The burnout crisis among cardiac CT specialists is getting worse
Burnout among cardiovascular imagers has evolved from a physician wellness concern into a growing workforce crisis that threatens patient access to cardiac imaging, according to new survey data presented at SCCT2026, the annual meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT).
Kavitha Chinnaiyan, MD, immediate past president of SCCT and professor of medicine at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, said nearly 60% of cardiovascular imagers responding to an SCCT physician survey reported symptoms of burnout. Even more concerning, she said, is that about one in five said they were considering leaving clinical practice altogether.
"The danger is that 20% are thinking about leaving practice," she said in an interview with Cardiovascular Business. "With the shortages we have with radiologists and imagers in general, especially in the U.S., this is a big deal."
The survey included responses from approximately 250 cardiologists and radiologists. While modest in size, Chinnaiyan said the findings closely mirror previous studies showing burnout rates approaching 60% among cardiovascular imagers.
The leading contributors were not individual resilience or personal shortcomings, but systemic issues, including heavy workloads, lack of administrative support and inefficient workflows. Burnout also was associated with sleep disruption, difficulty concentrating, caregiving responsibilities and midlife health challenges.
"This is a workforce problem rather than simply a wellbeing issue," she said.
The findings come as demand for cardiac CT and other advanced cardiovascular imaging modalities continues to climb. At the same time, the number of available imaging specialists struggles to keep pace. Chinnaiyan said increasing imaging utilization, combined with physician attrition and ongoing workforce shortages, creates a widening gap that health systems cannot ignore.
"If you have a boom in imaging and, on the other side, a growing shortage of imagers, how are we going to deal with this?" she asked.
Chinnaiyan argued that many organizations still approach burnout incorrectly by placing responsibility solely on physicians through wellness initiatives or resilience training.
A longtime meditation instructor herself, she stressed that mindfulness and stress-management techniques remain valuable, but cannot solve structural problems.
"When institutions hand physicians meditation and say burnout is your problem, go meditate and deal with it, that is not the case," she said. "Those tools help cultivate resilience, but they do not fix the systemic structural problems that are the fundamental cause of burnout."
Instead, she called for health system executives to address organizational issues that create chronic stress. Among them are inflexible schedules, limited physician autonomy, growing documentation burdens and the expectation that physicians remain constantly available.
Nearly 70% of survey respondents reported routinely completing work after hours, often referred to as "pajama time," when physicians finish documentation and administrative tasks from home.
"Most of us are not afraid of workload," Chinnaiyan said. "We didn't go into medicine being afraid of workload. It's the ancillary stuff that actually causes more stress."
She also questioned whether artificial intelligence, while promising for improving efficiency, could unintentionally worsen burnout if administrators simply expect physicians to read more studies without recognizing the additional time required to verify AI-generated findings.
"Eventually, if you're signing off on a study, you're still liable for it," she said. "You still have to check whether the AI read was right."
Chinnaiyan said productivity expectations have steadily increased, with imaging physicians now interpreting significantly more studies per hour than they did a decade ago. Combined with stagnant compensation and growing administrative demands, those pressures can erode physicians' sense of purpose.
Survey data showed nearly half of physicians experiencing burnout also reported losing their sense of meaning in their work.
Ultimately, Chinnaiyan said meaningful change will require hospital administrators and physician leaders to work together to redesign workflows and workplace culture rather than expecting clinicians to simply become more resilient.
"The conversation needs to happen with the administrators and physician champions," she said. "It's only when you're in the trenches that you understand the particular issues."
Dave Fornell has covered healthcare for more than 17 years, with a focus in cardiology and radiology. Fornell is a 5-time winner of a Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized journalism. The wins included best technical content, best use of social media and best COVID-19 coverage. Fornell was also a three-time Neal finalist for best range of work by a single author. He produces more than 100 editorial videos each year, most of them interviews with key opinion leaders in medicine. He also writes technical articles, covers key trends, conducts video hospital site visits, and is very involved with social media. E-mail: [email protected]