Why Medical Imaging Will Keep Growing

For the past forty years, medical imaging has grown by at least 5–8% per year. Will the field keep growing? I believe the answer is yes, and likely at an accelerated pace. Here’s my logic.

When patients visit a physician, they value the TIME spent with the provider. For physicians who see patients face-to-face, options for improving efficiency include shortening visits, employing workplace extenders, or reducing all other time commitments, such as charting, administrative, research, or educational activities. These options mostly negatively impact the patient’s basic value proposition: time spent with the doctor. Since most of clinical medicine cannot be automated, costs keep rising.

Diagnostic medical imaging specialists, in contrast, may increase their efficiency without negatively impacting the patient’s value proposition. Diagnostic imaging technology becomes faster each year. From the patient’s viewpoint, the perfect imaging exam is fast, painless, safe, and immediately provides a clear report. As a result, medical imaging becomes less expensive per unit over time. It’s no wonder that diagnostic medical imaging is gradually replacing the physical exam. Each time imaging improves in speed, cost, and accuracy, it becomes a better alternative to more laborious, error-prone methods.

On June 11, 2026, JAMA Oncology featured an article advocating MR prostate cancer screening in men with an estimated life expectancy of more than ten years who are aged 50–70, or starting at age 45 for Black men. This adds to screening guidelines for breast imaging, colon cancer, abdominal aortic aneurysms, bone density, and intracranial aneurysms, all of which are underutilized. We also now live in an era where first-year medical students receive hand-held ultrasound devices. Simply stated, imaging is booming and will keep booming because it can be automated.

So how can we accommodate the growth of medical imaging in the face of insufficient professional staffing? I believe the only answer is technology that eliminates every possible rote, error-prone process. In the next decade, this will likely include eliminating the need for imaging specialists to visually scan images to detect findings for many, if not most, exams. Physicians will not be needed to determine if and where a finding is present, but rather to understand the potential causes of the findings in the patient’s context and how to complete the work-up.

Murray A. Reicher, MD, FACR

CEO Synthesis Health