A Wake-up Call for Canadian Radiology: A Message from the President of the Canadian Association of Radiologists

If your day consists solely of reading cases, then remember that can be done by anyone, anywhere! If you bring no added value, if you are not a member of a clinical team, then you can and likely will be replaced. Scary thought, but think about it carefully. Maybe not tomorrow but as hospitals and governments are faced with mounting costs and decreasing revenues, costs will be cut. Physician fee for service income makes up a significant portion of the health care budget. Radiologists are high earners. At the last meeting of the American College of Radiology, the message was loud and clear. Well-established and respected groups of radiologists had their contracts and hospital jobs terminated with little or no notice. They were left with no job. Paul Chang of the University of Chicago School of Medicine in his keynote lecture at the recent Canadian Association of Radiologists (CAR) Annual Scientific Meeting said that we are in a new era. There will be radiologists and groups who will be winners and for the first time, there will be losers. Jobs will be lost. This is happening in the United States and could happen in Canada. The Ontario government, faced with mounting health care costs, is talking seriously about putting physicians on salary. Salary arrangements are always good initially, but it does not take long to fall dangerously behind and become noncompetitive. Will our clinical colleagues support us or offer us up as sacrificial lambs?