Clinical Practice Characteristics of Radiologists Based on American Board of Radiology Interventional Radiology Certification Status

OBJECTIVE. The objective of this study was to assess clinical practice characteristics of radiologists on the basis of American Board of Radiology (ABR) interventional radiology (IR) certification status. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Medicare-participating radiologists were linked with ABR diplomates using the ABR's public search engine. Radiologists with an interventional radiology/diagnostic radiology (IR/DR) certificate (offered since 2017) were deemed currently IR-certified (n = 2840), and those assigned a vascular and interventional radiology subspecialty certificate (now defunct by the ABR) were deemed previously IR-certified (n = 900). Physician characteristics were obtained from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) data. RESULTS. Overall, the mean percentage work effort in IR was higher for radiologists currently IR-certified than it was for radiologists who were previously IR-certified (65.9% vs 30.6%). Although 41.2% of currently IR-certified diplomates had more than 90% IR work effort, 35.7% had 50% or less IR work effort. Radiologists with current IR certification versus those with previous IR certification were more likely to be in an academic practice (25.1% vs 8.4%), a larger practice (in a practice with >= 100 members, 41.2% vs 22.4%), and earlier career stages (<= 20 years in practice, 46.5% vs 0.6%). Of the 10 services most commonly billed by currently versus previously IR-certified radiologists, two and zero, respectively, were invasive procedures. Of identified CMS-participating radiologists with more than 50% IR effort, 27.2% (727/2670) were neither previously nor currently IR-certified. CONCLUSION. Although radiologists maintaining IR certification have higher IR work effort than those whose IR certification has lapsed, they are heterogeneous with overall sizable noninvasive diagnostic imaging practices. Approximately one-quarter of radiologists with predominant IR practices have never obtained IR certification. Because current IR/DR maintenance of certification testing exclusively addresses IR practice, attention is warranted to ensure certification is relevant to all IR diplomates.