Clinical Practice Characteristics of Radiologists Based on American Board of Radiology Interventional Radiology Certification Status.

Abstract

<b>OBJECTIVE.</b> The objective of this study was to assess clinical practice characteristics of radiologists on the basis of American Board of Radiology (ABR) interventional radiology (IR) certification status. <b>MATERIALS AND METHODS.</b> Medicare-participating radiologists were linked with ABR diplomates using the ABR's public search engine. Radiologists with an interventional radiology/diagnostic radiology (IR/DR) certificate (offered since 2017) were deemed currently IR-certified (<i>n</i> = 2840), and those assigned a vascular and interventional radiology subspecialty certificate (now defunct by the ABR) were deemed previously IR-certified (<i>n</i> = 900). Physician characteristics were obtained from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) data. <b>RESULTS.</b> Overall, the mean percentage work effort in IR was higher for radiologists currently IR-certified than it was for radiologists who were previously IR-certified (65.9% vs 30.6%). Although 41.2% of currently IR-certified diplomates had more than 90% IR work effort, 35.7% had 50% or less IR work effort. Radiologists with current IR certification versus those with previous IR certification were more likely to be in an academic practice (25.1% vs 8.4%), a larger practice (in a practice with ≥ 100 members, 41.2% vs 22.4%), and earlier career stages (≤ 20 years in practice, 46.5% vs 0.6%). Of the 10 services most commonly billed by currently versus previously IR-certified radiologists, two and zero, respectively, were invasive procedures. Of identified CMS-participating radiologists with more than 50% IR effort, 27.2% (727/2670) were neither previously nor currently IR-certified. <b>CONCLUSION.</b> Although radiologists maintaining IR certification have higher IR work effort than those whose IR certification has lapsed, they are heterogeneous with overall sizable noninvasive diagnostic imaging practices. Approximately one-quarter of radiologists with predominant IR practices have never obtained IR certification. Because current IR/DR maintenance of certification testing exclusively addresses IR practice, attention is warranted to ensure certification is relevant to all IR diplomates.