Category: Radiologists

Radiology’s ‘Zombie Jobs’ Go Unfilled

Posted on by Brian Casey

Is radiology’s workforce shortage really just a matter of “geographic inconvenience?” A new report suggests that job shortages are mostly isolated to areas that radiologists consider to be less desirable geographically, where “zombie jobs” go unfilled for months.

The workforce shortage in radiology (and healthcare for that matter) has become a common refrain, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

  • Exam volumes are rising steadily with an aging population, but the radiology workforce remains static. 

At least, that’s how the story goes. But a new study from RadBoard.io challenges that narrative, claiming that many radiologist openings are going unfilled because they are in geographically undesirable areas. 

  • RadBoard’s Kirill Lopatin analyzed 20.8k job postings in the U.S. over 78 days that represented 11k unique job ads (at least 47% of ads were just re-posts of the same role, but the number is probably much higher). 

The study found that of the postings with complete “lifespans” (from initial posting to deactivation)…

  • 25% were filled in less than one week, and another 12% in 7-14 days.
  • 28% took 31-60 days to fill.
  • 2.3% took 61-90 days (and maybe even longer).

So nearly one-third of radiology job ads were open longer than a month, leading RadBoard to conclude that radiology didn’t have a single fill rate for open positions – “it has two markets layered on top of each other.” 

  • RadBoard called radiologist job ads open for more than 60 days “zombie jobs,” with some markets having higher “stuck rates” as calculated by ads open longer than 60 days divided by total open job ads. 

States with the worst job markets by stuck rate included Nebraska (68%), Minnesota (41%), and Washington state (35%). 

  • At the other end of the spectrum were Florida (18%), Texas (15%), and New York (14%). 

This led RadBoard to conclude that the radiologist shortage was not a national problem – it was concentrated in areas where radiologists didn’t want to live.

  • Also, jobs in stuck markets paid $175k less than those in faster-cycling markets ($550k vs. $725k) – the opposite of what might be expected in a scarce market.

The Takeaway

The new numbers offer an eye-opening look at the narrative around the radiologist shortage, indicating that it may be more nuanced than previously thought. And the subtext to the data hints at the divide in U.S. healthcare between rural areas and metropolitan regions.

Radiologist Tapped As Surgeon General

Posted on by Brian Casey

Could America’s next top doctor be a radiologist? The radiology world – and the rest of U.S. healthcare – was stunned late last week when the Trump Administration nominated radiologist Nicole Saphier, MD, to be surgeon general, replacing previous nominee Casey Means, MD.

If confirmed, Saphier’s nomination would be the first time a board-certified radiologist has held the position, which typically goes to physicians with experience in public health rather than medical specialists.

  • Trump nominated Means for the position in May 2025, but the nomination languished over concerns about Means’ experience, her lapsed medical license, and her tepid support for vaccines.

On the other hand, Saphier is an actively practicing radiologist who serves as director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth in New Jersey.

  • She’s also been a frequent contributor to Fox News, where she appeared on the conservative network’s “Fox & Friends” morning show as an expert on public health policy. 

Saphier was born and raised in Arizona, where she completed her radiology residency and was involved in efforts in 2014 to pass breast density notification legislation in the state. 

  • She moved to New Jersey later that year and worked in a private-practice breast imaging center before taking the position she currently holds at MSK Monmouth. 

Saphier has always been active on social media (her X account has 364.4k followers), due to her belief that radiologists should be more visible to patients.  

  • It was that presence that initially drew the attention of Fox News producers, and Saphier began appearing on the network in 2016 to comment on public policy issues (her involvement with Fox ended with the nomination announcement).

Saphier’s nomination is already drawing critics who are combing over her history of statements on vaccines and the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

  • In general, Saphier has expressed skepticism about government involvement in healthcare, but most of her beliefs fall within the mainstream of U.S. public health policy, which should bode well for her nomination.

ACR issued a statement supporting Saphier’s nomination, noting her work with the group on several public policy issues and observing that if confirmed, “Saphier would be the highest-ranking radiologist ever in government service.”

The Takeaway

Politics aside, Saphier’s ascension as surgeon general could have huge benefits for radiology in general and breast imaging in particular. Saphier has consistently supported mammography screening and issues like breast density awareness, and should her nomination succeed, radiology would find itself with an ally at the highest levels of the U.S. government. 

Physician Burnout Eases – But Remains High in Radiology

Posted on by Brian Casey

Physician burnout rates continue to drop after peaking during the COVID-19 pandemic, but radiology remains one of the medical specialties with the worst burnout problem. That’s according to a new AMA survey that underscores a continuing trend toward improved physician satisfaction.

Physician burnout has been a cause of concern for the past decade. Burnout rates accelerated dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic as doctors struggled with long hours and crushing patient volume. 

The new AMA survey confirms the trend. The organization surveyed 19k U.S. physicians throughout 2025, finding…

  • An overall physician burnout rate of 42% in 2025, down compared to 2024 (43%) and 2023 (48%), and sharply down from the peak in 2021 (63%).
  • Physician job satisfaction rose to 77%, stable compared to 2024 (77%) and up compared to 2023 (72%) and 2022 (68%).
  • The burnout rate in radiology was 45%, making it the fifth-worst among specialties after emergency medicine (50%), urological surgery (50%), hematology/oncology (49%), and OB/GYN (46%). 

How well do the AMA’s numbers reflect radiology’s reality?

  • Unfortunately, the AMA hasn’t included radiology-specific numbers in previous years of its survey, making it hard to directly compare year-over-year changes.

But in a recent thread on radiology bulletin board RadHQ.net, members anecdotally reported that burnout is becoming less prominent for radiologists, for several reasons…

  • Higher compensation that makes radiologists feel more valued. 
  • More flexible arrangements – like teleradiology – that support working from home or more flexible shifts.
  • Increased job mobility due to the radiologist shortage, with the flexibility to leave toxic practices for new ones.

The Takeaway

So which is it – is radiology burnout higher than other specialties, or is it declining? Ironically, both statements could be true – while radiologist burnout remains high relative to other physicians, at least it’s trending in the right direction.

Radiologist Salaries Grow 9%

Posted on by Brian Casey

It’s not quite double-digit growth, but it’s pretty close. The latest physician salary report from Medscape reveals that radiologist salaries grew 9% in 2025, with medical imaging seeing the third-highest growth rate among the specialties tracked. 

The new Medscape report found that radiologists had an average annual salary of $571k in 2025, up 9% compared to $520k in 2024 and $498k in 2023.

  • Radiology ranked #3 among the 29 physician specialties tracked by the survey, trailing only orthopedic physicians and surgeons ($611k) and cardiologists ($575k). 

Radiology’s numbers mark the second straight year of strong salary growth for the specialty, a welcome trend given anemic growth in 2023, when salaries rose only 3.1% – not enough to keep ahead of inflation.

  • Indeed, industry experts analyzing the new Medscape numbers called the figures a “return to normalization” for physician pay gains. 

Medscape reported a generally “positive vibe” to the survey compared to a year earlier, with more respondents saying they felt fairly paid (53% vs. 48%), and eight specialties reporting average annual compensation over $500k. Other important findings included…

  • Technology-driven efficiency appears to be helping physician productivity, enabling doctors to see more patients and generate more work-related relative value units.
  • Rising demand for services in orthopedics, radiology, and cardiology is driving pay growth, especially given the static supply of physicians.
  • The new data – and improving physician sentiment – could indicate that medicine is climbing out of the trough of doctor burnout that bottomed out during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
  • The gender gap between salaries for male and female physicians was $102k, worsening slightly compared to last year (31% vs. 29%). 
  • The average workweek shortened slightly (49 vs. 50 hours).

The Takeaway
Medscape’s new salary survey findings are positive news for radiologists – and indeed all physicians – and are a welcome departure from the days of burnout and stagnant wage growth. So far, predictions that AI will take jobs from radiologists remain far in the future.

Imaging Volume Backlash Builds

Posted on by Brian Casey

A backlash is building in response to a controversial paper published last week claiming that growth in U.S. medical imaging volume has slowed over the past several decades. The claims were met with disbelief by many imaging experts who see a growing disconnect between imaging volume and the number of radiologists available to interpret images.

Rising imaging volume has become a mantra within radiology as the field struggles to cope with growing healthcare needs from an aging population and the increasing complexity of imaging technology. 

  • Like other healthcare professionals, radiologists are experiencing rising burnout levels, and a cottage industry of AI and IT solutions has emerged to help them work more efficiently. 

But the new paper challenges many of those assumptions. Published as a commentary in JAMA Health Forum by Harvard University economists David Cutler, PhD, and Lev Klarnet, the article cites previously published research on imaging volume from 2003 to 2016, stating that imaging use per capita stabilized in 2008 and began declining thereafter. 

  • The authors suggest it’s unnecessary to dramatically increase the U.S. supply of radiologists given slowing growth: “The decrease in imaging has allowed the US to meet the need for imaging without an increase in radiologists.”

The paper quickly drew criticism from a number of radiology key opinion leaders, including Radiology Partners Chairman and CEO Rich Whitney (who suggested the authors were doing their research on the moon) and radiologist blogger Ben White, MD, who called some of their claims “nonsensical.” 

Indeed, the major fallacy in the JAMA Health Forum paper comes from its conclusion that a lower per capita imaging growth rate obviates the need to expand the radiologist labor pool. 

Most damning, however, is the paper’s reliance on data that’s nearly a decade old: The Hong et al paper published in Radiology in 2019. 

The Takeaway

There are some valuable (and positive) points made in the JAMA Health Forum paper, such as its contention that medical imaging is used more judiciously now than it was 20 years ago. But to make the leap that radiology’s workforce crisis has been solved simply strains belief. 

The 40 Top Radiology Resources for 2026

Posted on by Brian Casey

Our list of the best radiology news sources last year generated a lot of excitement, so we’re updating the list for 2026 with the people and publications we rely on to find the most interesting medical imaging stories. 

Radiology has seen major changes in social media use since we last updated the list. Key opinion leaders briefly flirted with Bluesky as an alternative to X (formerly Twitter), but as the year went on enthusiasm waned as engagement faltered. Instead, LinkedIn seems to be emerging as the platform of choice for many clinicians and business executives.

Regardless of platform, this list of top radiology resources should keep you well-informed about healthcare’s top medical specialty.

TOP RADIOLOGY SITES

From a radiology newsletter with a laser focus on AI to an educational site with thousands of radiology cases, you’re sure to find something that meets your needs from the list below.

  • AI for Radiology – A great source for news on AI, including the Project AIR testing clearinghouse.
  • CTisUs – Elliott Fishman, MD’s excellent site for educational radiology content.
  • Medality Radiology Report Podcast – Medality CEO Daniel Arnold interviews the biggest names in medical imaging.
  • RadAccess – Newsletter run by Campbell Arnold, PhD, dedicated to improving access to radiology.
  • radHQ.net Forums – Public bulletin board that’s a great place to hear what keeps radiologists up at night. 
  • Radiopaedia – Excellent site for educational radiology content with a global focus.
  • Signify Research – The best radiology market analysis, backed by actual market data.

TOP RADIOLOGY KEY OPINION LEADERS 

Radiology is fortunate to have a wealth of really smart people sharing their thoughts. Here are a few of the best.

AI and Imaging IT

Business and Vendors

  • Jan Beger – OEM executive with insightful high-level thoughts on AI.
  • Morris Panner – Imaging IT executive with cogent takes on the intersection of technology and patient care. 
  • Sebastian Schmidt, MD – OEM executive with thought-provoking analysis of CT lung cancer screening.
  • Reza Zahiri – Detailed LinkedIn posts that deconstruct the financial positions of medical imaging vendors.

Education

  • Gennaro D’Anna, MD – Italian radiologist focusing on education and social media.
  • Francis Deng, MD – Great analysis of radiology education and residency trends.
  • Tan-Lucien Mohammed, MD – Radiologist with educational focus on radiology anatomy.
  • Amy Patel, MD – Tireless advocate for radiology (and the Kansas City Chiefs).
  • Vikas Shah, MD – Radiopaedia managing editor known for high-quality educational content.
  • Chaundria Singleton – Radiologic technologist educator and host of A Couple of Rad Techs podcast. 

Legal and Regulatory 

  • Sandy Coffta – Great source for information on U.S. reimbursement changes.
  • Tobias Gilk – Radiology’s conscience on MRI safety. 
  • Tom Greeson – The authority for perspectives on legal issues in radiology.
  • Hugh Harvey, MD – Excellent source on AI regulation.
  • Mark Weiss – Authoritative voice on legal issues in radiology. 

Practice Management and Leadership

  • Rich Duszak, MD – A superb source for radiology leadership and responsible imaging.
  • Jay Gurney – Executive recruiter and podcaster who hears about industry trends before they make headlines. 
  • Geraldine McGinty, MD – Still the moral compass of radiology.
  • Rasu Shrestha, MD – Radiologist-turned-health-executive.  
  • Ben White, MD – Excellent insights into the vagaries of being a working radiologist.

HEALTHCARE NEWSLETTERS AND WEBSITES 

Looking to get out of the radiology niche and broaden your horizons? Insight Links also offers newsletters covering the cardiology and digital health fields:

The Takeaway

This list should cover all your bases for staying informed about the latest developments in radiology news. Or, just sign up for The Imaging Wire and we’ll do it for you.

When Radiologists Quit

Posted on by Brian Casey

The chance that a radiologist would quit their job for a new one doubled over a recent 10-year period. And a new JACR study identifies the exact point in terms of case workload when radiologists are most likely to leave.

The burnout epidemic among healthcare professionals has been closely tied to workload, which has been rising steadily due to growing patient volumes and ongoing staff shortages.

  • In radiology, the problem has been exacerbated as radiologists are reading more images (from more complex cases) while the number of new radiologists being trained in residency programs remains static.

In the new paper, researchers from the ACR’s Neiman HPI investigated changes in radiologist turnover from 2013 to 2022 and how they compared with workload as measured by work relative value units, the most standard measure of physician productivity. 

  • They analyzed data on services provided by 39.4k unique radiologists representing 280.7k radiologist-years over the study period, then correlated that with data on how often radiologists changed practices.

Researchers found…

  • The radiologist turnover rate increased 61% (from 5.3% to 8.5%).
  • Odds of radiologist turnover were nearly 2X in 2022 versus 2013 (OR = 1.96).
  • And were 6% higher for female radiologists and 12% higher for metropolitan versus nonmetropolitan radiologists.
  • While academic radiologists had 9% lower turnover odds than nonacademic imagers.

But what about the connection between workload and turnover? This is where the study gets interesting, as the researchers found a U-shaped relationship between the two.

At low wRVU levels, turnover tended to drop as workload went up, perhaps as radiologists found more job satisfaction (and maybe higher pay) with more work to do.

But this changed once wRVUs hit a threshold, and turnover began rising as well, apparently as radiologists found themselves overworked. This inflection point differed for different types of radiologists…

  • Occurring at 12.9k wRVUs for all radiologists.
  • But at 13.4k wRVUs for private-practice radiologists.
  • And only 8.8k wRVUs for academic radiologists.

The 34% lower wRVU threshold for academic radiologists could be because many have prioritized research and teaching, and see a growing clinical care workload as a distraction without commensurate compensation. 

The Takeaway

The new study offers a fascinating look at the forces driving when and why radiologists quit, and provides a new benchmark showing precisely where the breaking point is for most radiologists. Let’s hope this data is put to good use.  

Some Rads Are Working Harder – But Not All

Posted on by Brian Casey

If you feel like you’re working harder than your colleagues, you might not be wrong. New data on changes in imaging volume in the U.S. before and after the COVID-19 pandemic show that while volume grew faster than the supply of radiologists, those reading the most imaging exams shouldered most of the burden.

Medical imaging volume has become a closely watched barometer as radiologists struggle to manage a rising tide of imaging exams with a workforce that’s largely stagnant. 

  • Various technologies – especially AI – have been suggested as possible solutions by enabling radiologists to work more efficiently and churn out more cases per day.

The COVID-19 pandemic complicated efforts to track imaging volume over time, as exam volumes dropped dramatically in 2020 before eventually rebounding. 

  • So how much is imaging volume growing, and how hard are radiologists working to meet demand? 

The new JACR study compared imaging volumes, radiologist workforce growth, and corresponding workload for 1.6k radiologists from 167 U.S. practices before and after the pandemic (December 2017 to February 2024). The researchers found…

  • Imaging exam volume grew 31% over the entire seven-year period, at a 4.6% compound annual growth rate.
  • The number of working radiologists grew 24%, at a CAGR of 3.6%.
  • There was little change in the overall number of exams radiologists read per day over the study period (49.1 vs. 49.4 exams).
  • But the top quartile of radiologists by reading volume was reading 31% more exams/day by the end of the study (from 57 to 74 exams).
  • While bottom-quartile radiologists saw their productivity decline 32% (from 79 to 54 exams).

As a side note, researchers concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic ultimately had a “modest effect” on the number of working radiologists, although rates of part-time work were higher during the pandemic.

The Takeaway

The new findings on imaging volume and radiologist productivity have fascinating implications. In aggregate, it seems that radiologists are keeping pace with rising volumes. But a closer look shows that the burden is falling disproportionately on those radiologists who are most productive – a trend that contributes to burnout among the very professionals the discipline should be working hardest to keep.

VC Radiology Funding Drops

Posted on by Brian Casey

Venture capital investment in radiology peaked in 2021 at just over $2B and has been on a slow decline since then. That’s according to a study in JACR that documents the ebb and flow of VC investment, in particular its shift to companies developing AI algorithms. 

VC investment is the lifeblood of any industry built on innovation, and healthcare is no exception. 

  • Venture capital funding helps many innovators bring their ideas to fruition and helps fund them until revenue from product sales can start rolling in.

So it stands to reason that changes in VC funding levels can have ripple effects, with declines potentially affecting the rate of new technology development.

  • Indeed, some studies have found that every 1% increase in interest rates can cause a 3% decline in R&D spending and a 9% drop in patent filings.

The new research tracks VC funding specifically in radiology, with researchers from Emory and Harvard universities using PitchBook to track VC investments from 2000 to 2023. 

In particular, researchers found…

  • A total of $11.4B was invested in 646 radiology companies during the entire study period. 
  • The average investment was $6.3M with an average $51M post-investment valuation.
  • VC investment activity in radiology peaked in 2021 at $2.18B.
  • Medical devices attracted 28% of investment, followed by AI healthcare software (22%), non-AI healthcare software (18%), healthcare services (14%), and biotechnology and drug discovery (18%).

The new data track with research from other sources – like Signify Research – that have also documented a slowdown in radiology VC investment, particularly in AI. 

  • Most sources attribute the declines to the end of the “cheap money” era during the COVID-19 pandemic as governments began dialing back on stimulus payments and started raising interest rates to tamp down inflation. On the other hand, other research has found that the recent declines are occurring at a rate that’s not proportional to inflation or interest rates alone.

The Takeaway

The new JACR research comes as the investment and healthcare worlds are set to begin their annual courtship ritual next week at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. Undoubtedly these new findings will be a point of discussion as radiology companies look to secure the capital that will fuel the next innovations in medical imaging. 

Radiologist Pay Jumps Nearly 8% in New Survey

Posted on by Brian Casey

Radiologist pay jumped nearly 8% in 2024 in the latest salary survey from Doximity. That’s the good news. The bad news is that radiology actually slipped a couple notches compared to other highly paid medical specialties.

In its latest survey, Doximity found that radiologists had an average annual salary of $572k in 2024. 

  • That’s up 7.5% compared to $532k in last year’s edition of the survey, giving radiologists the fourth-largest salary increase among medical specialties. 

Radiology’s salary growth accelerated in 2024 compared to 2023, when radiology pay grew 5.6%. 

  • And the growth rate is up sharply compared to 2022, when rad salaries grew only 1.6% in a year when many doctors saw salary declines.

Diagnostic radiology occupied the 11th spot on Doximity’s list of highest-compensated specialties in 2024, slipping a couple positions compared to the 9th spot in last year’s survey. 

  • Moving ahead of radiology were pediatric (general) surgery and interventional radiology, two new physician categories added with this year’s survey.

Overall, the Doximity report found that physician compensation growth slowed last year compared to 2023 (3.7% vs. 5.9%), and the report also noted several other broad healthcare trends…

  • The gender gap for doctor compensation worsened in 2024, with men now making 26% more than women compared to 23% more in 2023.
  • Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement cuts are weighing heavily on physicians, with nearly one-third of doctors saying they have already (17%) or plan to in the future (13%) reduce how many of these patients they see. 
  • And the vast majority agreed (33%) or strongly agreed (48%) that current reimbursement policy is contributing to the decline of private-practice medicine. 
  • Burnout levels appear to be easing from the peak a few years ago, with fewer doctors saying they feel overworked (62% vs. 67%) and fewer saying they are thinking about leaving clinical practice (39% vs. 50%).

The Takeaway

Industry observers can complain about how AI and private equity are ruining radiology (see our title quote above), but the fact is that radiologists are still enjoying salary levels and compensation growth rates near the top of medicine. It’s not a bad price to pay.

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