Current political climate having 'detrimental' effect on radiology research, survey says
Moves made by the Trump administration have had a negative impact on radiology research, according to new survey data.
Published in Clinical Imaging, the responses indicate that federal policies have resulted in a more challenging radiology research landscape, making it more difficult to acquire funding and collaborate with other researchers, among other things.
“Political contexts can influence not only researchers' time and resources but also their work environment, motivation to conduct research, ability to work or study in the United States, willingness to attend conferences in the country, and the overall advancement of research,” Thomas C. Kwee, MD, with the department of radiology at University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, and colleagues noted. “These factors may have practical implications, as changes in research productivity or collaboration could affect the pace of scientific progress, the dissemination of knowledge, and the development of new imaging techniques and applications.”
To get a better idea of how government policies have impacted radiology research since Trump began his second term in January of 2025, experts recruited authors who had work published in the top 12 radiology journals the year prior. Respondents completed questionnaires related to how their research processes have changed since and were also offered opportunities to provide additional details via free-text responses.
The majority of the 176 authors who participated reported some sort of negative impact that could be attributed to new government policies. Over 70% indicated that funding was more difficult to acquire, while nearly 60% suggested that international collaboration had become more difficult, as a pattern emerged of foreign researchers being less willing to team up on U.S.-based projects.
Nearly 70% of respondents reported that the current political discourse also has negatively affected their teams, with some saying it has been “detrimental to the environment” they were accustomed to working in. Similarly, around half signaled they were lacking motivation.
“Existing work on the broader effects of politicization of science suggests that political influences on research funding and public perception can have significant consequences for the scientific enterprise,” the authors noted, adding that overall, the responses translated into a “pessimistic” attitude toward conducting research in the future.
Read more from the study here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.