According to a host of industry sources, the state of the radiology market is not a pretty picture. With the number of exams and reads skyrocketing year-over-year, there are fewer than 40,000 practicing radiologists, and over 15% of them are clustered within the top 100 radiology groups.
In addition to this severe imbalance in the market, a mere 1,000 new rads are entering practice each year, while over half of practicing radiologists are age 55 and over, causing experts to anticipate massive shortfalls of radiologists in the next ten years. Adding to the urgency of the problem is the rate at which the U.S. population is aging, since older adult populations historically place even greater demands on radiology services.
What other factors are destabilizing the supply and demand of radiologists today?
Beyond the numbers, there are huge discrepancies in the availability of radiologists in under-resourced markets and rural areas around the country, and it is daunting to adequately staff hospitals and imaging centers after hours and on weekends across all markets.
As an early response to a seemingly-insatiable demand for radiology services within the healthcare ecosystem in America, the field of teleradiology emerged in the early 1990s with the rise of the internet and the creation of the DIACOM® standard. Since that time, a relatively small number of major players have entered the market, and through a series of consolidations and the fierce preservation of mediocre standards and outdated delivery solutions, few advancements or innovations have propelled the field of teleradiology forward. In spite of these encumbrances, the telerad market was estimated at $11.8 billion in 2018; when factoring in a CAGR of 23.8%, the market will grow beyond $65 billion by 2026.