The time attending radiologists spend on resident education has decreased, even though overall workloads have increased, according to a study published October 22 in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
Researchers collaborating under the auspices of the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute (HPI) found "a 19% drop-in rate of cases read with a trainee among teaching radiologists [between 2008 and 2019], representing a significant and meaningful decrease," said lead author Judah Burns, MD, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY, in a statement released by HPI. But radiologists' aggregate workload increased 80% during the same time frame.
Although anecdotal evidence suggests that overall workload increases put up a barrier against engaging in resident training activities, the trend hasn't been investigated, Burns and colleagues noted. To do so they conducted a study that used Medicare Part B claims data between 2008 and 2020 to track the workload of 35,595 radiologists.
The investigators found that the percentage of total clinical workload (measured in relative value units, or RVUs) that involved resident training dropped from 35.3% in 2008 to 26.3% in 2019. In 2020, during the COVID pandemic, it dropped further to 24.5%. But they also found that radiologists' aggregate workload increased by 80% during the time frame, a surge absorbed somewhat by an increase in the total number of radiologists who read cases with residents -- from 20,530 in 2008 to 22,502 in 2020.
"This increase in workload could impact the time available to dedicate to teaching the next generation of radiologists and has additional implications regarding burnout," said senior author Andrew Rosenkranz, MD, of NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
The study findings underscore "a need to evaluate change in quality and consistency [of teaching work]," said co-author YoonKyung Chung, PhD, of HPI.
"While a subset (top 20%) of teaching radiologists is still doing a majority of their work with residents, this group has also demonstrated the largest drop in teaching workload, which is changing the training landscape," she said.
The complete study can be found here.
