How to become a Radiologist 2024

Radiologist Diagnose and treat diseases and injuries using medical imaging techniques, such as x rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine, and ultrasounds. May perform minimally invasive medical procedures and tests.

Radiologist is Also Know as

In different settings, Radiologist is titled as

Attending Physician
Diagnostic Radiologist
Interventional Neuroradiologist
Interventional Radiologist
Musculoskeletal Specialty Radiologist (MSK Specialty Radiologist)
Neuroradiologist
Nuclear Medicine Physician
Nuclear Medicine Specialist
Physician
Radiologist

Education and Training of Radiologist

Radiologist is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Radiologist

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Education Required for Radiologist

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Degrees Related to Radiologist

Training Required for Radiologist

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Radiologist in different industries are

What Do Radiologist do?

Participate in quality improvement activities including discussions of areas where risk of error is high.
Participate in continuing education activities to maintain and develop expertise.
Develop treatment plans for radiology patients.
Establish or enforce standards for protection of patients or personnel.
Review or transmit images and information using picture archiving or communications systems.
Recognize or treat complications during and after procedures, including blood pressure problems, pain, oversedation, or bleeding.
Prepare comprehensive interpretive reports of findings.
Obtain patients' histories from electronic records, patient interviews, dictated reports, or by communicating with referring clinicians.
Confer with medical professionals regarding image-based diagnoses.
Instruct radiologic staff in desired techniques, positions, or projections.
Document the performance, interpretation, or outcomes of all procedures performed.
Develop or monitor procedures to ensure adequate quality control of images.
Coordinate radiological services with other medical activities.
Provide counseling to radiologic patients to explain the processes, risks, benefits, or alternative treatments.
Communicate examination results or diagnostic information to referring physicians, patients, or families.
Perform interventional procedures such as image-guided biopsy, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, transhepatic biliary drainage, or nephrostomy catheter placement.
Perform or interpret the outcomes of diagnostic imaging procedures including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computer tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), nuclear cardiology treadmill studies, mammography, or ultrasound.
Administer radioisotopes to clinical patients or research subjects.
Advise other physicians of the clinical indications, limitations, assessments, or risks of diagnostic and therapeutic applications of radioactive materials.
Calculate, measure, or prepare radioisotope dosages.
Check and approve the quality of diagnostic images before patients are discharged.
Compare nuclear medicine procedures with other types of procedures, such as computed tomography, ultrasonography, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, and angiography.
Direct nuclear medicine technologists or technicians regarding desired dosages, techniques, positions, and projections.
Establish and enforce radiation protection standards for patients and staff.
Formulate plans and procedures for nuclear medicine departments.
Monitor handling of radioactive materials to ensure that established procedures are followed.
Prescribe radionuclides and dosages to be administered to individual patients.
Review procedure requests and patients' medical histories to determine applicability of procedures and radioisotopes to be used.
Teach nuclear medicine, diagnostic radiology, or other specialties at graduate educational level.
Test dosage evaluation instruments and survey meters to ensure they are operating properly.

Qualities of Good Radiologist

Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Radiologist

Automated blood pressure cuffs
Beta vial shields
Bone densitometers
Computed tomography CT equipment
Computed tomography CT systems
Cone-beam collimators
Converging collimators
Desktop computers
Diagnostic ultrasound equipment
Digital ratemeters
Diverging collimators
Dose calibrators
Dosimetry badges
Electrocardiography EKG machines
Exercise bicycles
Fan-beam collimators
Fluoroscopic imaging systems
Gamma cameras
Gamma ray cameras
Glass beakers
Hypodermic syringes
Intravenous IV sets
Laboratory test tubes
Laboratory transfer pipettes
Laptop computers
Magnetic resonance imaging MRI equipment
Magnetic resonance imaging MRI systems
Mechanical stethoscopes
Medical examination protective gloves
Medical picture archiving computer systems PACS
Medical positron emission tomography PET scanners
Medical radiation monitors
Medical safety masks
Medical single photo emission computed tomography SPECT equipment
Medical ultrasound scanners
Mercury blood pressure measuring equipment
Metal laboratory tongs
Microhematocrit centrifuges
Novarad NovaPacs
Parallel-hole collimators
Patient radiation shields
Personal computers
Pinhole collimators
Portable radiation survey meters
Positron emission tomography PET equipment
Radiation measurement phantoms
Radiation shielding gloves
Safety goggles
Scintillation probes
Semiautomated or automatic external defibrillators AED
Single position emission computed tomography/computed tomography SPECT/CT imaging equipment
Single-photon emission computed tomography SPECT cameras
Slant-hole collimators
Stress treadmill machines
Tablet computers
Ultrasound bone density scanners
Well counters
X ray machines

Technology Skills required for Radiologist

ACOM Solutions RAPID EMR
Advanced Data Systems MedicsRis
Allscripts PM
Allscripts Professional EHR
Alteer Office
athenahealth athenaCollector
Automatic Data Processing AdvancedMD EHR
Avreo Radiology Workflow Solutions
Benchmark Systems Benchmark Clinical EHR
Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR
CareCloud Central
Cerner PowerWorks Practice Management
Computer aided image analysis software
Digital image processing software
Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine DICOM medical imaging software
eClinicalWorks EHR software
Email software
Epic Practice Management
Epic Systems
Fujifilm Synapse
GalacTek ECLIPSE
GE Healthcare Centricity EMR
GE Healthcare Centricity Practice Solution
GE Healthcare ViewPoint for Radiology
Greenway Medical Technologies PrimeSUITE
HealthFusion MediTouch
Hosted PACS Solutions
Infinite Radiology Opal-RAD
IOS Health Systems Medios EHR
Kareo Practice Management
Maplewood Software StaffReady
McKesson Practice Plus
McKesson Radiology Manager
MEDITECH software
medQ Q/ris
Merge Healthcare Merge RIS
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Word
MIM Software MIMcardiac
MIM Software MIMfusion
MIM Software MIMneuro
Modernizing Medicine Practice Management
Motion correction software
mPlexus DICOM RadiX
NextGen Healthcare Information Systems EMR
NextGen Healthcare NextGen Practice Management
Patient electronic medical record EMR software
Patient management software
Radiopharmacy inventory databases
RamSoft PowerServer RIS/PACS
Scheduling software
simplifyMD
SOAPware EMR
Vitera Healthcare Solutions Vitera Intergy
Voice recognition software
Web browser software
WRSHealth EMR

US Universities

How to become Radiologist in 2024