Updated March 12th, 2025
Radiology is such a diverse, dynamic, and multifaceted specialty. From diagnostic to interventional radiology. From pediatric to musculoskeletal imaging. From ultrasound to MRI to photon-counting CT. There is so much to experience as a radiologist.
But being a radiologist also means accepting responsibility and committing to an ever-evolving, technology-heavy environment. In this article, I want to discuss 7 essential skills to become a better and ultimately a great radiologist.
What Are the Most Important Skills for Radiologists to Master?
- Commitment to Technology and Continuous Learning
- Empathy and Communication
- Attention to Detail
- Efficient Time and Workflow Management
- Collaboration
- Good Ethical and Clinical Practice
- Staying Calm Under Pressure
1. Commitment to Technology and Continuous Learning
Every field in medicine is constantly evolving. But in radiology, you are especially and routinley confronted with cutting-edge technology. Even if you´re not working with the most modern technology, you still need to know where the developments are heading. That way you can ensure to know what is best for your patients and how you can diagnose or treat specific conditions the best way.
For example, CT systems with photon-counting detectors have been recently introduced into clinical practice. There are several advantages enabled by these systems and its important to stay up to date.
To stay up to date, you can read scientific publications in the best radiology journals (often open access). In addition, there are many great free online radiology ressources to learn and to look up radiology topics.
2. Empathy and Communication
We radiologists often work behind the scenes. However, we also treat our own patients. Especially in interventional radiology, you may have a lot of patient contact. Therefore, communication and empathy is key and will only be somewhat further down the list, if you´re working as a teleradiologist.
In addition to the patients, you as the radiologist will also be contacted by physicians of various specialties. Be it the neurologist that is treating a patient with suspected stroke or the surgeon whose patient developed abdominal pain days after a surgery. Many will come to you to learn what´s going on with and inside their patients.
Good communication skills are helping to communicate, explain findings, answer questions and ultimately find the best option (diagnostic or interventional) for the individual patient.
3. Attention to Detail
I always liked the tought of solving puzzles in radiology. For me, this is one of the strongest advantages of working as a radiologist. However, solving puzzles mean to have a great attention to detail. This is especially important in both diagnostic and interventional radiology.
If you miss a hair thin line in an X-ray of a trauma patient, you may miss the fracture of the patient. If you miss the discrete hypoattenuation in the liver of a patient, you may miss that there is a metastasis.
Overlooking small things can significantly affect the patient’s progress and even the outcome. By being cautious, thorough, and attentive to detail, you will not only improve your reading skills but also be a great radiologist for your patients and colleague to your referring physicians.
4. Efficient Time and Workflow Management
Radiology workflow management is a foreign word for many radiologists – especially in their first years. It seems difficult and unnecessary to think about optimization of the radiology workflow. However, this is such an important and helpful way to not only facilitate your everyday radiology work but also to improve your skills as a radiologist.
As a radiologist, you will perform several tasks over and over again. Whether it is writing a radiology report, performing an interventional procedure, or discussing a case with your residents. I strongly suggest you to take your time and think about the tasks you repeat the most. It will be worth your time.
There are so many potential adjustmens and improvements in your workflow. For example, you could get a dedicated radiology mouse to facilitate and speed up your reading process. By programming buttons and setting macros you can save so much clicks and time.
Or you could start using templates or structured reporting to speed up the preparation of radiology reports. Even in interventional radiology, there are many tools or novel techniques to use and learn that enable you to step up your radiology game.
5. Collaboration
Many radiologists, myself included, are working in hospitals in smaller or larger teams. Although you are reading “your own” cases most of the time, radiology is also a team game.
If you keep to yourself and ignore the opinions of others, you will miss out on many opportunities to improve yourself and to learn from or teach others. Especially during radiology residency, asking others for their opinion and discussing cases is one of the most important tips to greatly enhance your personal radiology development.
Furthermore, don´t stop by communicating with your colleagues but also connect with and learn from the radiology technologists. Never underestimate the knowledge and experience of rad techs and nurses. Working together and learning from eachother can greatly enhance the experience for both sides and will improve the quality for the patients.
In addition to collaboration with your peers in radiology, you also want to connect with people of other specialties. This is especially important for interdisciplinary patient care but also a great asset if you are doing clinical research. If you plan on conducting a clinical study to write a scientific paper, its great to have the input and help from researchers of other specialties.
6. Good Ethical and Clinical Practice
As a physician, you are a role model. You set an example for patients and colleagues.
Therefore, as a radiologist, you should always be mindful of good clinical and ethical practice. That way you will form a solid foundation of trust and credibility.
While handling sensitive patient data, make sure to maintain confidentiality and discretion. Nowadays, this is especially important when using social media as a medical professional. Make sure that your actions always maintain your professionalism and critically evaluate the information shared online or with people outside of your profession.
In addition, adhere to good clinical practice in your daily work. It should be a matter of course to make responsible decisions, for example, when applying radiation or planning an interventional procedure.
Only performing tests and procedures when they are really medically necessary and reducing radiation and risks while maintaining a high diagnostic yield is one of the challenges of being a radiologist.
7. Staying Calm Under Pressure
We radiologists don´t always chill in front of our monitors with a cup of coffee in one hand and a microphone in the other (or a dictation headset on our head).
There are a lot of high-stress scenarios in radiology, especially during critical emergency cases or while performing imaging guided radiology interventions.
Most radiologists are familiar with a scenario like this:
You have a polytrauma patient undergoing a full-body CT.
While the images are coming in, several doctors are standing behind you. Neurosurgeons, trauma surgeons, vascular surgeons, visceral surgeons, neurologists, anesthesiologists… All want to know whats up with their anatomical region of interest and if there is something going on that they need to treat immediately.
In situations like this, you have to stay calm and keep your cool. Stick to your reading routine. Look at the most important regions first according to the protocol and course of the accident. This is easier said than done – especially if multiple people are talking at you and if there is a lot going on in the patient.
Ultimately, staying calm under pressure is an important skill that most radiologists dont just bring it with them but learn it over time. It can help watching others (more experienced) colleagues in various scenarios but in the end, thats a skill that needs to be trained and experienced rather than be read in a book (or a blog post).
Happy reporting!
