What do radiologists actually do?
Radiologists play an important role in your health care in several different ways. First, they act as an expert consultant to your referring physician (the doctor who sent you to the radiology department or clinic for testing). They will aid him or her in choosing the examination that fits your needs. Then the radiologist will assist by interpreting the resulting medical images and recommending further scans or treatments when necessary. When referring doctors say they have reviewed the radiology scans and reports, they usually mean they have gone over the study with the attending radiologist. It isn’t just diagnostic testing, either. Radiologists also treat diseases by means of radiation (radiation oncology) or minimally invasive, image-guided surgery (interventional radiology). Physicians also rely on radiologists to correlate medical image findings with other examinations and tests.
