Business of Radiology 101: The State of Radiology Business Practice and Health Care Policy Curricula at US Radiology Residency Programs

Practice Management and Health Policy Education in Radiology: An Emerging Imperative

“…Traditional education and training programs, however, have left most physicians ill equipped to assume roles as change agents [2], including radiologists [3,4]. Accordingly, the ACGME, ABR, and other organizations overseeing or participating in postgraduate medical education have launched initiatives to foster and support efforts to fill in this gap.…”

“…In this paper, we (1) review the need for physician education in practice management and health policy; (2) detail the history and requirements of the ACGME and ABR health care economics milestone [10] as it pertains to radiology; and [3] outline various mechanisms by which radiology residency programs can comply with both the letter and spirit of these requirements. In addition, we describe our own new comprehensive pilot curriculum, Practice Management, Health Policy, and Professionalism for Radiology Residents (P 3 R 2 ); we hope this model will help others seeking to develop practice management and health policy curricula to comply with these new imperatives.…”

“…THE "BUSINESS EDUCATION" IMPERATIVE Over the past decade, medical educators have begun to speak and write increasingly about the need for formalized curricula in practice management and health policy [3,[11][12][13][14]. Although some nonradiology specialty publications have recently advocated increased teaching and training in these areas, most specialties, radiology among them [3], have yet to develop uniform structured programs [15][16][17].…”

“…Although some nonradiology specialty publications have recently advocated increased teaching and training in these areas, most specialties, radiology among them [3], have yet to develop uniform structured programs [15][16][17]. Medverd et al [3] recently surveyed the state of radiology business education and healthy policy curricula in the United States and found that, despite the perception that such programs have a high level of importance, their quality varies considerably. Most respondents found their own programs to be at best only moderately effective.…”

“…Most respondents found their own programs to be at best only moderately effective. Despite ongoing calls in various specialties for more robust practice management and health policy curricula [13,16,18], most radiology residency programs, historically, have not emphasized education in this and other noninterpretive skills areas [3].…”