Burnout, workforce shortages, and locally trained clinicians leaving the field are the top concerns among radiologists worldwide, according to survey findings published on 27 January by teleradiology company Everlight Radiology.
The report, titled Radiology Unlocked: The Global Radiologist Report 2025, also outlined the challenges of radiologists working night shifts, with many believing that overnight work leads to impaired performance.
"Another survey shows that radiology is in crisis, with the familiar themes being increasing burnout, mushrooming workload, workforce issues, and lack of true support for existing hospital-based consultants," Dr. Paul McCoubrie, consultant radiologist at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, U.K., told AuntMinnieEurope.com. "But it's a survey of substance that deserves a wider audience."
Everlight, a teleradiology service provider based in London, sought to identify top concerns among radiologists and how their current work may add to these concerns. The company also explored perceptions among radiologists on how overnight work impacts their performance and their thoughts on teleradiology.
The authors included data from 708 radiologists based in 50 countries around the world. They reported the following findings:
- Over half (53%) of respondents identified burnout as their top concern. Workforce shortages (49%) and locally trained clinicians leaving the field (40%) followed.
- Most radiologists (88%) reported having worked night shifts at some point in their careers, with 36% still regularly required to work these shifts.
- Nearly half (47%) of respondents said that working night shifts reduces diagnostic accuracy. An additional 63% believe that overnight work has a negative impact on their performance and patient care, with 61% of radiologists reporting impaired performance the following day.
The authors highlighted that teleradiology could help in this area. This service rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic when non-emergency hospital staff were forced to do more remote work.
The survey found that 98% of radiologists recognize the benefits of teleradiology. Of these, 73% cited its ability to help in-house teams clear backlogs, while 72% cited its utility in reducing workload pressures.
Experts and previous studies are also looking into AI’s potential to lessen radiologists's workloads so that they can focus more on patient care. However, 57% of respondents said they do not use AI routinely in their clinical roles, despite most radiologists in the report viewing the technology as having value as a support tool for radiologists.
The report authors wrote that with these results in mind, there is a need to invest in capacity and development with the aim of attracting and retaining talent and prioritizing work-life balance to mitigate the effects of burnout. They also called for such initiatives to minimize overnight work to reduce its negative impact on both patient care and doctor well-being and to promote sensible AI adoption to better support radiologists.
Radiology leaders continue to find and explore ways that radiologists are dealing with current and persistent challenges in the field. Previous reports have explored contributors to physician burnout and how more medical professionals can be attracted to radiology.
The teleradiologist's perspective
This is a survey by a teleradiology company and hence inevitably has to be viewed through that lens, emphasized McCoubrie, who has been a regular columnist on AuntMinnieEurope.com since 2013.
"However, I quite like this one -- it’s different in that it is a global survey, albeit selected largely developed countries," he said. "It’s also different in that it shows that even teleradiologists have the same fears as hospital-based radiologists: night working for older radiologists, inadequate shop-floor staffing, not enough residents in training, and a lack of flexibility in existing careers (affecting both young and old radiologists alike)."
Click here for the full report.
