Analysis of trend in radiology subspecialties in the UK

Abstract

Sir—Radiology is a rapidly expanding field in modern medicine. Twenty years ago radiologists spent almost all of their time interpreting plain films and there was little subspecialization. Since then many imaging and therapeutic techniques have been introduced to radiology, and there is still more to come, resulting in much greater subspecialization, in similar manner to internal medicine. Nowadays, general radiology textbooks are more like Harrison's Textbook of Internal Medicine. They cover all the radiological subspecialties in broad terms and readers are referred to subspecialty books for in-depth information. Also in a similar manner to internal medicine, radiology registrars start their first 3 years of training in general radiology, and for the last 2 years they develop an interest in a subspecialty where they spend most of their time learning their chosen field in-depth. The various subspecialties currently offered in the UK are: chest, cardiovascular/interventional, neuro-radiology, genitourinary, musculo-skeletal, paediatric, gastrointestinal, and nuclear medicine. Re: Analysis of trends in radiology subspecialties in the UKClinical RadiologyVol. 63Issue 3PreviewSir—It is absolutely right that Haydar and colleagues (letters November 2007),1 as radiology trainees, should be taking a keen interest in the future workforce requirements for consultant radiologists. Their findings concur with our previous findings that in the recent past there has been a relative undersupply of UK-trained radiologists for the UK consultant posts becoming available. As they rightly point out, there has been an increase in training numbers in the past 3 years to meet this shortfall. Full-Text PDF