Category: Radiology Education

Radiologist Training Stagnates

Posted on by Brian Casey

The number of new radiologists being trained in the U.S. has largely stagnated, even as concerns grow over workforce shortages. A new analysis in JACR underscores the challenges facing efforts to train more radiologists to meet the rising volume of imaging exams.

The growing imbalance between the radiologist workforce and surging imaging volume has been generating headlines as frontline radiologists struggle with overwork and burnout. 

  • And a recent effort to boost the number of U.S. physicians by adding federal funding for more resident training slots has overlooked radiology, which is getting few of the new positions being offered.

In the new study, researchers analyzed the number of U.S. resident positions in diagnostic and interventional radiology using data from the NRMP, ACGME, and other sources, finding…

  • The number of radiology residency positions grew 33% from 2010 to 2025 (from 1,090 to 1,449), while total medical residency positions grew 69%.
  • The total number of radiology residents rose 23% from 2010 to 2024 (from 4,584 to 5,630). 
  • But the number of practicing radiologists only grew 12% from 2010 to 2022 (from 34.3k to 38.3k). 
  • And the ratio of radiologists per 100k population was stagnant (from 11.1 to 11.5 radiologists).

It’s this last number that’s key to the analysis. Over the last 15 years, the ratio of radiologists to the U.S. population has barely changed, even as imaging exams become more complex.

  • And even more importantly, the Baby Boom generation has aged and now requires more healthcare services per capita – including imaging – relative to when they were younger (a previous study found the average radiologist workload doubled from 2008 to 2018). 

The researchers conclude that the radiologist training pipeline “has barely kept pace” with the increasing U.S. population, and when coupled with growing complexity and per capita imaging use, this raises questions about the sustainability of increasing imaging utilization. 

  • They recommend more federal support for radiologist training positions, perhaps through Medicare programs that specifically target medical imaging.

The Takeaway

The new study on stagnant radiologist training gives ammunition to radiology advocates who are lobbying for more federal funding to expand radiology residency slots. The question is whether anyone is listening.

Residency Push Skips Radiology

Posted on by Brian Casey

A federal push to alleviate the U.S. physician shortage by adding more resident training slots appears to have skipped radiology. Of the more than 400 residency programs awarded funding so far, only two diagnostic radiology programs got funds. 

The ongoing doctor shortage has become a major issue in U.S. healthcare, as physicians face rising patient volume from an aging population with a workforce that’s largely stagnant. 

  • Physicians are already experiencing high burnout rates, and the Association of American Medical Colleges predicts there will be a shortage of as many as 86k doctors by 2036.

Part of the problem is that physician training is tightly controlled in the U.S. Residency programs get most of their funding from Medicare, and there’s been a cap on the number of slots Medicare can fund since 1997.

  • So it takes an act of Congress – literally – to get more money to add residency slots.

That’s actually happened in recent years, with federal budget bills in 2021 and 2023 specifically allocating more money for Direct Graduate Medical Education to help train more residents through what’s commonly known as Section 126.

  • In all, the legislation is funding 1.2k new residency slots, with the positions released through five rounds of funding.

But the fourth round of new resident positions under Section 126, announced in December, skipped diagnostic radiology entirely. 

  • A list of the new positions by Becker’s Hospital Review found no diagnostic radiology slots added to U.S. resident training programs, while 20 interventional radiology positions were added. 

And over the course of the Section 126 program, only 0.5% of residency programs getting funding were diagnostic radiology.

It’s unclear how the omission occurred. Hospitals with resident training programs have to apply for the additional funding, and it’s possible that diagnostic radiology’s low (or nonexistent) numbers simply reflect fewer DR applications.

  • But it’s widely known that the federal government has prioritized training primary care physicians, as well as hospitals in rural areas. Indeed, being in a rural area or health professional shortage area are two of four ways for residency programs to qualify for Section 126 funding.

Legislation currently languishing in Congress – the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2025 – would add 14k residency positions over the next seven years. 

  • But even such a large expansion in residency training won’t help medical imaging much if diagnostic radiology continues to get passed over when allocating new positions (the application period for the fifth and final round just opened). 

The Takeaway

The fact that diagnostic radiology is getting skipped over in Section 126 residency funding shows that there’s no cavalry coming over the hill to help the specialty deal with its workforce shortage. Help will have to come from somewhere else, be it AI, teleradiology, or some other kind of technology.

Medical Students Return to Radiology

Posted on by Brian Casey

Medical students are flocking to apply to U.S. radiology residency programs, with diagnostic radiology seeing the most growth among nearly two-dozen medical specialties. The trend underscores the strong job market for radiologists.

The number of applications to diagnostic radiology residency programs has grown more than 10% a year over the past three years, according to an analysis by Dr. Francis Deng of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Deng has been tracking applicants for 23 medical specialties, and posted a now-viral table containing his analysis on March 13. 

The annual growth rates for diagnostic radiology and the related fields of radiation oncology and interventional radiology exceeded every other medical specialty for the past three years:

  • Diagnostic radiology: 10.5%
  • Radiation oncology: 8.9%
  • Interventional radiology: 6.8%

Diagnostic radiology’s growth is all the more intriguing given the decline it saw in residency applications from 2018 to 2020. Applications fell by 9.5% from 2,033 in 2018 to 1,839 in 2020, before rebounding to 2,409 applicants in 2023. 

What’s behind radiology’s rebound? RadTwitter offered multiple reasons:

  • Generational shifts in preference among medical students.
  • Medical students favoring “money or lifestyle over human interactions.”
  • Reduced worries about the impact of AI on radiologist jobs.
  • The trickle-down effect of a good job market.

RadTwitter pundit Dr. Saurabh Jha expanded on this latter point. A rising volume of imaging studies in the 2010s led to calls to expand the number of residency lots; these calls were ignored, leading to today’s scarcity of radiologists. 

Indeed, other data confirm his analysis. The ACR’s job board last year had the highest number of open radiologist positions ever, while recruiters have been flooding radiologists with job proposals for at least the last two years.

The Takeaway

The medical students entering radiology who celebrated Match Day on March 17 are likely to encounter a robust job market 5-6 years from now, as imaging volume grows while radiology residency slots remain static. Fear of AI’s impact on radiologist jobs appears to be receding, as evidenced by strong growth in radiology applications since 2020.  

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