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Rads Flee VA, Managing Patient Scanxiety, and Research Cuts
August 3, 2026
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Together with
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“We lost people due to retirement who were not replaced, and I felt like the Dutch boy with his finger in the dam. My workload increased and I was reading a very high volume of studies: about 125 studies a day.”
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Anonymous radiologist quoted in an article on problems in the VA health system.
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Hard to believe, but RSNA last week opened up registration for RSNA 2026, officially marking the start of RSNA season (and we thought we had a few more weeks of summer left). Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! – Brian Casey, Managing Editor
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A new report claims that radiologists fled the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health system after the agency eliminated policies allowing remote work in 2025. While the VA has since rescinded the ban, the article in The American Prospect claims that plummeting morale continues to plague the health system’s radiologists.
The VA’s Veterans Health Administration operates one of the largest health systems in the U.S., serving some 9.1M veterans through 170 VA medical centers and affiliated outpatient sites across the country.
- While there are no official figures, estimates suggest the VA employs at least 1.5k radiologists, or 4%-5% of all active U.S. radiologists.
While radiologist salaries at the VA don’t approach levels found in the private healthcare sector, many imaging specialists are drawn to the system thanks to perceptions that it offers more job security and stability, as well as its mission in serving the nation’s veterans.
- But the VA’s image of stability began changing in January 2025, the article claims, when the Trump Administration ordered federal employees to return to working in offices.
The order hit VA radiology particularly hard. Thanks to PACS and teleradiology, remote image interpretation has become a staple of the average radiologist’s workday.
- Remote reading is even seen as a possible solution to radiology’s rising imaging volume and stagnant workforce.
So it’s no surprise that VA radiologists recoiled against the new policy, which “ignored the realities of radiology work” and caused morale to plummet among the health system’s imaging specialists.
- The VA eventually recognized its mistake and rescinded the in-office requirement for radiologists. But by then the damage was done.
The article claims that VA radiology has experienced ongoing repercussions from the turmoil…
- Many radiologists have left for the private sector, where average salaries are over 40% higher.
- Workloads for the remaining VA radiologists have skyrocketed.
- Primary care physicians are reporting it now takes “days, not hours,” to get imaging results.
- VA medical centers are being forced to outsource some specialized scans like amyloid PET exams, for which turnaround times are stretching to two or three months.
The Takeaway
It’s hard to tell exactly how many radiologists have left the VA health system, but any job loss is significant for a provider with a mission as important as the VA’s. While the agency’s turnaround on remote work is welcome, it’s likely that the country’s veterans will bear the brunt of the VA’s misguided policy change for years to come.
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Stop Optimizing Imaging. Start Transforming Operations
If better imaging alone solved staffing shortages, burnout, and turnaround times, radiology wouldn’t be facing today’s operational challenges. See how leading groups are solving the problems PACS was never designed to address.
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Tackling Radiology’s Capacity Issue
Healthcare providers are under pressure from rising costs, care delays, and growing cybersecurity risks. Watch this video to discover how Mosaic Clinical Technologies delivers a future-ready imaging solution that improves continuity of care and accelerates detection for faster, more appropriate interventions.
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Leveraging AI-Powered Discovery for Image Exchange
Southwest Medical Imaging, a premier physician-owned radiology practice in the southwestern U.S., partnered with Medicom to streamline their workflow. Discover how SMIL utilized Medicom’s AI-powered Smart Search, which leverages an LLM to automatically detect and surface imaging data, to eliminate manual searching and accelerate patient care.
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- The Skinny on Scanxiety: A new Radiography review of 23 studies identified >150 symptoms of “scanxiety,” the stress associated with medical imaging exams. Most assessments and support focused on physical symptoms, like pain, or emotional symptoms, including fear or agitation. Still, while the noise level or temperature of an imaging facility can increase stress for many patients, environmental factors remain absent from most measures. To close the gap, clinicians may need to steer clear of methods designed for managing general patient anxiety and opt for new techniques focused on scan-specific stress.
- The Consequences of Research Cuts: The Trump administration’s $1.4B in cuts to grant funding in 2025 could land a powerful punch to radiology research for years to come. An Academic Radiology article revealed that grant success rates are expected to decline from 18.5% in 2024 to 7.3% this year, a historic low. Radiology already has less success in securing grants than other disciplines. Funding that is secured usually goes to senior investigators, thus, cuts could decimate the pipeline of early-career researchers and impede the future of radiologic innovation.
- Language Barriers to Results Communication: Communicating results via patient portals may be convenient, but a new JACR study revealed that many patients would prefer to hear from their PCP – especially those whose primary language isn’t English. Data from 838 patients who underwent breast biopsy showed that 70% preferred person-to-person communication with their provider over quick delivery of results. PCP-first contact was more likely to be preferred by patients whose primary language wasn’t English, highlighting the need for multilingual support in telehealth.
- DeepHealth Scores Breast AI Clearance: DeepHealth continues to round out its portfolio of AI solutions for breast imaging. The company’s newest algorithm is DeepHealth Breast Ultrasound, which received FDA clearance for analyzing breast ultrasound exams. Features include automated lesion detection and characterization, automated reporting, and expedited sonographer workflow. The solution’s effectiveness was demonstrated in a recent clinical study, and U.S. customers can pursue reimbursement under a Category III CPT code. DeepHealth acquired breast ultrasound AI firm See-Mode Technologies in 2025.
- CEM for Breast Cancer Screening: Before contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) can secure a role as a breast cancer screening tool, more data is needed on its long-term value. To that end, researchers in Radiology compared CEM’s performance in baseline (prevalence) screening rounds to subsequent incidence screening rounds in 2.8k women. There was a trend toward better cancer detection rates in the prevalence round that wasn’t statistically significant (19 vs. 12 cancers per 1k screens), but incidence CEM had higher specificity and accuracy rates that were significant.
- LDCT Screening for Multiple Conditions: A new research study is being launched to see if low-dose CT screening of high-risk people can detect multiple clinical conditions besides just lung cancer. Noting that tobacco smoking often contributes to other diseases, the MULTIPREVENT study aims to see if LDCT screening, in addition to simple biomarkers, functional tests, and genomic profiling, can detect diseases like COPD, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and diabetes. Researchers hope to recruit 3k patients and described the study protocol in a paper in Public Health.
- Breath Analysis of Lung Cancer: To better triage patients with CT-detected lung nodules, researchers in China used machine learning software that analyzed exhaled breath samples for signs of cancer. In a paper in CHEST, they used the software with mass spectrometry to analyze volatile organic compounds (VOCs) derived from breath samples of 5.2k patients with lung abnormalities. AI-based VOC analysis had good performance for predicting lung cancer (AUC = 0.891), showing the test had potential for reducing false positives on CT scans.
- Median Makes Another Move: Median Technologies has partnered with Canon’s Olea Medical to turn the recent FDA clearance and CE mark for its eyonis software into clinical commercialization. The AI-based solution supports the early diagnosis of lung cancer as uptake of CT-based screening grows, and Canon happens to be a top provider of CT imaging systems. The partnership will extend to the hundreds of clinics across the U.S. and Europe already using Olea, but Median is planning for more partnerships with PACS providers, AI innovators, and clinical data platforms soon.
- Accuray Implements Debt Restructuring: Radiation therapy company Accuray last week unveiled a plan to help regain its financial footing by restructuring debt. The company’s primary lender agreed to exchange $40M in loans for preferred stock while also buying another $15M in stock. Accuray will also implement a reverse stock split. The company has been hit by slowing capital equipment purchasing, and announced a restructuring plan in December 2025. In February 2026, Accuray included a “going concern” warning about its financial viability in documents filed with the SEC.
- Candelis Viewer Software Cleared by FDA: Candelis received FDA clearance for its ImageGrid StreamVue viewer software. The solution uses image streaming technology to display only the imaging data needed for immediate review through onsite hardware, virtual machines, or a cloud-based platform. The company’s ImageGrid PACS server is already implemented at >4k sites and suits a variety of modalities, so Candelis should be able to leverage this user base to build StreamVue’s market presence.
- How to Pay for AI? A new Peterson Health Technology Institute report calls for clinical AI reimbursement models that are deflationary, outcome-based, and favorable to early adopters. The recently launched CMS ACCESS Model pretty much checks these boxes, but it’s limited to care for Medicare beneficiaries with certain chronic conditions. Standard payment structures are mismatched to clinical AI, the report argues. Fee-for-service risks AI overuse, while fee-for-performance and capitation don’t do enough to incentivize rapid adoption of this technology.
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Imaging Tools for Heroes
Radiology departments are currently pushed to their limits by interconnected challenges. Staff shortages and heavy workloads form a vicious circle. Different measures are needed to address these challenges. Intelligent imaging from Siemens Healthineers can be one of them.
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A New Solution for Radiology Reporting
Sectra Reporting delivers a fully built-in, AI-enhanced reporting experience that seamlessly connects PACS imaging data and measurements through intuitive templates. Discover how it can meet your needs today.
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Transform Imaging Data into Actionable Predictions
When you choose Quibim, you get more than a partner for detecting and diagnosing prostate cancer on MRI scans. Learn how they can help you transform imaging data into actionable predictions by booking a demo today.
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- Accelerating Care Today for More Tomorrows: GE HealthCare empowers precision care with innovative imaging, patient management solutions, and tailored consulting services for every step of the theranostics pathway. Learn more about theranostics on this page from GE HealthCare.
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- Unified Imaging Access for Modern Healthcare: Enable clinicians with fast, secure access to diagnostic imaging across facilities, specialties, and systems with eUnity from Mach7 Technologies.
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- What Everyone Should Know About Radiology: What should every medical student know about radiology? In this episode of The Joys of Radiology, a Medality Radiology Report podcast, Gautam Agrawal, MD, sits down with three Johns Hopkins radiology residents to discuss what residency actually looks like.
- Reimagining Cloud-Native Cardiology Workflow: Find out how Intelerad’s next-generation cloud-based InteleHeart solution delivers an all-in-one cardiology platform that unifies viewing, reporting, analytics, and workflow orchestration.
- Don’t Leave Your Patients in the Dark: Top institutions like Duke and Northwell Health are using patient-friendly radiology reports from Scanslated to boost patient engagement and satisfaction. Discover how Scanslated can work for you today.
- Smoothing the Transition to Radiology Integration: Consolidation among medical imaging providers is creating challenges when it comes to managing and integrating image data from diverse sources. In this edition of The Imaging Wire Show, we discussed how solutions from Enlitic can smooth the transition.
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