also focused on improving communication skills and about enhancing quality and safety. In the elaboration of “milestones” for residency education in these issues are codified into focused initiatives that must be addressed by each trainee as he or she advances in capability and seniority within the training interval.

Table of Contents:
Part I: Early Residency – Preparation and Participation.- 1. Centralized Interviews for Prospective Radiology Residents.- 2. A Critique of the Transitional Internship.- 3. Looking Back at the Value of the Internship.- 4. Radiology Residents - Internship Survey.- 5. The Debt Crisis and Radiology.- 6. Radiology Residency Positions – Growth, Distribution and California.- 7. Radiology Resident Recruitment – Robustness in an Uncertain Environment.- 8. Radiology Residencies – Disasters and Preparedness.- Part II: Late Residency, Fellowship and Just Beyond.- 9. Reorganizing the Fourth Year, Part I.- 10. Reorganizing the Fourth Year, Part II.- 11. Reorganizing the Fourth Year, Part III.- 12. Are We Losing the Certification Wars?.- 13. The Trouble with Fellowships.- 14. The Changing Board Exam Schedule in the U.S. – Will General Radiologists and Emergency Radiologists Become Synonymous?.- 15. Bubble Trouble.- 16. Regulation Without Representation.- Part III: Radiology Elsewhere in the World.- 17. O.E.C.D. Health Data – Where does the US stack up?.- 18. Characteristics of Radiology Training Programs In Europe In Comparison With Those In The United States.- 19. Japan – A Country With A Currently Successful Radiology Model Of Health Care.- 20. Radiology in Cuba – A Different Path With Fewer Resources And More Compulsion.- 21. Geography and Radiology – Perfect Together .- Part IV: Radiologist Inclusiveness – Minority Features.- 22. Who Will be the New Radiologist? – A 2012 Assessment.- 23. Women in Radiology.- 24. South Asians in Radiology in the United States, Part I.- 25. South Asians in Radiology in the United States, Part II.- Part V – The Appearances and Implications of the Radiology Report.- 26. Towards More Literate Reports – Avoiding Words and Phrases You Should Not Say.- 27. The Radiology Report.- 28. More Jargon.- 29. Anything is Possible so is Possible Anything.- 30. The RadiologyReport – the Value of the Impression.- 31. Metaphors in Radiology.- 32. Metaphors – Redux.- 33. Electronic Health Records and Expectations of the Transformation of the Work of Radiologists.- 34. Telling Patients Results.- Part VI: Radiologist Responsibilities.- 35. Fallacies in Reasoning, Part 1.- 36. Fallacies in Reasoning, Part 2.- 37. We Are Radiologists: What Business Are We In?.- 38. Communication vs. Consultation – Two Duties We Must Pursue.- Part VII: Quality Considerations.- 39. Quality- Metrics in Radiology.- 40. Quality- Measures in Radiology.- 41. Quality - Initiatives You Should Know But You May Not Have Heard About.- 42. Quality- Some Simple Things You Might Change.- Part VIII: Malpractice Apology and Appropriateness.- 43. U.S. Medical Malpractice: Some Data-Driven Facts.- 44. Malpractice Suits Against Radiologists.- 45. Radiology Malpractice: The Demography of Medical Malpractice Regarding Radiology.- 46. Apology: Its Elements and Legal Intrusions.- 47. Is it Appropriate to Have Appropriateness Criteria for Radiology Testing?.- 48. Authorization or Appropriateness or the Lady or the Tiger Redux.- Part IX: Opportunities for Radiologists.- 49. Teleradiology – From the Confines of Place to the Freedom of Space.- 50. Medical Tourism, Opportunities for American Radiologists.- 51. Geriatric Radiology A Proto-Manifesto.- 52. Self-Referral Remedies.- Part X: The Challenges Facing American Radiologists.- 53. The Radiologist Assistant – Do We Need This Job Title.- 54. Challenges to Radiology from Below, Astride, and Afar.- 55. The Coming Revolution in Radiology: Beware and Prepare.- 56. Teleradiology and GATS- An-800lb Gorilla Down the Hall.- 57. Commodity Policy and the Vulnerability of Radiology.- 58. Radiologists and The Press.- 59. Will the Job Market for Radiologists Remain Grim? A Contrarian Perspective – A 2013 Assessment.- 60. American Radiologists at a Crossroad.- Part XI: Research.- 61.Peer Review – Peering Over Our Shoulder.- 62. Peer Review – Innovations and Ethical Issues.- 63. Electronic Publishing – A Boon or a Bugbear.- 64. The Tendentious Tendency in Radiology Clinical Research.- Part XII - Radiation Dose.- 65. Radiation Dose – A Primer of Units and Limits.- 66. CT–ER-Dose and Cost and What To Do About It.- 67. Radiation Dose Redux.- 68. CT Techniques: Risk and Challenges – Who Will Control Radiology?.- 69. CT Utilization and Thyroid Cancer – Is There a Connection?.- 70. MR Safety - Another Look.- Part XIII: Nooks and Crannies in General Radiology Including Some Forgotten Observations.- 71. From Nipple Shadows to Bullet Holes.- 72. Pelvic Phleboliths.- 73. Eponymous Abdominal Hernias, Part I.- 74. Eponymous Abdominal Hernias, Part II.- 75. Other Radiology Bits and Pieces of Lore.- 76. It Ain’t What You Don’t Know, It’s What You Do Know that Ain’t So.- 77. Illicit Drug Transport.- 78. The Spleen – The Forgotten Organ, Is there Anything To Say?.- 79. Acute Pancreatitis – What and When is There Room for Imaging in the Diagnosis.

About the Author :
Stephen R. Baker, M.D. 2660 Deer Path Scotch Plains, NJ 07076 Department of Radiology UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School 150 Bergen Street Newark NJ 07103 bakersr@umdnj.edu

Review :
From the book reviews: “Baker covers many areas of modern radiological practice including professional training, the role of the radiologist, malpractice, radiation dose and contemporary challenges. I particularly enjoyed the section on the radiology report. … This book is warmly recommended, to read at odd moments. We will benefit from his wisdom.” (Adrian Thomas, RAD Magazine, January, 2015) “Notes of a Radiology Watcher by Prof. Stephen Baker is a collection of discursive yet precise essays on the state, solutions and impressions of the radiology profession. … Any radiologist will find this a readable and thought-provoking publication.” (Health Management, Vol. 14 (1), 2014)