As soon as I came back to Germany I had my new rotation
waiting for me; radiology. As a physics
major in undergrad, I really liked the concept of radiology. Using x-rays, magnetic fields, and other
physical phenomenon for medical purposes is fascinating to me. So it was no surprise to me to be interested
in the field of radiology. Though the
physics behind the field is interesting, I was weary of the mundane tasks that
I might have to do. Staring at a
computer screen all day wasn’t something I would call fun. Nonetheless, I did not have experience in the
field and was willing to explore it. My schedule was broken up into four 1-week
blocks as follows; a week of X-ray, CT scan, MRI, ultrasound.
My first two weeks were in the Medizinische Klinik. The
radiology reading room was definitely something that I did not expect. A large room with a skylight, albeit with
shade to avoid sun glare, lighten up fairly well. There were several computer
stations with large vertical high-resolution monitors that were used by the
radiologist. As in anesthesia, the bulk of the work was done by the
Assistantaerzten. The X-ray department had a senior “resident” who signed off
on the junior residents’ radiographs. The interesting thing was that a senior with
4 years or radiology experience could be considered a junior in the x-ray
department because he did not rotate through the department enough yet. In all the system is set up so that the
residents have to have a certain number of images that they have read and
transcribed. A computer system keeps
track of all the reads, though the residents must personally keep track of what
modality of images they have read (X-ray, CT, MRI…etc.) Most rotations are done in 6 month
blocks. This makes its interesting when
a 3rd year resident might be rotating into a CT scan rotation for
the first time.
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| Computer for pulling up images, laptop for writing down results |
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| A senior resident flanked by two junior x-ray residents |
The first day I became acquainted with my colleagues as well
as reading x-rays. After the next day, I started to read them on my own,
providing an oral report to a junior resident who would then write a full
report. Of course my German language skills made for some difficulties in
interpreting the images. What I might identify in English, I had not yet
mastered in German. Writing was even more difficult, as this was not simple
German to converse with, but medical speak. In spite of these difficulties I
enjoyed my time there.
CT was rather different as there was only one dedicated CT
scan reader. Unfortunately this made it
difficult to read images on my own, both due to lack of other computer
stations, and the increase complexity of the images. As stated in a previous
post, Heidelberg has very complex patients that it treats. Many were there post
surgeries with anatomies not easily understandable. Even so, I did get to read images
on my own and write my own mini-reports, though only in English.
There was a funny thing that happened during the
rotation. Around 11am one of my
residents calls me up and says we have to go celebrate. I was totally confused. “What are we celebrating?”
I thought. We went into the lounge area,
and sure enough were champagne glasses filled with bubbly, and donuts. Two
colleagues of theirs had passed their boards and this was celebratory break.
Have to say, I never experienced anything like this in the USA, nor do I think
this would ever be allowed. Everyone had
a glass, chatted a little, and then simply went back to work; such an odd
experience.
I also had an embarrassing experience there as well. On the last day of the two weeks in the
Medizinische Klinik I brought in Russian waffle cakes that my wife had
made. The department head was walking
around and saying Hi to everyone. I had
met him earlier and he seemed very friendly.
I was sitting in a corner reading CT scans when he came around and asked
me a question in German. In my surprise
of being asked a question in German and seeing the department head I did not
understand what he said except for one word, “mitnehmen” which means to take
with. In my panic I thought he wanted me
to take my computer with me somewhere, ie to move out of the station. To my horror, he starts motioning me to sit
down and starts to laugh and ask in English.
He was asking if he could take a Russian waffle cake with him. I embarrassingly said yes and sat back down. Embarrassing myself in front of the
department head was simply too much.
My next two weeks took place in the Chirurgische Klinik, the
same building as my anesthesia rotation.
I spent the next week side by side the radiology resident reading the
MRIs as they came in. Although my
resident was nice, this was the most boring of all the rotations. I did not have the ability to read the MRI’s
by myself due to limited computers, and lack of images. It was complicated by the fact that my
resident was utterly embarrassed by her English, which made things harder to
understand especially for concepts that I had not previously heard in German.
However I did learn a lot, and even got to have a scan of my shoulder! (A torn
labrum that I was already aware of clinically though never had scans before
done on it.)
The last week was the most fun. I spent time in the
ultrasound department. In the mornings
we would scan the patients in the ICU and intermediate care units. Afterwards
would have outpatients come in for scans.
My residents were great about pushing me to scan images on my own and
report my findings to them. I was the most comfortable with this rotation as
both I had plenty to occupy my time with and I got to interact with patients
more. I even got to use my Russian! Though translating from Russian to German
through my English mind became rather tough. I learned the most during this
block and had a lot of fun too!
Everyone was very receptive in the field and were great to
be around. I did notice that people that
go into this field are the same in Germany and in the US. They tend to be more reserved, smart, and not
as socially active. I guess medical fields
do cross international boarders too!
