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. 2025 Feb 17;16(1):43.
doi: 10.1186/s13244-025-01918-6.

R-AI-diographers: a European survey on perceived impact of AI on professional identity, careers, and radiographers' roles

Nikolaos Stogiannos  1   2 , Gemma Walsh  3 , Benard Ohene-Botwe  3 , Kevin McHugh  4 , Ben Potts  3   5 , Winnie Tam  3 , Chris O'Sullivan  3 , Anton Sheahan Quinsten  6   7 , Christopher Gibson  8 , Rodrigo Garcia Gorga  9 , David Sipos  10 , Elona Dybeli  11 , Moreno Zanardo  12 , Cláudia Sá Dos Reis  13 , Nejc Mekis  14   15 , Carst Buissink  15   16 , Andrew England  15   17 , Charlotte Beardmore  18 , Altino Cunha  15 , Amanda Goodall  19 , Janice St John-Matthews  3   20 , Mark McEntee  15   17 , Yiannis Kyratsis  21 , Christina Malamateniou  3   15   22   23
Affiliations

R-AI-diographers: a European survey on perceived impact of AI on professional identity, careers, and radiographers' roles

Nikolaos Stogiannos et al. Insights Imaging. .

Abstract

Objectives: Radiographers use advanced medical imaging and radiotherapy (MIRT) equipment. They are also a digitally mature and digitally resilient workforce in healthcare. Artificial intelligence is already changing their clinical practice and roles in data acquisition, post-processing, and workflow management. It is therefore vital to understand the impact of AI on the careers, roles and professional identity of radiographers, as key stakeholders of the digital transformation of healthcare within the medical imaging ecosystem.

Methods: A European radiographer survey, endorsed by the European Federation of Radiographer Societies (EFRS), was distributed online. It was piloted with twelve radiographers and translated into eight languages. Although this study included both qualitative and quantitative results, this paper emphasises the quantitative aspect.

Results: A total of 2206 European radiographers have responded from 37 different countries. Despite some concerns around workforce deskilling, future professional identity, and job prospects, participants showed overall optimistic views about the use of AI in healthcare. This was particularly strong for those with prior AI education (mean: 2.15 vs. 1.89; p-value: < 0.001), hands-on experience with AI (correlation: 0.047; p-value: 0.038), from countries with higher digital literacy (mean: 2.00 vs.1.93; p-value: 0.027) and a higher academic level of radiography education (mean: 3.28 vs. 3.15; p-value: 0.002). Men appeared slightly more enthused about the development of technological skills and women about the honing of patient-centred care skills. Finally, interprofessional collaboration was seen as essential not only for the seamless clinical integration of AI but also for supporting patient benefit.

Conclusion: While AI implementation advances, AI education needs to keep at pace to ensure acceptability, trust, and safe use of this technology by healthcare professionals, minimising their concerns around professional role changes and enabling them to see the opportunities of service transformation.

Critical relevance statement: This paper aims to map out the perceived impact of AI on the professional identity and careers of European radiographers.

Key points: AI is impacting radiographers' clinical practice and changing their professional identity. Despite increasing AI awareness, AI education is still lacking across Europe. AI education is key for AI acceptability and trust by radiographers, which facilitates AI implementation and service transformation.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Europe; Impact; Professional identity; Radiographers.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Ethical approval was obtained from City St George’s, University of London School of Health and Psychological Sciences Ethics Committee (ETH2223-1346). All participants were informed about the aim and objectives of this study on the introductory page of the online survey. In addition, consent was explicitly obtained by asking respondents to physically tick a dedicated consent box. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: M.Z. is a member of the Scientific Editorial Board of Insights into Imaging. As such, they did not participate in the selection nor review processes for this article. The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Geographical distribution of the respondents. Relevant frequencies are superimposed on each country
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Pie chart illustrating the knowledge of the respondents on the use of AI
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Forms of AI education/training which the respondents had received
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Bar chart summarising the responses for Likert-type questions
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Responses regarding future skills and responsibilities
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Radiographers’ specialties and mean scores on AI’s impact on their roles and professional identity
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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