What is it like to live the life of a radiologist? This is a broad question and the answer, like most things in life, comes as a spectrum. In this post, I’ll cover the more ubiquitous features that tend to exist across jobs. I’ll also highlight some of the more common radiology job setups out there as well as some more unique positions that exist. Take-home point: with all of this variability, there’s something for everyone!
What is a Radiologist?
Radiologists are medical doctors/physicians that specialize in diagnosing and/or treating a wide range of medical conditions ranging from traumatic injuries to various cancers. Regardless of their subspecialty, all radiologists are trained to interpret (commonly referred to as “read”) basic radiology examinations including radiography (x-rays), fluoroscopy (video x-ray), ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine including positron emission tomography (PET), and mammography.
All radiologists were once medical students who have obtained an undergraduate degree completing specific medicine prerequisites, completed medical school, and completed either a diagnostic radiology residency program or interventional radiology residency program. The vast majority of diagnostic radiologists subspecialize and complete a 1- or 2-year fellowship. All radiologists gain experience within all subspecialties throughout their radiology training including diagnostic imaging procedures and clinical training via their interventional radiology rotations.
All radiologists spend a great deal of their time in “reading rooms” where we interpret imaging studies. And smart clinicians always know where to find us – in our reading rooms. In diagnostic radiology, this is our happy place! 🙂
(For more information, check out my post: What is a Radiologist? Everything You Need to Know!)
Becoming a Radiologist
Radiologists typically complete four years of undergraduate school, four years of medical school, and a five-year residency in diagnostic radiology (inclusive of an internship/transitional year) or six-year interventional radiology (inclusive of an intern year with built-in surgical rotations and an additional year of interventional radiology, essentially inclusive of a 1-year fellowship).
(For you college and medical students out there, you can learn all you need to know at How to Become a Radiologist: The Comprehensive Guide.)
Radiologist Job Description
The life of a radiologist can be quite variable as radiology jobs come in many different forms. There is a significant overlap of job types as well as numerous opportunities within leadership, quality, advocacy, governmental policy, etc. within most jobs. Most practices, regardless of the work setting, are involved in interdisciplinary conferences such as tumor boards.
Common practice settings include academics, private practice, hybrid practices, hospital or healthcare organization employed (e.g. Kaiser Permanente), teleradiology, and locum tenens. There is wide variability between and within each practice setting, which means you’re bound to find something that fits your desired work environment.
Radiologist Hours and Call
Full-time radiologists generally work an average of about 40-60 hours per week and work a combination of day shifts, swing shifts, and/or night shifts.
Typical day shift hours are in the neighborhood of 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and include onsite coverage (hospitals and clinics) and remote/virtual shifts.
Swing shifts generally fall in the 7-12 hour range and provide evening/”after hours” coverage. Swing shifts are highly variable with examples ranging from 11:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. – 3:00 a.m. from my personal experience.
Night shifts span the deep hours of the night and early morning (e.g., 9:00 p.m. – 7:00 a.m.). Some practices use teleradiology services to outsource evening/night cases or may have their own internal teleradiology set up on an opposite coast or in Hawaii to allow for more palatable working hours.
Interventional radiologists may take night calls a night at a time or via a night float system (1 week at a time) on a weekly or monthly basis, which may consist of a pager call from home or include diagnostic radiology responsibilities. Interventional radiologists may get called in to perform critical, life-saving interventional procedures and occasionally urgent procedures in very sick patients that are unable to wait until the next morning such as transhepatic biliary drainage or nephrostomy catheter placement for patients with an underlying mechanical obstruction.
For practices with swing shifts, a diagnostic radiologist does not typically take call. Instead, they sign off their reports and go home with the knowledge that they can put work aside until their next shift (peace of mind is a wonderful thing).
Average Radiologist Salary
How Much Does a Radiologist Make in a Year? A radiologist’s salary can vary depending on experience, location, and other factors. However, the average annual salary of a radiologist is $430,890 (ranging from $374,590 to $498,390) according to Salary.com (as of February 25, 2022).
Radiologists are either paid by time (how many hours they work) or by productivity (how many relative value units – RVUs – they read within a shift). There are pros and cons to both models and some groups use a hybrid method, paying based on time and having the potential for a productivity bonus. Annual income can vary widely between and within radiology practices as there are frequently opportunities to pick up extra shifts or sell shifts.
Radiologists working night shifts and swing shifts at some groups will have higher pay, shorter hours, more time off, or some combination of these factors to incentivize people to work these less desirable hours. Some groups will also do this for other less desirable shifts such as weekends and holidays.
Academic radiologists typically have lower salaries and less vacation. The average day in the life of an academic radiologist is typically less grueling than private practice and hybrid groups in terms of productivity expectations (though they may have other stresses related to their research productivity).
Salaries and rates are incredibly variable as mentioned above. Regardless, suffice it to say, you should be okay financially. If your $400k+/year job isn’t enough, you may be living beyond your means.
Oh, and taxes. Radiologists pay a LOT in taxes. High W2/1099 salary jobs result in a large amount of taxable income and quickly put you in one of the highest tax brackets. A $400k annual income will result in $120-170k in taxes (rough estimates), depending on where you live, leaving you with take-home pay of $230-280k.
Day in the Life of a Radiologist
A Typical Day
7:30 a.m.: Clean workstation (COVID-19 era), login to the workstation, and start reading cases. Radiologists will start by reading any unread inpatient or emergency room cases from the night before/early morning and ICU exams (for optimal patient care) and then switch to reading outpatient cases and new emergency room and inpatient cases throughout the day.
12:00 p.m. (+/- an hour): Eat lunch at your workstation while reading cases, give noon conference or tumor board. Then resume reading cases until 5:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m.: Finish up any pending cases or communicate unexpected findings to referring clinicians and go home. Radiology falls into shift work for those not taking call. That means when we go home, we generally don’t have to think about work – yay!
While this may sound pretty simple, radiologists are operating at a high level essentially nonstop for 9-10 hours, which can be quite exhaustive.