2016 to 2023 Saw Decline in U.S. Pediatric Radiologists
MONDAY, Sept. 15, 2025 -- The number of U.S. pediatric radiologists declined from 2016 to 2023, according to a study published online Sept. 9 in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
Tatiana Morales-Tisnés, M.D., from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues used private payer claims data to identify radiology professional services billed by radiologists from 2016 to 2023. Each claim was associated with a work relative value unit (wRVU). For each radiologist, the pediatric and adult wRVUs were calculated annually and overall. Pediatric radiologists were defined by ≥50 percent pediatric wRVUs; upper and lower limits were assessed using ≥25 percent and ≥75 percent thresholds, respectively.
The researchers found that 9,198 (8.4 percent) of the 109,077 unique providers met the ≥50 percent pediatric wRVU threshold. There was a decrease in the annual unique pediatric radiologist count, from 2,190 to 2,032 from 2016 to 2023, as well as a decrease in their proportion as a percentage of all radiologists, from 6.4 to 4.6 percent. The number of unique pediatric radiologists identified for the entire study period was 13,532 (12.4 percent) and 7,456 (6.8 percent), respectively, using the ≥25 and ≥75 percent thresholds, respectively. Across all years and using any of the three threshold percentages, the median percentage of wRVUs attributed to pediatric radiology among nonpediatric radiologists never rose above 0 percent.
"Our findings show that, while the overall radiology workforce has grown, the number of pediatric-focused radiologists has declined, which raises concerns about access to specialized care for children," coauthor Casey Pelzl, M.P.H., from the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute in Reston, Virginia, said in a statement.
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