Summary
Hello Inès, could you introduce yourself and describe your background?
Hello, I am Dr. Ines Sara Cherrak, a specialist in radiology and medical imaging, as well as a creator of educational content on social media.
My own path was quite typical: I was among the top students in my class because I always loved to study, I always loved to learn, even if I wasn’t really the best person when it came to learning my lessons by heart, but I really liked physics, science, mathematics… which led me to medicine and then to radiology because it remains a fairly technical specialty.
As a radiologist, you can practice virtually all aspects of medicine, not just one or the other. I really enjoyed that. It’s also more of a diagnostic specialty than a therapeutic one (I’ve never been the type to like medication and all that goes with it).
Ines Sara Cherrak
Source : Sciences for Girls
How would you describe radiology in a few words?
I would describe radiology as a diagnostic specialty, but also one that complements other specialties. As our professor says, we are a service-oriented specialty: we are here to help all clinicians find a diagnosis, or at least guide them. We therefore use many modalities: ultrasound, CT scan, MRI*, and also more invasive modalities like endoscopic ultrasound*, ERCP*… to find a diagnosis, identify a pathology, and examine a patient internally without being too invasive.
*Definitions at the end of the article
Do you have a typical day or week at work?
A typical day or week in the life of a radiologist differs depending on the department you are affiliated with, but for ours it is generally one day, one story.
As I said, radiology encompasses many modalities (ultrasound, MRI, etc.), so for a week, each day you’ll be assigned to a specific modality and see your patients there. Day to day, it’s fairly typical of any job. You’re there in the morning, where we have the shift report, usually very educational, so we review the previous day’s shift and do some brief presentations or lectures, because as residents, we’re students. Then, we go to our stations and see our patients. If it’s ultrasound, there’s a lot of interaction with the patient, a clinical examination, and a clinical assessment that’s done before inserting the probe. . But, even for MRI and CT*, we will talk to the patients, we will do a little clinical examination, we will find out the patient’s history before even sitting down in our chair, opening the file and trying to interpret.
Ines Sara Cherrak
Source : Sciences for Girls
What are the most rewarding aspects of your job? And the most difficult challenges?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of this specialty is the contact with the patient. Many people have misconceptions about this: that their radiologist has no contact with the patient, when that’s absolutely not true! A good radiologist will perform a clinical examination, talk to the patient, take their medical history… I really enjoy the interaction with the patient, being able to help them, and I’ve had fantastic feedback from my patients, who feel better, who feel cured, for whom the diagnosis I made has changed their lives.
The most challenging aspect, I think, is not being able to follow up with patients. We’re still just people who order additional tests, so we don’t follow up with patients very often. Of course, some have returned to my practice, but in most cases, these are patients with whom we lose contact, and I would really like to have more follow-up with my patients.
You share your experience and advice on social media. What motivated you to start?
What motivated me to share my life and advice on social media (Instagram or TikTok) was the fact that many people, yet no one, showed me how to do it, showed me the way. I had to reinvent the wheel: I had to rediscover each time how to study, how to do this, how to do that.
I thought that, in the same way that I would have liked to find the person who answered my questions, maybe I could be the person who answers other people’s questions, maybe I could be the first stepping stone for someone, so that they can go even further than I started myself.
One of my lives on social media
Source : Sciences for Girls
Another of my lives on social media
Source : Sciences for Girls
Finally, what message would you like to convey to young girls and women who dream of pursuing careers in science or medicine?
The advice, or rather the pieces of advice, that I would really like to share with all the young girls and women who would read this is first of all that you can achieve it: no one should be able to convince you that just because you are a woman, you could not achieve this or that.
The second point is that taking care of yourself is not a waste of time: putting yourself first, prioritizing yourself is very important! You are the most important person in your life and everything else comes after.
Definitions of technical terms
- MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging): A non-invasive medical imaging technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to obtain detailed images of soft tissues, organs, and internal structures.
- Echo-endoscopy: An examination combining endoscopy and ultrasound to explore the digestive organs and adjacent structures, such as the pancreas or liver.
- ERCP (Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiography): Diagnostic and therapeutic technique for diseases of the biliary and pancreatic ducts.
- CT scan: Medical imaging using X-rays to create 2D or 3D images of anatomical structures.
Links to social networks
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ines-sara-cherrak-0963b2275/
TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@sarainescherrak
Pinterest : https://www.pinterest.com/cherraksaraines/
YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@inessaracherrak4238/shorts
