Radiologist

A radiologist is a qualified healthcare professional who works in radiography. With radiography first being developed in 1895 by the German professor of physics, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, because of the technical problems involved in the use of radiation, it became necessary to have special training for people who use the equipment. This training has become even more important with the development of computerized axial tomography (CAT scan), ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and nuclear medicine.

With the need for trained radiologists in World War I, numbers of Allied doctors were quickly trained in the technique with the Society of Radiographers being established in 1920. The publication of Elementary Physics by Gilbert Stead in 1924 helped provide many medical students with information on radiology and persuade many of them to see radiology as a new field of medical endeavor.

In the United States it is necessary for diagnostic radiologists to complete five years of postgraduate training after their four years of medical school. The first of these postgraduate years involves a preliminary internship in medicine and/or surgery, after which there is a four-year diagnostic radiology residency. During these last four years, trainees have to pass oral and written national examinations, with two separate written examinations required for the trainee to receive an accreditation certificate from the American Board of Radiology.

In the United Kingdom, the training required to become a diagnostic radiologist include a medical degree followed by accreditation by the Royal College of Radiologists in London. It was founded in 1939 and its membership includes oncologists as well as radiologists. [Page 1465]It publishes the Clinical Radiology Journal monthly and Clinical Oncology every two months. Research is also coordinated at the British Institute of Radiology, which was founded in 1897 and has one of the most extensive research libraries for radiologists in the world. It publishes The British Journal of Radiology monthly and Imaging quarterly.

Radiology training in Australia and New Zealand involves the completion of a six-year medical degree, followed by at least two years of hospital residency as an intern and then as a junior house medical officer, followed by five years of which one of these can be a fellowship. There is then a series of two written examinations covering anatomy and physics in regard to radiology (after one year) and then clinical and diagnostic radiology and pathology in the fourth year. The trainee can then apply for accreditation by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiology. In other countries, there are similar systems of accreditation.