More than 80% of health systems’ radiology departments are understaffed, and according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, this shortage could reach over 35,000 by 2034.
The growing shortages are already impacting the availability of neuroradiologists in the U.S., the most complex specialty among radiologists.
Despite the U.S. population reaching 335,893,238 people as of 2024, there are only 6,000 neuroradiologists in the U.S. On average, this is one neuroradiologist for every 55,982 potential patients. Simply put, there are not enough neuroradiology providers in the U.S. to meet the patient demand.
Radiologists are taking on the lion’s share of the brain imaging caseload to support the diagnosis and monitoring of brain-related conditions and compensate for the acute shortage of neuroradiologists.
What are the top pain points radiologists experience when filling in for neuroradiologists?
VUNO heard from multiple professionals in the field about these and other radiology challenges.
- Lack of Specialization Requires Radiology Second Opinion to Confirm MRI Results
At a Health System in California, a Neuroradiologist who was formerly a Teleradiologist, shared that due to heavy workloads, radiologists have to support areas they aren’t specialized in.
“With on-call, it is very common to be faced with reading something you don’t have experience with.” To validate image interpretations, on-call radiologists seek a second opinion from more experienced colleagues or school buddies, like neuroradiologists.
The response time for this type of request can be unpredictable depending on the colleague’s own schedule, leading to potential delays in patient diagnosis due to neurologists waiting for MRI reports.
- Unrealistic Expectations for Image Interpretation Time
According to an article from GE Healthcare, radiologists need to read at a pace of 1 image every 3-4 seconds to keep up with their workloads. However, the California-based Neuroradiologist believes that a radiologist “needs to spend about 2 minutes” for average cases. More complex cases must take additional time to interpret.
With increased pressure to meet aggressive caseload quotas in a shorter amount of time, errors can result. It is estimated that over 20% of radiology reports contain some type of error, totaling 40M errors annually.
- Complex MRI Cases Take Longer to Read, Especially in Private Practice
VUNO also spoke to Dr. Cheng, a General Radiologist at Advanced Radiology, who works in private practice with four other physicians, including a neuroradiologist. When covering for the neuroradiologist, he needs to read brain MRIs.
He recognized that general radiologists, especially in small practices, have less expertise in the brain and little access to second-opinion MRI resources for fast and efficient MRI reading /diagnosis. Because of this dynamic, “complex cases cannot be diagnosed immediately and are set aside for later.”
Dr. Cheng furthered that radiologists spend an estimated 50% of their time interpreting a small number of complex and delayed cases, Dr. Cheng furthered that radiologists spend an estimated 50% of their time interpreting a small number of complex and delayed cases, which represents roughly 10% of all cases. 10% of all cases.
- Scut Work Contributes to Delays of Complex Case Diagnostics
Despite skyrocketing caseloads, there are still multiple inefficiencies in the daily radiologist routine. To read complex brain MRI cases, general radiologists need to conduct research online, ask colleagues, benchmark images, and perform scut work to gather necessary case materials and complete reports.
Current healthcare systems and workflows are not streamlined to include everything needed to process images completely and immediately. Often, it is necessary to set it aside and chase previous documentation, which adds additional workload burdens amidst radiology shortages.
Additional time must be spent on obtaining all necessary input documents, such as previous test files, patient examination notes, etc. Dr. Cheng gauges that due to these inefficiencies, “complex cases may take up to 15-30 min per such case.”
AI Helps Reduce Workload Burdens Amidst Neuroradiologist Shortages
As neuroradiologist shortages persist, more radiologists will increasingly need to take over brain image interpretation.
Radiologists need time to obtain a radiology second opinion or spend time on scut work that’s not accounted for when they face growing workloads and are given ever more aggressive weekly quotas.
It’s easy to see how radiologists struggle to meet the industry’s expectations and deliver error-free reports today. If we extrapolate a mismatch of demand and supply of neuroradiologists, neurodegenerative diseases diagnostics will become exponentially bottlenecked, turning into an absolute crisis that’s coming in a few short years.
Radiologists need more support to read images accurately and efficiently, making AI a key solution to support accurate complex brain diagnostics at a quicker pace, regardless of radiologists’ specialization.
VUNO is looking to reduce radiology pain points by providing an immediate AI-driven second opinion for complex MRI scans in less than a minute. By enabling longitudinal analysis, providers can quickly identify changes in progression from prior MRI readings.
Learn more about VUNO Med®-DeepBrain®
