Recruiting Future Radiologists: How Can We Do Better?

Abstract

Medical students starting their education today will become the radiologists of tomorrow. While the numbers of medical students applying for US radiology residency programs through the Match have remained fairly stable over the past several years ( 1 Association of American Medical Colleges. ERAS applicants – diagnostic radiology 2018. Available from: https://www.aamc.org/download/358842/data/radiology-diagnostic.pdf. Accessed February, 2019. Google Scholar ), there is reason to examine our current recruitment practices. Our field faces a number of challenges in this arena: the division of diagnostic and interventional radiology (IR) residency programs, the decreasing time available for teaching and mentoring medical students, the impact of medical school debt on choice of postgraduate training, and the development of new technology, including artificial intelligence, that may quickly change the face of our profession. We must address these issues for medical students in order to continue attracting them to our field.