Rules of Radiology

Proudly hailing from the West Riding of Yorkshire, Paul McCoubrie qualified from St George’s Hospital Medical School, London, in 1996. A card-carrying educationalist, he was Lead RCR Anatomy Examiner and Head of Severn School of Radiology. He is currently External Examiner for the Faculty of Radiology, Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. He has been Consultant Radiologist at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, since 2004, and lives in Bristol with his wife and teenage daughters.

• Rule #1 / / Obey the Rules.- Rule #2 / / Smile .- Rule #3 / / Keep your cool.- Rule #4 / / Work hard.- Rule #5 / / Toughen Up.- Rule #6 / / Respect the machines.- Rule #7 / / Never let a clinician play radiologist .- Rule #8 / / Forgive the sins of the clinician.- Rule #9 / / Don’t be too approachable.- Rule #10 / / Be a good colleague.- Rule #11 / / Never measure anything.- Rule #12 / / Never count anything.- Rule #13 / / The default is to say ‘yes’.- Rule #14 / / Agitation is not an indication.- Rule #15 / / Always help the patient.- Rule #16 / / Be damned careful when saying an outright ‘no’.- Rule #17 / / Don’t study surrogates.- Rule #18 / / Avoid ‘interesting’ cases.- Rule #19 / / Beware the ‘fit 90 year old’.- Rule #20 / / Counteract misjudgement.- Rule #21 / / There is no such thing as a radiological emergency.- Rule #22 / / If you feel resistance, stop pushing.- Rule #23 / / Use words carefully.- Rule #24 / / Brevity is king.- Rule #25 / / Ditch the stethoscope.- Rule #26 / /CT is easy.- Rule #27 / / Don’t answer the phone.- Rule #28 / / Stay safe the easy way.- Rule #29 / / Get off the fence.- Rule #30 / / Don’t pick fights.- Rule #31 / / Beware the ‘good’ case.- Rule #32 / / Don’t fret about complications.- Rule #33 / / We are not the business of exclusion.- Rule #34 / / Trust your clinical instincts.- Rule #35 / / If you have to fail, fail safely.- Rule #36 / / Take clinical details with a pinch of salt.- Rule #37 / / Don’t crap on juniors.- Rule #38 / / Aggressive clinicians need your help.- Rule #39 / / Know loads.- Rule #40 / / Never offer to eat your pants.- Rule #41 / / Radiologists don't wear suede shoes.-Rule #42 / / Never investigate on the day of discharge.- Rule #43 / / Only give clinicians 15 seconds.- Rule #44 / / You can never know too much anatomy.-Rule #45 / / Be careful with "limited" or "quick" studies.- Rule #46 / / Image quality is up to the radiologist.- Rule #47 / / It is never a chordoma.- Rule #48 / / Reporting rooms should be pitch black.- Rule #49 / / Don't touch the screens.- Rule #50 / / Error is inherent to radiology.

“The book will inevitably appeal mainly to radiologists and their trainees, or to people who have a spouse, partner or child who is aspires to become one. All the same, there is at least one good reason GPs might be interested in it – apart from its arresting style of writing and sense of humour.” (John Launer, bjgplife.com, December 21, 2021)“McCoubrie has managed to channel this compulsion into the production of a readable, witty tome with pearls of wisdom gleaned from years of experience, a tome that would be profitably read by us all.” (Arpan Banerjee, RAD Magazine, July, 2021)“This book deals with the pressures and challenges of work, not only the work that we, various specialists, carry out but the more complex business of working in teams, personal relations, and group dynamics. A very good read for many reasons and one that can give us a new perspective.” (Eric Watts, The Association of Clinical Pathologists, ACP news, April, 2021)“It looks at many complex aspects of radiology practice, analyzes the reasons why these can be troubling or successful, and it advises on how we should approach them. Many years ago, when I worked on another continent, a colleague suggested that a copy of the radiology billing codes should be kept in the smallest room of the house … . This book is much more appropriate reading in that location -- and much more fun.” (Adrian Brady, AuntminnieEurope.com, March 25, 2021)