r/doctorsUK • u/Fantastic-Visit-8921 • 2h ago
Consultant An honest Radiologist perspective on upcoming impact of AI
I‘ve seen so many posts on here and the RadiologyUK sub regarding the impact of AI on Radiology. There seems to be so much misguided optimism from those in the field so just wanted to give my view on it.
In my opinion, Radiology right now is the best job in the NHS. I have the most work-life balance favoured job plan in the world and with a little WLI and private practice, I easily make £250k a year for working just over 4 days.
But this is all going to change. Within the next 5-10 years, Radiologists will turn into liability sponges whose role is to be final sign off for AI generated reports. The job will honestly be terrible. WLI and private practice payment rates will plummet. Those with heavy practical components will survive for the time being but other specialties will come for some of these procedures once AI impacts them too. Ongoing scope creep from Radiographers etc will also affect this once AI assisted autonomous CT/MR scanning increases. There are NHS trusts which have ultrasound departments solely led by Sonographers - this same thing can happen for fluoroscopy, BAD lists etc. MDTs will likely remain in some form but will dramatically change. This is all combined with a general reduction in Consultant posts available in recent years. I hate to say this but I would never be advising a current Foundation Doctor to apply for Radiology.
Very prepared for this to be mass downvoted by Radiology trainees who I know make up a massive proportion of this Reddit sub but I ask that you provide a decent counter-argument which I will be genuinely interested to read! My personal plan is to extract as much money as possible from the specialty in the next 10 years so I can massively reduce hours once the job is destroyed.