Academic practices may be losing radiologists to more flexible competitors, data show

Academic practices may be losing radiologists to other more flexible workplace competitors, according to new data published Friday. 

The number of part-time academic radiology faculty fell by near 11% between 2015 to 2024. In particular, the tally of teaching-based part-time physicians fell “steeply” from 2015 to 2020 before remaining relatively stable up until last year, experts wrote in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. 

Women were most impacted by these numbers, with the authors signaling the need for change to help keep up with recruiting outside of academia. 

“Of particular note, the proportions of part-time employment in academic radiology practices are far smaller than those previously reported for radiology practices overall, raising concerns that academic practices could be losing faculty to more work flexible nonacademic competitors,” radiologist Ajay Malhotra, MD, with the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and co-authors wrote Feb. 7. “So as to recruit and retain a more robust and sustainable academic radiology workforce, these findings merit further study.”

Researchers used the Association of American Medical College’s national database of faculty members at accredited schools for their study. The sample spanned 2015 to 2024, tracking trends in the number of part-time academic radiologists over a 10-year period. During that time, the number of FTE academic radiologists on a clinical educator track climbed about 3.6% (or from 3,276 up to 4,515), and part-timers fell about 10.8% (from 234 down to 84). There was a nearly 59% drop in the number of women working part-time up until 2020 (116 down to 48). That’s compared to a nearly 68% drop in the number of part-time male radiologists in academia (118 down to 38). 

Throughout the study period, the number of part-time female faculty was “consistently” more than men at the assistant professor rank but less so for the part-time, full-status professor designation. The proportion of part-time faculty decreased for both men, from 5% to 1%, and women, falling 10% to 3%, and at all types of ranks. The proportion of women employed part-time was greater than for men throughout the study period, including at assistant, associate and professor ranks. 

“Both resignation and reduced time status have been proposed as reasons for national radiologist shortage since the COVID pandemic,” the authors advised. “However, our findings suggest that reductions in academic radiology part-time employment began some five years earlier. A limitation of the study may be the survey response rates which may not be consistent across all programs.”