It’s Wednesday afternoon at 2:59 p.m.: time for vRad radiologist Siva Bodagala to go to work.
He ascends a flight of stairs in his suburban Houston home and arrives in his home-office promptly at 3 p.m.
The 60-second commute is about 60 minutes shorter than the one required to get him to his previous job as an assistant professor of radiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)—Galveston Campus.
And it’s immensely less stressful.
“The traffic around Houston is horrendous. My stress level at my old job was about a 7 out of 10,” said Siva, a musculoskeletal subspecialist. “Now, it’s basically zero. I do miss working with the medical students, but not much else.”
And these days, not even natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey can get in the way of his work.
“We were very lucky,” Siva said of the August hurricane and subsequent flooding. “Our house is on higher ground. We didn’t even lose power, so I was able to work throughout the crisis.”
A Flexible Schedule Fan
A radiologist for 17 years, Siva is a graduate of Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, N.J., and completed his fellowship at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
He was introduced to vRad when several of his UTMB colleagues left to join the practice.
“They told me how much they enjoyed working for vRad,” Siva recalled, “so I decided to check it out for myself.”
Now, about one year after joining vRad, Siva hasn’t looked back.
He follows a seven-days-on, seven-days-off schedule, working from 3 to 11 p.m.
“I’m free until 3 o’clock every afternoon. So I can go to the doctor or dentist, or go shopping—whatever I need to do,” he said. “I really like it.”
On his seven days off, Siva enjoys singing in karaoke clubs with friends.
“Indian Bollywood songs are my specialty,” Siva says.
It’s an attractive work/life balance that has many of Siva’s radiologist friends taking notice.
"I tell my friends they can join me at vRad anytime. I’m glad to share what’s made me so happy.”
