Interventional Radiology is a subspecialty of radiology that provides minimally-invasive therapies to treat a variety of diseases with less risk and recovery time than open surgery. To learn more about this field and other aspects of radiology, we spoke with Diagnostic Radiology and Vascular and Interventional Radiology subspecialist, Caleb R. Rivera, M.D.
Q: What inspired you to go into Radiology?
I had a mentor in residency who was an Interventional Radiologist. He was great at showing me how much we could do to both diagnose and treat patients. I found that it was a great mix of using your brain to figure out the puzzles of medicine, and also an avenue to treat several types of disease processes. I was also excited that radiology is a field where new things with imaging and image-guided procedures are discovered yearly. We don't always know what is around the corner, but I have a good idea that it will involve imaging and radiology.
Q: Aside from the pandemic, of course, what do you find most challenging in this field today?
The business challenges are really related to recruiting quality radiologists. On the clinical side, it’s finding the balance between when to introduce new technologies to our community and when to wait on those new technologies to get more refined. There is always something new – we just need to make sure it’s something good and new.
Q: Are there new technologies you are using now or see on the horizon that you find especially fascinating or exciting?
The most exciting thing about radiology is the new technologies coming, and there will definitely be more AI in the field of radiology. We already have some of it in our practice. With all of the new ideas being investigated is hard to know what will truly come to fruition, but the prospects are exciting.
Q: What are you hoping to see in the future of the industry?
The biggest thing will be related to costs. As healthcare costs skyrocket, we need to be sure we are doing the right exams on patients and avoiding useless ones. That is one of the downfalls of technology: the imaging is so good now that it's very easy to just order a test even though the suspicion may be low that there is really a problem with a patient. It's a fine line – doctors don't want to miss things, but the indiscriminate use of imaging does cost the system lots of money. That's a really tough problem.
Q: If there is anything else you would like to share that is specific to your experience in this field, please do!
Radiology has been a great choice for me. I ended up in a great practice with great partners. It brings plenty of ups and downs as well. Sadness comes when you read studies that obviously show a cancer that is undiagnosed and I know it is going to change someone's life. But the highs also come when treating a patient and in a follow-up appointment they report feeling so much better. So, like all of medicine, there are plenty of ups and downs, but radiology is a great field, where we get to directly help both patients (especially me, as an Interventional Radiologist) as well as other clinicians. It's a good feeling to be able to call a clinician colleague and let them know an answer to a question they have about a patient. It is very rewarding.
For more information about Dr. Rivera, please click here
