January/February 2026 Issue
5 Things to Watch in 2026
By Dave Yeager
Radiology Today
Vol. 27 No. 1 P. 22
News and Notes From RSNA 2025
The big news at RSNA this year was the snowstorm that scrambled many a travel plan (including mine). Despite the uncooperative weather, attendance was only slightly lower than 2024, with 37,000 to 38,000 attendees estimated for 2025, compared with 39,000 to 40,000 for 2024.
The theme of this year’s show was “Imaging the Individual.” RSNA 2025 President Umar Mahmood, MD, PhD, discussed the growth and potential of precision medicine in his address to kick off the opening session. Mahmood noted several advances in precision medicine, such as theranostics and immunotherapies, as well as the increasing ability to perform opportunistic screening, which offers the potential to identify medical conditions before they become symptomatic. He urged radiologists to embrace the dual nature of radiology’s mission, which he described as a shared purpose as a global community and a focus on the individual patient.
Geoffrey S. Ginsburg, MD, PhD, followed Mahmood with an update on one of the largest precision medicine research programs in the world, “Advancing Precision Medicine for the United States: The ‘All of Us’ Research Program.” To date, the “All of Us” research program has 865,000 participants who have donated their personal data, including imaging, genomic, and EHR data. Its goal is to build the world’s largest multimodal, searchable database, potentially leading to greater precision in diagnosis and treatment.
Precision and efficiency were common themes throughout the conference. Whether intended to address staffing shortfalls, reduce burnout, improve access, or lower costs, the focus on doing more with less was pervasive. In one way or another, precision and efficiency play a role in each of this year’s five things to watch. With the usual caveat that the list is not exhaustive and merely a collection of trends that I find notable, let’s begin.
1. Cardiac Imaging
There was a significant uptick in hardware and software related to cardiac imaging. Many hospitals have shown a preference for a single radiology and cardiology PACS. This, of course, reduces costs, but it also makes it easier to access all of a patient’s imaging in one place. On the scanner side, better imaging improves patient care, and cardiovascular disease is still the most common cause of death in the United States. Along with these drivers, CMS significantly increased reimbursement for outpatient CT angiography in 2024, and more reimbursement changes are expected in the future (see page 12).
2. Reengineered MRI
There were quite a few advances in MRI machines this year. MRI demand is soaring, and many machines featured new protocols that allow scans to be done faster, improving access to MRI for patients and increasing the number of scans a hospital or imaging center can perform in a day.
There are also features to help radiologic technologists. Many scanners have tables that are easier to adjust and overhead cameras that detect a patient’s position, helping techs determine optimal positioning. Additionally, many manufacturers now offer remote consultation services so more experienced rad techs can remotely help less experienced ones perform MRI exams. A few vendors now also have the capability to remotely run the exam.
Sustainability and energy savings are also factors. Many machines were outfitted with features that make them more energy efficient. One of the most notable developments of the past few years, however, is that some vendors now have machines that require very little helium. With helium costs rapidly increasing, smaller hospitals and imaging centers are finding these options particularly attractive.
3. Cloud Services
Interest in the cloud continues to grow. Most PACS vendors offer a combination of cloud and onsite services, depending on a customer’s preference. As the costs of maintaining an on-site data center continue to add up, those preferences are often skewing toward the cloud. Perhaps a sign of this growing demand is that some companies describe themselves as “cloud-native” to highlight their skill set. It’s a term I heard more than a couple of times.
4. Radiologist Recruitment
It’s no secret that radiologists are in high demand. I counted somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 recruiters along Recruiters Row. The recruiters ran the gamut from on-site to remote to locum tenens.
The reasons for the radiologist shortage are many. They include burnout, imaging demand, and the time it takes to train new radiologists. A white paper from Medicus Healthcare Solutions, “Navigating the Radiologist Shortage,” estimates that there are approximately 13 radiologists for every 100,000 people in the United States. The white paper notes that radiologist attrition rates have gone up 50% since 2020 and that imaging utilization is projected to grow significantly by 2055.
Reducing radiologist burnout is one way to help extend the workforce. There were several sessions dedicated to the topic, including a plenary session, “System Interventions to Foster Well-Being” by Tait Shanafelt, MD. Shanafelt noted that radiologists’ cognitive load for performing their jobs is quite high, even among medical professionals. Compounding this issue is the fact that radiologists frequently work alone, leading to social isolation.
In Shanafelt’s view, it is necessary to reconsider how work gets done. He believes that 80% of the burnout issue is attributable to the organization that employs the radiologist and 20% is attributable to the individual. He sees personal growth, possibly with the help of a coach, and finding meaning in the work as potential ways to reduce burnout. Importantly, he sees an organization’s leader as a key factor in this process, and he encourages wellness-centered leadership.
This idea was echoed in Andrew K. Moriarty, MD, MBA’s Fast 5 talk, “Building Culture at Scale: How Shared Ownership Restores Our Individuality in Radiology.” Moriarty noted that transparency and employee empowerment help create a positive work culture, and a positive work culture generates a sense of individual and shared purpose.
5. Fewer Clicks
Another way to reduce burnout is to simplify processes. In the case of radiologic technologists, fewer buttons to push results in faster scans and reduced risk for overuse injuries. Simpler processes also allow hospitals and imaging centers to utilize rad techs for a broader range of scans.
For radiologists, fewer clicks throughout the image interpretation process not only saves time but also reduces distractions. This is especially so when it comes to radiology reporting. Voice recognition software and structured reports have helped, but the process still requires significant editing. In his talk, “The Future of Diagnostic Imaging,” Eliot Siegel, MD, estimated that radiologists spend 85% of their time on administrative tasks and 15% on image interpretations.
Siegel expects that AI-assisted workflow will bring significant changes to radiology. He notes AI’s ability to summarize large volumes of data in a short period of time and provide feedback is a massive time saver. In addition to creating impressions with data insights for radiologists, AI can potentially follow up to ensure recommendations are acted on or help create different radiology reports for different audiences (eg, referring physicians, patients).
AI’s potential is exciting, and it offers myriad possibilities, but it must also be used judiciously, said Zeynep Tufecki, PhD, in her plenary session lecture, “Everyone Is Having the Wrong Nightmares: AI’s True Threats.” Tufecki, a sociologist and writer, noted that it is difficult to envision how technology will be used, and technology that is considered “good enough” and used on a large scale can have a transformative effect, for good or ill. She urged the audience to keep the big picture in mind when considering how to use AI.
Although AI can make many tasks easier, Tufecki said, it will require new workflows. Because it removes friction from a process, such as the many processes involved with radiology workflow, it will have a destabilizing effect. It will become necessary to reimagine the entire process, she said.
As radiology continues reimagining itself, there will no doubt be progress and pitfalls along the way. We’ll see what process updates RSNA 2026 brings.
— Dave Yeager is the editor of Radiology Today.
