interesting

[peehdee]

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http://www.rsna.org/publications/rsnanews/oct04/salary-2.html

 

[Docxter]

http://www.rsna.org/publications/rsnanews/oct04/salary-2.html

Interesting article, but not surprising at all. There was a severe shortage of radiologists between the end 1999 and mid 2003, likely accounting for this large increase in radiologist salaries. The market has since apparently stabilized and the number of practice groups looking for new radiologists has decreased. Not to say there are no jobs though because there are certainly lots of jobs, but most groups are not super-desperate anymore to get people.

 

[peehdee]

so do you think (in your expert opinion) that in 8 to 10 years we will have too many rad? as it is now I'm hearing that IR are being replaced by cardiologist or other surgeons. also, as more and more people learn to read basic MR, CT etc.. would we still need so many radiologist? unless you do research of course.

Interesting article, but not surprising at all. There was a severe shortage of radiologists between the end 1999 and mid 2003, likely accounting for this large increase in radiologist salaries. The market has since apparently stabilized and the number of practice groups looking for new radiologists has decreased. Not to say there are no jobs though because there are certainly lots of jobs, but most groups are not super-desperate anymore to get people.

 

[Docxter]

so do you think (in your expert opinion) that in 8 to 10 years we will have too many rad? as it is now I'm hearing that IR are being replaced by cardiologist or other surgeons. also, as more and more people learn to read basic MR, CT etc.. would we still need so many radiologist? unless you do research of course.

First of all, I am no expert; I just happened to be interested or training in radiology during the above period and have been involved in a few local and national radiological organizations who happen to be involved in the practice policies, trends, politics and economics of the field. What will happen in 8 years? No one knows and anyone who tries to guess may be proven wrong. If, and only if, the current trend in imaging utilization grows, there will be more than enough jobs for radiologists and the relative shortage will continue. This is of course dependent on many other factors into which I won't dwell (such as medicare fund sustenance, third-party payor structures, national economy, turf wars, malpractice climate, etc.). As far as turf wars and other fields doing the work of radiologists, remember, radiology has stolen (and continues to steal) more than any other specialty from the domains of other fields. If surgeons and cardiologists are stealing away everything, then why are interventional radiologists so much in demand and are being paid so well? Radiologists do so many different things that a couple of bites here and there out of their cake is not going going to shrink the cake too much.

If other fields take over basic CT/MR, we'll do non-basic advanced CT/MR. And new applications and techniques are coming out so fast that it's hard to keep up with them. Radiology is becoming a more central part of medicine more and more everyday, not less. It's certainly not going to go away.

I hear concerns like this from medical students everyday. Some are legitimate concerns for someone who's trying to choose a field, but some just overdo it. Can I call it the "Medstud doomsday syndrome"?