Radiologist shortage harms faculty/resident ratio

Clinical demands squeeze teaching efforts and conferences at many institutions

The Residency Review Committee for Diagnostic Radiology requires a 1:1 faculty-resident ratio, but more and more programs are having difficulty meeting that standard. The requirement is likely to change from 1:1 to "sufficient" faculty, according to committee chair Dr. Kay Vydareny, a professor of radiology at Emory University.

Program reviews revealed that some people were already creating methods to skirt the ratio requirement, such as including people who weren't actively involved in training, Vydareny said.

Feedback from site visits indicates that many residents feel the faculty pinch. They say they get less teaching and that an increasing number of conferences are canceled because of clinical needs.

"The residents feel acutely that things are not as good as they want them to be in the realm of teaching," Vydareny said.