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Rationale and Objectives: Radiology is an increasingly competitive specialty. Various current factors influence medical students' decision to pursue a radiology career, including artificial intelligence (AI), remote reading, and COVID-19. This study seeks to determine the decision-making factors of all alumni from our medical school who matched into a radiology residency, and to gather opinions on emerging radiology topics., Materials and Methods: A survey querying decision-making factors and opinions on current radiology topics was distributed to all alumni from our medical school (first graduating class in 2011) who previously matched into a diagnostic or interventional radiology residency program (n = 57). Wilcoxon Rank-Sum and Fisher's Exact tests were used to determine statistical significance., Results: Forty-three of fifty-seven responses were received (75% response rate). The most influential factor that sparked respondents' interest in radiology was a radiology elective (25/43, 58%). Students who will finish radiology training in 2023 or later were more likely to be influenced by a mentor (15/23, 65%) than those who finished radiology training before 2023 (5/20, 25%) (p = 0.04). Respondents reported a 1.6/5 concern about AI negatively impacting their future career in radiology. There was 1.7/5 concern about performing radiology procedures on patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents predicted that remote reading would have a 3.2/5 positive impact on helping them achieve their preferred lifestyle. Job satisfaction among attending radiologists is rated at 4.3/5., Conclusion: Radiology electives had the greatest influence in piquing students' interest in radiology, while mentorship is assuming increasing influence. AI is perceived as a relatively minimal threat to negatively impact radiologists' jobs. Respondents had little concern about performing radiology procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote reading is viewed as having a moderately positive impact on lifestyle. Responding radiologists enjoy notably high job satisfaction., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Association of University Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Rationale and Objectives: To determine and analyze the patterns of practice of nonvascular interventional procedures in academic centers in the United States., Materials and Methods: A survey was administered via e-mail to the chief residents of 112 academic radiology departments in the United States. Recipients of the survey were asked to identify which sections within their respective radiology departments performed each of 43 types of nonvascular interventional procedures. An additional entry for performance of procedures by non-radiologists was provided. A total of 66 (59%) recipients responded. The statistical method used was the analysis of contingency tables., Results: Percutaneous abdominal biopsies are performed mainly by abdominal and body imaging sections (43/66, 65%), followed by vascular/interventional sections (21/66, 32%). Percutaneous abdominal drainages are performed mostly by abdominal, body imaging, and computed tomography sections (40/66, 61%), followed by vascular/interventional sections. Fluoroscopically guided procedures were performed most commonly by vascular/interventional sections, including percutaneous gastrostomy (40/66, 61%), percutaneous nephrostomy (42/66, 64%), and biliary interventions such as percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography (47/66, 71%). Breast and musculoskeletal procedures are performed by their respective sections most frequently. Non-radiologists perform a significant portion of certain types of procedures: paracenteses, thoracenteses, biliary interventions (particularly stone extractions), enterostomies (particularly percutaneous jejunostomies and cecostomies), and certain biopsies (kidney and prostate)., Conclusions: Academic US radiology sections perform nonvascular interventional radiology procedures in a complex and nonuniform manner. The vascular/interventional sections and organ system and modality (especially CT) sections perform the bulk of the procedures included in the survey. Breast imaging sections predominate in procedures in their disciplines. A substantial number and amount of interventional radiology procedures are performed by non-radiologists.

Rationale and Objectives: Patients with cancer who are referred to a dedicated oncology center usually have undergone previous imaging studies that the oncologists typically desire to have reviewed by radiologists. Such reinterpretations can be complex and time-consuming, yet many institutions do not systematically account for them as part of the total workload. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the numbers and types of second-opinion consultations performed by radiologists at a tertiary care cancer center, and to assess their effect on work volume., Materials and Methods: A survey of referring clinicians was undertaken to evaluate the numbers and types of second-opinion consultations requested of radiologists at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute during a 12-month period. Consultations included review of studies from outside institutions, and cases from Dana Farber in which further comparison was needed. The number of consultations requiring additional tumor size measurements was tallied. The mean daily number of new studies interpreted by radiologists was used as a benchmark of work volume., Results: Radiologists performed 4,664 consultations during 254 workdays, interpreting a mean of 18 additional studies (range, 4-42) per day as a result of referrals for second opinion. These included 3,638 (78%) cross-sectional studies (ie, computed tomographic [CT], magnetic resonance [MR], and ultrasound [US] studies), 674 (14%) mammograms, 220 (5%) plain radiographs, 132 (3%) nuclear medicine scans, and one galactogram. Of the 4,664 consultations, 1,306 (28%) were performed to obtain tumor measurements, many of these involving five to 10 bidimensional calculations per study. A mean of 101 new examinations per day was performed by radiologists during the same 12-month period, including cross-sectional studies (CT and US scans) (56%), plain radiographs (34%), and mammograms (11%). MR imaging was not performed., Conclusion: Second-opinion consultations increased the average daily work volume by 18%. This has implications for workforce, as well as for compensation in terms of relative value units and finances for this previously unquantified service.