ACR’s Neiman appeals for more face time between radiologists and patients

(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING) -- Most radiologists may not consider spending 20 minutes a day socializing with patients as time well spent, but Dr. Harvey Neiman, executive director of the American College of Radiology, considers it a crucial investment for the profession's survival. Speaking to radiology residents Saturday at the California Radiological Society annual meeting, Neiman laid out strategies that could help radiologists successfully weather threats from imaging technologies and practice trends that threaten to end more than four decades of generally good times for board-certified radiologists. Neiman stressed that radiology has enjoyed a particularly good run from their stewardship over MR, multislice CT, and PET, technologies that have transformed medicine while making radiologists among the best paid practitioners in healthcare. "The past 40 to 50 years have been wonderful." he told about 50 radiology residents during a luncheon speech at the 2009 California Radiological Society meeting in Newport Beach, CA, "Over that time, radiologists have had more fun in practice than most physicians." The good times have rolled with the help of productivity-enhancement tools such as PACS, voice-recognition software, and nighthawk services, despite a chronic radiologist shortage since 2000. Each year about 1400 new residents enter practice to replace the 500 or so radiologists who retire annually. Even with a 5% growth rate, manpower gains have fallen short of meeting imaging volume increases, which has contributed to a 5% to 12% annual increase in relative value units, an indicator of physician workload.

See full article and related articles at DiagnosticImaging.com

This article was republished with permission from CMPMedica, LLC