Dear AuntMinnie Member,
We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but here goes: average salaries for radiologists and radiologic technologists (RTs) dropped in 2007, reversing years of steady income growth in these professions.
At least, that's the conclusion of the 2008 edition of AuntMinnie.com's annual SalaryScan survey of compensation and benefit plans for radiology professionals. This year's SalaryScan is based on the responses of thousands of AuntMinnie members who participated in our survey between January and March of 2008.
Times are apparently getting tougher for many of those members. The average base salary for U.S. radiologists slipped 2% last year from the year before. And while average base salaries for RTs were down less in percentage terms, the profession failed to show any wage growth.
Is the drop a sign that radiology's long-standing personnel shortage is now becoming a glut? Did the shortfall extend to other professions, such as radiology administrators and PACS/RIS managers? Find out by clicking here.
SalaryScan data for various radiology professions and regions can be reviewed in AuntMinnie.com's Job Boards at jobs.auntminnie.com. You can search and sort data based on profession, modality, and region, in addition to other factors. And if you're not happy with what you're getting paid, view our listings of currently available jobs.
New ACRIN US breast screening results
In other news, the latest results are in from the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) 6666 trial, which is assessing the effectiveness of breast ultrasound in a screening environment. The results were released today in the May 14 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
ACRIN 6666 investigators, led by Dr. Wendie Berg, Ph.D., found that using ultrasound as part of a breast screening exam along with mammography can identify more disease in a population of women with an elevated cancer risk. However, the improved sensitivity came at the expense of more false positives.
Get more details on the story by clicking here, or visit our Ultrasound Digital Community at ultrasound.auntminnie.com.
News from MDCT show
Finally, check out our CT Digital Community this week for coverage from Stanford University's International Symposium on Multidetector-Row CT in Las Vegas. One vendor got a jump on the conference by announcing the commercial availability of its new flagship CT scanner in an article you can read by clicking here.
