Douglas G. Burnette Jr., MD, CFP®

Leaving the radiology trenches.

Radiology, as we know it, is over.

Radiologists can only do so much.

Other industries have mandatory retirement ages, should radiology?

Veterans aren’t receiving the care they deserve, says this radiologist.

Will technology make the radiologist obsolete one day?

Mentors need to step in for what medical school doesn’t teach radiologists, like preparing for retirement.

Long hours can decrease a radiologist’s productivity, how should we handle the increasing workload?

Radiologists might find that planning for and enjoying retirement is more challenging than expected.

There was a time when radiologists only had to worry about determining the appropriate study and diagnosing the patient.

Radiologists and cockatoos may share a habit of inefficiency.

Some advice to my fellow members of the radiology field, young and old.

With decreasing reimbursement and increasing workloads, it can be hard to put on a happy face. But we should ask: Are we treating others as we want to be treated?

Radiology incomes will inevitably continue to decline. But like they say, you get what you pay for, and time will tell what that says about the future of medicine.

With the burden of communicating the results of the imaging study resting squarely on our shoulders alone, the prospect of disaster hangs by a thread above all our heads like the sword of Damocles.

If you are a radiologist and haven’t been sued, you will be. But, I don’t think we should be held liable to the same extent as the referring physicians.

More healthcare is not necessarily better. It is, however, more expensive. We need to address the real issues in medicine - not just the politically correct ones.

More healthcare isn't better -- a conversation about smarter healthcare is needed.

Practice Quality Improvement is an excellent ideal, but it can be difficult in practice.

“I wish I could retire sooner” is one of the most frequent comments I hear from colleagues. There are only a few ways most of us can do this.

Here's why the book "The Sorcerer's Apprentice: How Medical Imaging is Changing Health Care" should be required reading for radiologists.

Remember the Golden Years of radiology, when incomes and respect were high? The new generation knows only government regulation reimbursement pressures.

I was once a young radiologist, eager to learn all there was to learn about my craft. Today, I'm in a different season of my life.

These days it’s getting harder to wade through all the negatives to find the positives, and there’s less incentive to do so.

The possibility of moving toward bundled payments makes me nervous. If the hospital divides the pie, radiology services could get short-changed.

The digital age is supposed to mean that information is available quickly and widely. Instead, I am getting less information than ever.

It’s easy to think ill of ER docs ordering unnecessary tests. But they face similar pressures: satisfaction surveys, government guidelines, malpractice threats.

Most radiologists missed the dancing gorilla on the CT scan. A miss is a miss. I hate missing things but know that I do.

If this is the new normal, maybe future radiologists won’t feel the stress of declining reimbursement and oppressive liability. They won’t know any different.