Radiology rises into 10 highest paid specialties with average compensation of $503,564
Radiology has risen into the 10 highest paid physician specialties, according to data released by Doximity on Thursday.
The $503,564 average annual salary puts radiologists 10th on the list for 2022, with surgical specialties filling out the leading six. Those include neurosurgeons at No. 1 ($788,313), followed by specialists in thoracic, orthopedic, plastic, vascular, and oral and maxillofacial surgery. Radiation oncologists, cardiologists and urologists round out the top 10.
This number represents a roughly 1.6% uptick from the radiologist salary figure recorded in the previous Doximity survey ($495,451), released in December 2021, when the specialty placed 12th among the highest paid doc types. Radiology has since surpassed gastroenterology and otolaryngology on the list, Doximity data show.
Overall physician compensation actually dipped slightly year over year, down 2.4% compared to the previous survey. A 2% pay cut in Medicare—following two decades of flat payments—was likely a factor, authors noted. However, the job market still appears robust.
“While the average compensation for U.S. physicians stalled in 2022, the demand for physicians across the U.S. remains high,” Pete Alperin, MD, VP of product at Doximity and an associate professor of internal medicine at Dell Medical School in Austin, Texas, said in a statement. “Our report underscores the considerable pressures physicians face today, as they navigate a growing physician shortage, a tough economic environment, and a looming gender pay gap.”
On average, male doctors earned about $110,000 more than their female colleagues last year. That represents a roughly 26% pay divide between the sexes, and one that persists even when controlling for specialty, location and years of experience, the report noted. Doximity speculated that this may be contributing to burnout, with 92% of women in medicine reporting feeling overworked compared to 83% of men, the survey found.
This is the sixth annual Physician Compensation Report from the San Francisco-based online networking service for professionals, which was founded in 2010. Radiology has seen its average annual pay climb more than 23% since the inaugural survey published in April 2017, when Doximity placed radiology at ninth among the highest paid ($408,000). Dermatology has since fallen behind, going from seventh in the initial survey to 13th in the latest.
The report incorporates self-shared data from more than 190,000 physicians over a six-year period, including 31,000 in the most-recent poll.
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.