Routes to a Career in Paediatric Interventional Radiology

There are several paths to a career in paediatric interventional radiology, and there are a few ways of practising paediatric intervention within different types of consultant post.  As a trainee, your main options are:

1. Paediatric subspecialty training plus a fellowship in paediatric interventional radiology.   This route gives you options of being able to apply for jobs with diagnostic commitments or pure paediatric interventional jobs.
2. Interventional subspecialty /Fellowship training with an interest in paediatric intervention.  The opportunities for exposure to paediatric intervention may vary according to the training scheme, and this interest may be developed either during training or after training within a consultant role.  This route most commonly leads to a predominantly interventional job, which may be purely paediatric, or adult IR with a paeds interest
3. Diagnostic radiology training with some interventional experience.   Some diagnostic radiologists (paediatric or general with paediatric interest) will be able to provide a limited service.

UK training opportunities:

Great Ormond Street Hospital offers a subspecialty training/Fellowship position specifically in paediatric interventional radiology.  To my knowledge, this is the only paediatric IR-specific training post in the UK.  Applications usually open around a year before the post commences.  This post has been undertaken by both pre- and post-CCT trainees i.e. may be undertaken as a 5th or 6th year of training.

Training opportunities abroad:

Sick Kids Toronto offer a Paediatric IR Fellowship.  These are very popular Fellowships and tend to be secured 3 years in advance.  In general, trainees undertake these fellowships as an additional year of training.

Other North American children’s hospitals offering Paediatric Interventional Radiology fellowships include Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Boston, Cincinnati and Texas.

Other Fellowships:

General interventional fellowships may also offer suitable training as many of the required skills are transferable from adult IR.

Some training schemes/paediatric diagnostic fellowships in the UK and abroad may offer some interventional exposure to interested fellows.

Further information:

• Society for Pediatric Interventional Radiology (annual meeting 2015 will be held in London this October along with a pre-conference teaching course on central venous access in children- see website for further details)
• Royal College of Radiologists document ‘Improving paediatric interventional radiology services- an intercollegiate report’, September 2017
• Great Ormond Street Hospital Interventional Radiology website
• Sick Kids Toronto Fellowships website
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia website