Feeling overworked? An updated study using 2007 data was just published in the March issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) and indicates that the radiology shortage may have abated.
The study, titled, “Who’s Underworked and Who’s Overworked Now? An Update on Radiologist Shortage and Surplus” by Soni, Bhargavan, Forman, et al, indicates the radiology shortage that was widely reported earlier in the decade may have abated.
According to the abstract, the researchers specifically were trying to determine “the extent to which radiologists desire less or more work if their income were to change by the same percentage as their workload.”
Soni, et al looked at data from the ACR’s 2007 Survey of Diagnostic Radiologists and took into consideration variables, regions, subspecialty, size of practice, and other factors. Comparisons were subsequently made to the ACR’s 2003 Survey.
What the researchers found was that the overall balance between the demand and the supply of radiologists shifted toward a surplus between 2003 and 2007. In fact, they calculated a 3% overall surplus of radiologists in 2007.
“The employment market seems generally, but not universally, to self-correct relative shortages and surpluses in individual geographic areas and subspecialties within a few years,” concluded the researchers.
BinaryHealthCare (BNHC) 