Radiologic Technologists and Technicians

AUTOMATION RISK

CALCULATED

58%

risk level

POLLING

48%

Based on 257 votes

LABOR DEMAND

GROWTH

6.3%

by year 2032

WAGES

$73,410

or $35.29 per hour

Volume

221,170

as of 2023

SUMMARY

JOB SCORE

5.4/10

58% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): Occupations with a moderate risk of automation usually involve routine tasks but still require some human judgment and interaction.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Sentiment

The following graph(s) are included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Radiologic Technologists and Technicians' was $73,410, or $35 per hour

'Radiologic Technologists and Technicians' were paid 52.7% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

Wages over time

Comments

Trevor 11 days ago

The main issue is taking an x-ray or getting a scan that is not easy to get. A lot of imaging done (mainly in hospitals over outpatient) is not perfect. Patients can not always hold still, get into position, or their condition does not allow for the intended imaging. I believe that if only technologists voted on this they would all say there is little to no chance. The people voting is likely not made of all technologist. Personally I think there is a small chance that AI could take my job. One of the newer CT scanners I use can automatically scan the patient and recon the scans with almost no input by me. But actually scanning the patient is such a small percent of what actually happens. There would need to be a major breakthrough in imaging equipment or AI in order for this to be possible.

0 0 Reply

Brandon (Low) 1 year ago

The meticulous work done by a radiological technician is extremely difficult to replace through artificial intelligence. The reason being, the contrast in faults that could be the cause of the same problem.

Fortunately, there are also too many different makes of machines. For one robot to be programmed to fault find and fix all makes of x-ray machines is going to take at least 40 years to develop, which won't be worth an engineer's effort based on its purpose.

This job will not become redundant in the next 20 years.

0 0 Reply

Tara 1 year ago

The computerization of the images produced by xray technologists will certainly become more impressive, but you can't tell me a robot or AI understands how to get a chest xray on a kyphotic 90 year old, nor does it know how to position patients in general. This is hands-on medical care. A robot cannot help a patient that is vomiting, or put in an IV. Like nursing, the people part will remain. The rest of the tech can happily advance.

0 0 Reply

Smith (Uncertain) 3 years ago

Technology might be better at noticing discrepancies compared to the normal, but the human touch will always be needed in the healthcare field to calm patients.

0 0 Reply

Avaneesh Babu 3 years ago

Radiologists do more than just read scans, they interpret and understand these x-rays and speak to patients. I know that IT is taking strands towards this level, but they cannot ever converse with humans with the same efficiency.

0 0 Reply

Evolution 4 years ago

AI is better in interpreting x-ray than human.

0 1 Reply

Adrian 3 years ago

Well that's the radiologists work, rad techs pretty much only work the modalities and patients to get a picture that the radiologist can describe.

0 0 Reply

Keiko Taisho (Low) 4 years ago

There’s no technology for the robots to work with the patients on a personal level

0 0 Reply