I love to watch the colors change in October, when pink is in full display during Breast Cancer Awareness month. With each hot-pink scarf, T-shirt and pair of football cleats I see, I’m reminded of the vital role radiologists have played – and continue to play – in combatting this disease.

Radiologists are savoring new selections on their CME plan menu: Succinct, quarter-credit case reviews, available free from MEDNAX Radiology Education. Since April 2019, we’ve been making weekly additions to our library of 15-minute Radiology Case Reviews, and radiologists are eating them up.

Burnout has become commonplace among medical professionals, especially radiologists. While increasing caseloads are part of the picture, much of the stress physicians are experiencing comes from areas that distract them from patient care – shifting regulatory requirements, confounding processes and systems that complicate medical practice, hospital politics, or challenges to balancing work life with home life.

Early hype implied that artificial intelligence would replace radiologists. Turns out the opposite is closer to the truth. Without radiologists there is zero potential for the future of AI in diagnostic imaging. Radiologists are integral to model development, testing and validation.

While workflows change to balance growing demand for imaging studies with decreasing capacity, it is essential that patient care is not compromised. Radiology practices must be prepared to invest and adapt for the long term to ensure critical performance metrics remain solid in this volatile environment.

The demand for imaging studies is expected to continue to increase for the foreseeable future. However, the number of radiologists on hand to perform those studies will remain relatively flat, and potentially decline. This is creating a market-wide capacity imbalance that is straining performance across radiology.

For me, the collegiality of the practice of radiology is a highlight of my daily work. When I first considered leaving a traditional practice for teleradiology, I was worried that working remotely would leave me feeling disconnected. In actuality, I’ve never felt more engaged in a supportive and interdependent team committed to delivering quality patient care.

Over 4 billion people – two-thirds of the global population – do not have access to imaging technology or radiology services, according to RAD-AID. The lack of effective diagnostic tools has dire consequences for patients in unserved and underserved regions of the world.

Moving past the initial media hype, practitioners are beginning to demonstrate how AI applications can enhance the ability of radiologists to support better patient outcomes.