Funding and incentives for resident education in an era of radiologist shortages, increasing workload, and financial constraints.

Abstract

Training the next generation of radiologists is essential given the ongoing national radiologist shortage. However, funding residency positions and incentivizing high-quality resident education remains a challenge. Increasing demand for imaging leading to increased radiologist workloads and moonlighting, the rise of remote work, and the use of productivity measures that value clinical work over time spent on resident education may create barriers to high-quality resident education. This paper outlines graduate medical education (GME) funding sources, the direct and indirect costs of training radiology residents, resident contributions to their departments, and the support needed to facilitate academic faculty to deliver high-quality resident education. Incorporating teaching activities into productivity measures, offering a clinician-educator path to promotion, supporting professional development, and recognizing excellence in teaching can help incentivize a focus on resident education. Additionally, diversifying clinical work with educational activities and appropriately compensating faculty may help increase faculty's enthusiasm for resident education, promote job satisfaction, and improve morale.