If you're a patient looking for more information on radiology, an excellent source of information is RadiologyInfo.org. The website provides explanations for many radiologic procedures and therapies and provides information on how various x-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, radiation therapy and other procedures are performed. The website also addresses what patients may experience and how to prepare for the exams. 

All material on the RadiologyInfo website is reviewed and approved by experts in the field of radiology from the American College of Radiology (ACR) and Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), as well as other professional radiology organizations.

Who is the radiologist?

A radiologist is a medical doctor (MD) who specializes in diagnosing and treating disease and injury by using medical imaging techniques.

What kind of training and education has a radiologist completed?

Radiologists graduate from accredited medical schools, pass a licensing examination, and then go on to complete a residency of at least four years. A residency focuses on specific medical education in such fields as quality interpretation of medical imaging examinations and radiation safety. Radiologists also often complete a fellowship — one to two additional years of specialized training — in a particular subspecialty of radiology, such as breast imaging, cardiovascular radiology, or nuclear medicine. If you take into account four years of undergraduate education, the average radiologist has more than 13 years of training.

What medical imaging techniques do radiologists use?

There are four main kinds of imaging techniques: X-ray, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound. To learn more about each of these imaging techniques, visit RadiologyInfo.org.