Nuclear Physician Interview Questions & Answers

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physical contact leaving a deposit of radioactive material on a surface, matter, or person. The contaminated person is irradiated as long as the active matter has not been eliminated or the radioactivity has not fully decayed naturally.

In short, yes. While some other specialties make more and others make less, I am able to pay my bills and start to pay off my medical student loans and home mortgage.

non-radioactive precursor of a radiopharmaceutical containing all the elements that enable this medication to be reconstituted almost instantaneously, simply by adding a radionuclide solution.

Yes, absolutely. Not only do I get to think about physiology, physics, math and chemistry daily, but I also get to spend time with patients.

unit of radioactivity equal to one (1) disintegration per second. The Becquerel replaces the former curie unit, one curie being the equivalent of 37 billion Becquerel.

It's common for Medical Professionals to travel and cover between medical centers. Be clear during your interview if you are able to relocate or travel within a 30-mile radius. Answering this question stating you are not willing to relocate isn't necessarily a deal breaker. Be honest and see if you can negotiate with the interviewer.

reduction in the degree of radioactivity over the course of time.

(β+) (beta-plus radiation): a particle emitted by a radioisotope and formed from a positively charged electron (positron), an unstable anti-electron, which when it meets a negatively charged electron is annihilated to emit two gamma photons that move in exactly opposite directions and are therefore usable in imaging.

physician who specializes in the practice of diagnostic radiology

Demonstrates the ability to apply general radiology techniques.

the study and measurement of absorbed radiation.

This is a difficult question. If I were going to have to pick a surprise, it would be how much I enjoyed my first two years that were mainly physiology. While the last two years were great too, it was hard to find one specialty I liked more than the other, until I came upon nuclear medicine.

Shows experience using medical imaging equipment.

Choosing the medical school I attended was easy. The University of Washington School of Medicine in one of the top medical schools in the country and has good access to both rural and urban medicine. Additionally, they have many professors who are world-renowned and who place an emphasis on sound teaching.

Nuclear medicine is a field that holds a lot of promise for the future. I’m very excited about the possibility of precision (aka personalized) medicine. Knowing about physiology, biochemistry and physics, we can make a lot of strides toward minimally invasive therapies for a number of pathologic conditions, imaging them to see how the therapy is working and modifying therapy as needed. This may sound a bit like Star Trek, but things like this are happening now and are very exciting.

allied health care professional who works with physicians in the fields of radiology and nuclear medicine

cross-sectional imaging (usually with X-rays) allowing three-dimensional reconstruction.

Tests patient management skills.

☛ Tell about yourself and why you think you're successful nuclear medicine physician?
☛ Why do you like to work as nuclear medicine physician?
☛ What could you don't like to work as nuclear medicine physician?
☛ What are your future steps after experience you'll gain from your nuclear medicine physician job?
☛ As nuclear medicine physician, what training courses or extra education that you think will improve your work performance?
☛ What salary do you expect you'll get from being nuclear medicine physician employee?

I am fortunate enough to be very involved with professional societies. I serve on the board of directors of the American College of Nuclear Medicine (ACNM) and am editor of the ACNM newsletter. As a resident I was president of the Nuclear Medicine Resident Organization (NMRO), which is under the auspices of the ACNM. This is a great organization and allows for mentoring, networking, educational opportunities and many other exciting things.
The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) is another big part of my life. I currently serve as the Academic Council intern and am developing educational materials for lung scintigraphy in the form of a basic module for V/Q scans and an LLSAP module (a kind of CME required after board certification). I also had the great honor of doing the first Robert E. Henkin government relations fellowship and am now a part of the government relations committee; I find this very rewarding and look forward to continued participation. The coding and reimbursement committee is something that I started serving on while a resident—I found this quite useful since as a medical student and resident we don’t get much education on the business side of medicine and how payment actually works—it’s fascinating and aggravating at the same time. It’s most aggravating when someone needs something that has plenty of good data behind it and her or his insurance doesn’t approve it. I also serve as an officer in the Young Professionals section of SNMMI. We hope to help advance the field and garner awareness of nuclear medicine.

Nuclear medicine can be entered into in various ways. In my opinion the best way is the way that offers the highest amount of dedicated training in nuclear medicine: preliminary year (internal medicine, surgery or transitional year) followed by a three-year nuclear medicine residency. Other considerations include completing an internal medicine residency and then continuing on to a two-year NM residency. Or, finally, one can complete a radiology residency and go on to do a one-year NM fellowship. Since NM is a field that is always changing, more training is better. That being said, finding a job in purely NM is very challenging, requires a lot of networking as a resident and immense amounts of determination. Nonetheless, it’s quite possibly one of the most rewarding specialties around.

A typical day at work for me usually starts at 8 a.m., but some tumor conferences start at 7 or 7:30 a.m. At 8 a.m., along with my colleagues, I go over the “overnight cases” that were read by the residents and have an opportunity to discuss with them what questions they may have. From around 9 to 10 a.m., we wait for the radiopharmaceuticals to localize in our patients and for them to be imaged: we can only go as fast as our patients’ physiology. While we wait, we teach technologist students, work on research or work on administrative things.
After 10 to 10:30 a.m. or so, images start rolling in and need to be read. During this time I will review the findings with the residents or fellows. In the event that we have radionuclide therapy patients, I will review radiation safety precautions with them and anyone else in their household. I enjoy putting to rest bad information from the Internet and putting the patients at ease. Work continues until somewhere between 5:30 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. We are also open for business (mostly inpatients) on Saturday and Sunday; those days are usually quite a bit shorter.

Shows continuous training and professional development.

I have the ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand, tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem, read and understand information and ideas presented in writing, combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events), listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

Tests knowledge of safety protocols.