Radiology’s Perfect Storm: Workforce Gaps, Aging Patients, and AI

Radiology is at a tipping point. In her recent article for HC Innovation Group, Inflo Health CEO Angela Adams, RN explores the “perfect storm” facing imaging today:

• An aging population driving demand. By 2030, nearly one in five Americans will be over age 65, a group that already accounts for 30% of all imaging.
• A shrinking workforce. Radiologists are leaving the workforce at higher-than-expected rates, leaving more than 2,000 open positions nationwide.
• An explosion of AI findings. With over 500 FDA-cleared algorithms in radiology, AI is surfacing more incidental findings than care teams can manage.

Together, these forces are creating bottlenecks that put patient safety and provider liability at risk. Missed or delayed follow-up imaging can allow disease to progress undetected, and health systems can no longer rely on manual processes or workarounds to keep up.

A Path Forward: High-Reliability Follow-Up Systems

Angela argues that the solution lies not in asking radiologists and care teams to do more, but in building high-reliability follow-up systems that:

• Automate identification of actionable findings and follow-ups
• Orchestrate communication and outreach without adding manual work
• Integrate directly into EHR workflows for seamless tracking
• Engage patients with automated reminders and scheduling prompts
• Continuously monitor and improve performance with analytics

By automating tedious tasks and streamlining communication, these systems free clinicians to focus on what matters most: patient care.

Why It Matters

Radiology leaders face a choice. Without system-level innovation, the next decade will bring more delays, more gaps, and more risk. But by investing in integrated, reliable follow-up management, health systems can transform AI’s growing power into a patient-safety advantage rather than a liability.

Read the full article in Healthcare Innovation here:
https://www.hcinnovationgroup.com/imaging/blog/55312093/radiologys-perfect-storm-around-workforce-gaps-an-aging-population