Radiopaedia Blog: Blog

You may have noticed that some links in Radiopaedia are grey (dead) rather than blue (active). They indicate a link to a not-yet-existing article; as soon as it is written that article turns blue and is correctly linked. 

Over the last month or so we challenged our editors to write 5 new articles each hence turning many grey links blue. 

At the end of this project, it's not just fifty grey-shaded links that changed color. Collectively a staggering 115 new articles were created by our editors. A special note of appreciation goes to Craig Hacking who contributed 54 new articles alone, Frank Gaillard (11), Andrew Murphy (10), and Vincent Tatco (7).

Here are just a few: 

• ameloblastic fibro-odontoma - Pir Abdul Ahad Aziz
• normal pediatric imaging examples - Ian Bickle
• ligament of Treitz - Yair Glick
• phenytoin cerebellar degeneration - Frank Gaillard
• tibioperoneal trunk - Craig Hacking
• mediastinum (ITMIG classification) - Henry Knipe
• cervical enlargement - Owen Kang
• single contrast barium enema - Matt Morgan
• windowing (CT) - Andrew Murphy
• incidental findings on trauma CT - Vikas Shah
• double switch procedure - Vincent Tatco

We hope to have inspired our fellow radiology-minded professionals to also contribute new articles. So next time you see a grey link and realize that article is yet to be written, feel free to fade away some grey links yourself.

Have a look at our instructions if you don't know where to start. Our community is there to help and expand whatever you start out with.

Starting as a first year radiology trainee can be daunting: it’s a new job in a new department and possibly in a new hospital.

You will have previously been exposed to medical imaging during your medical training and first years as a doctor on the wards. However, now you get to experience radiology from a whole new perspective. You’ll be asked a new set of questions: what protocol should we use? what rate should we be injecting the contrast? can we still give contrast if their creatinine is...? are you happy with the images?

Here are our top 5 tips to survive your first few months of radiology training:

The radiology department is a foreign land to new registrars. In a large department, there may be over 100 radiographers and they’ll be asking you questions in what will appear to be a foreign language. As it turns out, it is a foreign language, but one you’ll pick up with surprising ease! Don’t be afraid to ask the questions you need to ask to deliver safe patient care, and never be afraid to ask for supervision when you’re asked to do a procedure you haven’t done before, or feel unsure about.

Radiology isn’t just about sitting at a computer and reporting. There are a whole heap of things that happen in every radiology department: never done (or even heard of) that procedure before - talk to your supervising consultant, roll your sleeves up, scrub in and get involved overhear someone talking about a case that sounds interesting - go and have a look don't understand what the sonographer is showing you - go and help scan the patient don't understand what the clinician wants to know - get to a clinical-radiology meeting and speak to the clinicians

Don’t fall into the trap of becoming a stereotypical radiologist - get involved and engaged in your department and in the hospital as a whole.

The sheer volume of knowledge that needs to be attained in the first couple of months is huge - and that’s just to survive the day-to-day activities of being in the department, let alone studying for exams. The amount of learning you’ll need to do seems like an unattainable mountain to climb, but that’s why the radiology training programme is not just 1 year, it’s at least 5... and well really, you should never stop learning.

Put aside a bit of time to do some reading about what you’re not sure about from each day. It may be related to anatomy or physics, or about how to approach an imaging study or a specific pathology. Spending 5 minutes extra reporting a study so you can read up on Radiopaedia.org is worthwhile.

You may be the only registrar starting in your department or you might be part of a larger group. Make a concerted effort to get to know your colleagues and not just the other registrars. Consultants are surprisingly friendly in most radiology departments. Getting to know the radiographers, technologists and support staff will make your life enormously easier, especially when you start on-call.

Radiology has a reputation to outsiders as a “lifestyle speciality” and yes, the hours aren’t as long as many of the surgical specialties. However, night shifts spent reporting a myriad of polytrauma studies with neurosurgeons breathing down your neck can be challenging.

You’ll most likely find the first six months tough - getting used to a new job, a foreign language to learn and a lot of study. But it will go by in a flash and you will soon appreciate what a great specialty radiology is.

We’d love to hear what your most important tips for surviving first year are. Please leave your comments below.

Good luck! 

It's that time of year again and applications are open for the section editor 2014 positions.

Section editors are the guiding hand behind the collaborative effort of creating the largest online radiology resource on the web. As a section editor, you shape your section and maintain a high standard of content.

Being a section editor can take as little as 1 to 2 hours a week, and looks great on your CV. Your name will remain listed in the previous editors section, so that your contribution will be remembered.

• duration: ideally 12 months
• eligibility
  • accredited radiology registrar/resident or above
  • active member - the number and quality of prior contributions are a factor in selecting section editors (they also help you become familiar with the structure and workings of the site)
• role
  • maintaining and organizing your section 
  • reviewing new additions for links and content
  • contributing new articles and improvements of existing articles
  • participating in discussions with other editors with regard to site-wide issues
  • encouraging and providing feedback to new contributors as well as moderating new case and article contributions
  • actively promoting Radiopaedia.org

Being a section editor is rewarding, is a great way to study / revise and makes a noticeable addition to your CV. You also make connections with contemporaries from around the world, which, as many of the current editors will attest to, is one of the most enjoyable aspects of this community.

To apply, email a copy of your CV and a list of the sections you are interested in editing to [email protected]. Please include your Radiopaedia.org username, so that we can review your profile and previous contributions.

It has been a long time coming, but finally we have blog.

This will be the place were you get to hear about a whole bunch of stuff. Not only will there be special cases and quizes but also posts about any new features we are working on, and some tips about how to use existing features. Best of all, because (like any other blog) you have the ability to comment, we hope you will join in the discussion and help us make the site even better. 

I look forward to sharing thoughts and content in the near future.