Radiologist or not?

[mizfiesta]

I met a man recently who told me he was a Radiologist and specialised in the musculoskeletal system. He said he was not involved in diagnosing and worked for a company who provided radiology service to healthboards (?). To cut a long story short, after a while I had a feeling he wasn't telling me the truth. He never appeared to go out to work like ordinary people and said most of his work was done from home - conference calls and the like. Anyway I got fed up with this nagging doubt I had been having so decided to confront him. I had been through some college work years ago involving basic human anatomy and also completed a module in medical terminology so I asked him to name the bones in your fingers (phalanges) and he couldn't tell me. I then pointed to my jaw bone and asked him for the medical name for that (lower mandible) and again he drew a blank. He said he hadn't used this stuff for a while and couldn't tell me off the top of his head! Surely anyone with any basic medical knowledge, never mind a radiologist, should have been able to tell me this?? Feedback appreciated. Is it me that's going mad?

[Sqad]

prof......LOL. excellent postings.

If he was a Radiologist, which he certainly isn't, then as Radiologists on the whole are so boring, then he would not have had the imagination to dream up that story.

[theprof]

Thanks Sqad. I’m very grateful for your support. MrsProf drags me along to various medical school dinners every year and invariably, I’m to be found at the other end of the room to the radiologists. Concealing oscitation has always been my bête noire!

[theprof]

Mizfiesta, I’m afraid that he’s continuing to come across as a liar. The University of London does indeed award medical degrees via its medical schools in the United Hospitals group. However, there is absolutely no connection between the University of London and Cambridge University. The University of London is not part of Cambridge University.

As for quoting a so-called colleagues name, look at this way: your acquaintance may have a working knowledge of the link I gave you if he’s as good a conman as I suspect. It would be easy for him to have googled for a radiologist at any named Scottish hospital and to have come across a name of a genuine consultant in radiology. When this name is entered into the GMC database, it would indeed show the university from which the so-called colleague obtained his first medical degree ie the University of London. The specialist entry would have been amended to show the genuine radiologists current area of expertise ie Clinical Radiology.

However, the difficulty your acquaintance faced is that ideally, he’s been googling for a radiologist working at a Scottish hospital who has graduated from Cambridge. He’s clearly not found one. Now there are ways of doing just what he was looking for to fool you completely, but I’m afraid he’s not quite as clever as that.

(continued)

[theprof]

I’m a little mystified about your finding of a diagnostic radiologist/consultant neurodialogist. I’m assuming that your “neurodialogist” should read “neurologist”. I’ve never heard of a radiologist working as a consultant neurologist as well as it would be unlikely that one person could acquire the combined expertise and postgraduate qualifications necessary. MrsProf who knows a thing or two about this, also doubts that such a combined consultancy can exist.

Your suggestion about how your acquaintance could have obtained the name of a genuine radiologist is not at all far-fetched. It’s a very plausible method of obtaining a genuine radiologists name and place of work. He might well have come across the name during the admission of a family member to the hospital concerned for whatever reason. He may even have read the name in a newspaper or seen it on TV.

I’d be very reluctant in your position to email the kosher radiologist as it’s very likely that all his email is dealt with by a secretary whose function includes filtering potentially dodgy personal emails before he even sees them. I’m afraid your email might well be included in that category and you might never hear from him one way or the other.

[mizfiesta]

Yea your right Prof. Even if it ever did reach his eyes he would probably think I was completely bonkers or worse. I guess I'll just have to wait and hope 'the truth will out'. It usually does. Thanks for all your help. If anything more tangible emerges I will let you know.

[theprof]

I'm glad to have been able to help and good luck. If anything else does turn up, it might be best to start a new thread as this one's fast disappearing down the list!