Radiology?...or Mere Radiodiagnosis

About 30 years ago....
I vividly recall a professional examination in internal medicine in which the examiner posed the following essay question: "Write an essay on the use of radiology in medicine".

In answering the question, I had found the need to first break down radiology into radiodiagnosis and radiotherapy... and why not...when such clear deleanation was made to the said departments in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital where I trained?

I then went through the whole gamut of the use of straight xrays for bone injuries, chest xrays for thoracic problems including the rib cage, the cardiac borders and lungs.

I also dwelt on invasive procedures using mainly iodine markers in contrast studies...angiograms...including arteriograms, venograms, lymphograms....sialograms....intravenous pyelograms, micturiting cystograms, excretory cystourethrograms.

I went further...talking about barium studies...swallow, meal, meal and follow -through. Oral cholecystograms, intravenous choleangeograms, percutaneous transhepatic choleangiograms, endoscopic retrograde choleangiopancreatograms...

I should have stopped here if I only knew that the examiner was not trying to test my intelligence!

So, I went still further to talk about radiotherapy... intracavitatory cesium insertion, use of xrays, gamma rays, etc for treatment of radio-sensitive cancers. I even talked about Geiger counters and I131 uptake.

All a mere waste of time and effort. Or was it? Perhaps a mere case of examiner and examinee not flowing at same levels? Or the candidate over-understanding the question beyond the scope of his examiner?

But you see, the tendency to succumb to such appellations is a global one....done most times under the guise of "convention"! Residents at the radiodiagnosis department train up as "radiologists " even though they have scant knowledge of radiotherapy. Consultant radiologists are mere radio-diagnosticians as their primary domain is not the radiotherapy department!

And so I ask...
Why radiology?
Why not merely radiodiagnosis?
Of course, most of the quoted investigations are now obsolete...as radiology...or radiodiagnosis...is now within the realms of computed axial tomography (CT scan), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), radionuclide imaging (RNI), ultrasonography and the like...

Dr Tosin Akindele is a medical practitioner and public affairs analyst.