Did You Know?

Posted 09:25 AM, March 24, 2009, by jaruiz

A Sketch of Early Radiologists*
The head of the Department of Roentgenology at Children's Hospital in Boston, Dr. Percy Brown, conducted a survey of all members of the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) in 1910.

Of the 50% who responded, the majority received their medical degrees during the years 1896 to 1903. Many of those who received their medical degrees between 1900 to 1903 had worked with X-rays as photographers, engineers, physicists, and eletricians prior to medical school.

20% of the ARRS members surveyed limited their practice to radiology while the remaining 80% "were equally divided between general practice and some other specialty."

30% of survey participants indicated that they practiced both X-ray diagnosis and therapy while "[a]bout half worked only in diagnosis, and a significant minority (19%) specialized solely in therapy."

(The above statistics are from Radiology: An Illustrated History by Eisenberg, Ronald L.; St. Louis, MO: Mosby-Year Book, 1992: 61).