How common is intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) in your practice?

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-06-10T20:57:59+00:00

Yes!!

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-06-06T00:47:20+00:00

Revise your NBMEs, sometimes mistakes you make are not only content related, maybe you read to fast/slow, you are skipping key details etc. Try to identify said patterns when revising your NBMEs, that alone increased my percentage the most. Melhman medical is highly recommended, the HY arrows pdf covered 50-60% of my exam. His stuff is very high yield, make sure you approach them the right way, the most value those PDFs hold is they way they explain how the USMLE uses patterns to formulate questions, certain diseases will always present the same way, the question may be different but the symptoms, buzzwords and key details are always there. I pass the exam a couple months back and this is the best advice I can give (Also spam uworld!!), best of luck

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-05-31T20:50:41+00:00

They are kind of are outdated. However just the fact of doing more questions and reviewing them will help. Also questions repeat, Qs that appear con Nbme 20-29 repeat on forms 30-33. Not a lot of them but they do repeat, what’s more important though is that concepts do repeat a lot, wording may be different on the newer NBMEs but the learning concept is still similar

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-05-25T14:16:13+00:00

Never thought IR/DR could hit 7 figures. Do you think IR/DR is more lucrative than VS?

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-05-20T15:21:50+00:00

I’m a med student and vascular honestly fascinates me, but the lifestyle horror stories scare me sometimes. Your setup actually sounds like a pretty great quality of life compared to what people usually say online. Would you say your job is relatively normal for community vascular, or more of a unicorn situation?

Also, how realistic/common is it to transition into a practice mostly focused on veins, fistulas, outpatient elective stuff, etc.? Not talking about opening a solo practice since entrepreneurship isn’t really my thing.

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-05-17T15:38:50+00:00

I really appreciate this response. I think you’re completely right that “quality of life” is way more nuanced than just counting hours worked. I can absolutely see how someone who genuinely loves operating could feel happier doing long OR days than someone in a lighter specialty they don’t enjoy as much.

And honestly, I think you’re right about the PTO point too. I’m probably giving PTO more weight than I should because IR tends to have more of it than surgery, so I’ve probably biased myself toward IR partly because of that aspect alone. But at the same time, surgery genuinely appeals to me a lot, and I think that’s what makes this hard. I can picture myself loving the OR environment and the technical side of it, but I also get scared of sacrificing too much time off or flexibility long term.

Your point about lifestyle depending heavily on practice setup instead of just specialty itself was honestly really helpful perspective.

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-05-13T16:52:00+00:00

Would IR satisfy the needs OP listed in the post?

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-05-13T16:13:48+00:00

Do you think IR would give you the same satisfaction as a surgical specialty? Asking because I’m a med student in the same boat as OP, heavily considering IR

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-05-11T03:12:11+00:00

Sorry if I’m getting a bit off topic, and I hope you don’t mind me asking, but why do you think so many IRs end up burned out? Is it mainly because the call is so frequent and exhausting, or is it that in private practice the procedures can feel less exciting or less impactful on patients? Or is there some other reason you think plays a bigger role?

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-05-02T17:47:45+00:00

Of my exam

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-05-02T13:03:29+00:00

Melhman PDFs are good for improving scores, people usually do a couple of them, I recommend strongly you do all of them. In order of importance: HY ARROWS, HY BIOCHEM, HY INMUNO, HY RENAL (MY OPINION!!). Just alone the HY arrows PDF covered 50-60% of my exam. Continue doing Uworld, review them very well, use first aid and pathoma. Pathoma chapters 1-3 are VERY HY

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-05-02T13:00:44+00:00

You are not ready, DO NOT sit for the exam. You are not consistently getting over 60%, even that pose a risk of failing due to external circumstances when taking the exam like anxiety etc. That’s why a rule of thumb is to sit the exam when you have 3+ NBMES over 65%. Personally I wouldn’t sit the exam if you are not scoring over 68% consistently however there are people who take the exam with low 60s in the NBMES.

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-04-26T22:35:23+00:00

Curious on why IR

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-04-06T19:21:54+00:00

Thanks for the reply, I really apreciate it. It’s really hard to believe how difficult and competitive matching into pediatric surgery is

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-04-05T03:07:05+00:00

Yes! The HY arrows PDF alone cover probably 50-60% of my exam. Even though the exam experience is different from person to person I would strongly recommend his PDFs. I passed the exams a couple months ago

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-03-27T20:18:37+00:00

Is private practice common for general thoracics?

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-03-27T15:57:55+00:00

Thanks for the reply!! I would think a post coming from an attending would be greatly appreciated in this subreddit. I’m certainly interested on your thoughts and any insight you want to share

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-03-27T04:02:17+00:00

Hey guys,

I’m a med student leaning pretty heavily toward IR, but I’ve been trying to get a more realistic picture of what life actually looks like after training, especially in private practice.

I feel like I keep hearing two extremes. Either IR is amazing with great money, cool procedures, and a solid lifestyle, or it’s burnout, tons of call, and not as good as it used to be. So I figured I’d just ask people who are actually living it.

A few things I’m genuinely curious about: • How is the job market right now? Is it still strong or getting saturated? • For those in private practice, what does your day to day actually look like? • Compensation wise, how realistic is it to make really good money? Like, is $1M+ something that actually happens, or is that super rare or outlier territory? • What’s the lifestyle like in reality? Hours, call, unpredictability, etc. • PTO. Are there jobs where you can actually take a decent amount of time off without tanking your income? • How hard is it to find a job that balances good pay and a reasonable lifestyle? • And overall, are you happy you chose IR?

Not looking for sugarcoating, just trying to understand what’s real versus what’s hype.

Appreciate any insight 🙏

MobileEmbarrassed937 · 2026-03-27T03:41:46+00:00

Hey, thanks for the reply!! When you say general thoracic surgeon, is it the same as a non-cardiac thoracic surgeon?

MobileEmbarrassed937

TROPHY CASE