Description
Diagnose and treat diseases and injuries using medical imaging techniques, such as x rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine, and ultrasounds. May perform minimally invasive medical procedures and tests.
- • Participate in quality improvement activities including discussions of areas where risk of error is high.
- • Participate in continuing education activities to maintain and develop expertise.
- • Develop treatment plans for radiology patients.
- • Establish or enforce standards for protection of patients or personnel.
- • Review or transmit images and information using picture archiving or communications systems.
- • Recognize or treat complications during and after procedures, including blood pressure problems, pain, oversedation, or bleeding.
- • Prepare comprehensive interpretive reports of findings.
- • Obtain patients' histories from electronic records, patient interviews, dictated reports, or by communicating with referring clinicians.
- • Confer with medical professionals regarding image-based diagnoses.
- • Instruct radiologic staff in desired techniques, positions, or projections.
- • Document the performance, interpretation, or outcomes of all procedures performed.
- • Develop or monitor procedures to ensure adequate quality control of images.
- • Coordinate radiological services with other medical activities.
- • Provide counseling to radiologic patients to explain the processes, risks, benefits, or alternative treatments.
- • Communicate examination results or diagnostic information to referring physicians, patients, or families.
- • Perform interventional procedures such as image-guided biopsy, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, transhepatic biliary drainage, or nephrostomy catheter placement.
- • Perform or interpret the outcomes of diagnostic imaging procedures including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computer tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), nuclear cardiology treadmill studies, mammography, or ultrasound.
- • Administer radioisotopes to clinical patients or research subjects.
- • Advise other physicians of the clinical indications, limitations, assessments, or risks of diagnostic and therapeutic applications of radioactive materials.
- • Calculate, measure, or prepare radioisotope dosages.
- • Check and approve the quality of diagnostic images before patients are discharged.
- • Compare nuclear medicine procedures with other types of procedures, such as computed tomography, ultrasonography, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, and angiography.
- • Direct nuclear medicine technologists or technicians regarding desired dosages, techniques, positions, and projections.
- • Establish and enforce radiation protection standards for patients and staff.
- • Formulate plans and procedures for nuclear medicine departments.
- • Monitor handling of radioactive materials to ensure that established procedures are followed.
- • Prescribe radionuclides and dosages to be administered to individual patients.
- • Review procedure requests and patients' medical histories to determine applicability of procedures and radioisotopes to be used.
- • Teach nuclear medicine, diagnostic radiology, or other specialties at graduate educational level.
- • Test dosage evaluation instruments and survey meters to ensure they are operating properly.
Related specializations
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Healthcare & Human Services
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
