Radiology CME courses subsume the full range of diagnositic and procedural components of the radiological sciences.

Topics cover everything from the medical physics of MRI, to diagnostic ultrasound, to CT-guided biopsies, to traditional plain film diagnostics, and more.

There is no shortage of online radiology CME offerings given the widespread availability of high-speed internet to hospitals, offices and homes. According to a recent survey on NetDoc.com, the vast majority of US physicians now get almost all of their CME credits online.

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Radiology education for specialties

Given the widespread use of radiological diagnositics, radiology CME is no longer exclusively for radiologists. In fact, the bulk of radiology courses are now targeted to surgical and medical specialists outside of radiology. Obstetrical ultrasound, echocardiography, and vascular doppler are the most common procedures performed by non-radiologists, perhaps because of the portability and safety of ultrasound imaging.

RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) provides CME for many medical and surgical specialties through their online articles and tests.

Interventional radiology CME

Courses on interventional radiology are typically reserved for fellowship-trained radiologists, and cover procedures that take place in radiological suites. Given the specialized equipment requirements, these courses usually take place in large medical centers.

It will be interesting to see the evolution interventional radiology education. Other specialties, like neurology, are beginning to encroach on the procedures that have traditionally been done by radiologists. Will interventional radiological procedures be taught exclusively through radiology programs or will other programs begin to offer radiology-based education?

Resources

• NetDoc has a great list of CME courses, both live and online.
• Medscape provides radiology courses online.
• RadList, through CME Sam, provides a search engine dedicated to this type of course.