Radiologist urges specialty to avoid temptation of tapping NPs and PAs to address imaging backlogs
A radiologist is urging the specialty to avoid the temptation of tapping nurse practitioners and physician assistants to relieve imaging backlogs.
Jonathan R. Medverd, MD, emphasized the valuable role such nonphysicians (NPPs) play in aiding with procedural tasks and other care. However, “despite potential temptations,” he wrote in an AJR opinion piece Wednesday, “radiologists should not pursue independent image interpretation by NPPs as a vehicle to ease practice workforce and imaging volumes challenges.”
Medverd, with the University of Washington School of Medicine, highlighted common arguments against non-doc image interpretation. NPs and PAs undergo far less rigorous training than physicians, for one, with “sparse or near nil” focus on radiology.
“Radiology residents typically do not achieve confidence in interpretation skills for even conventional radiography until their senior years of training,” Medverd wrote Aug. 20. “In the face of these realities, substitution of NPPs into an independent interpretive role raises legitimate concerns for maintenance of care quality and safety.”
He suggested other potential solutions to addressing staffing shortages and imaging backlogs, including eliminating unnecessary, wasteful exams to lighten the load for busy rads. Registered radiologist assistants also could serve as physician extenders, performing some image-guided procedures under direct supervision. Plus, passing the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2025, reintroduced by members of Congress in June, could help to boost the number of radiologists.
The bipartisan bill proposes expanding the number of Medicare-supported residency positions by 14,000 over the next seven years, with a focus on geographies experiencing a dearth of docs.
“Continued advocacy to prompt this legislation’s passage along with other progress towards balancing physician training is needed,” Medverd, who serves on the American College of Radiology’s Committee on Emergency Radiology, concluded. “If radiology is not deliberate and united, then influence from pressures of the resource-based relative value system at the core of U.S. healthcare financing may distort the specialty’s higher goals and corrupt its core mission. NPP contributions to physician-led teams as radiologist extenders are valued, but interpretation of diagnostic imaging by NPPs is impractical and jeopardizes the profession’s high standards.”
You can read the full opinion piece in the American Journal of Roentgenology here (log in required).
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.