Common factors leading to malpractice lawsuits in radiology
A new review published Tuesday in RSNA’s Radiology explores some of the most common factors leading to malpractice cases against radiologists.
Radiology is one of the most frequently litigated specialties, with diagnostic lapses leading to delayed treatment and poor clinical outcomes, experts note. These cases also can produce substantial financial liability, with some studies identifying plaintiff awards or settlements as high as $45 million.
“As such, understanding the scope and characteristics of malpractice claims is essential for guiding policy decisions and risk mitigation efforts across the specialty,” corresponding author Divya Kumari, MD, with the radiology department at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and colleagues wrote Aug. 26.
For their study, researchers analyzed all physician malpractice payments in the federal government’s National Practitioner Data Bank, spanning 1990 to 2024. Radiology malpractice cases were identified based on coded allegations involving imaging errors. Kumari and colleagues compared cases based on different patient, physician and geographic factors.
The final tally included almost 400,000 malpractice cases involving nearly 230,000 physicians. Diagnostic errors accounted for 71% of radiology claims compared to 28% of claims for other medical specialties. Radiology malpractice cases more often involved outpatient care (51% vs. 21%) and severe patient outcomes (64% vs. 32%) when compared to other physicians.
Higher indemnity payments were over 2 times more likely after 2010 and nearly 9 times likelier after a severe patient outcome, the study found. Meanwhile, the presence of noneconomic damage reform laws and insurer-paid claims were associated with lower payments. Cases occurring between 2010 to 2025 had higher payments ($344,197) when compared to those that occurred between 1990 to 2010 ($184,000). There also were fewer filings from states with noneconomic-damage and joint-liability reforms.
“Improved understanding of these factors may inform radiology-specific risk mitigation efforts and support evidence-based policy discussions aimed at balancing patient protection with sustainable clinical practice,” Kumari and co-authors concluded. “Future directions for this work include deeper analysis of specific radiologic subspecialties, such as interventional radiology or breast imaging, to assess whether trends in malpractice claims vary by clinical focus. Additional investigation into the role of communication failures, delayed reporting, and cross-disciplinary coordination in malpractice claims may also provide actionable insights.”
Read more, including potential study limitations, in the flagship journal of the Radiological Society of North America.
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.