Radiology podcasting is growing in prevalence across the globe, though it’s unclear whether such audio offerings are connecting with their target audience.
That’s according to a comprehensive new analysis of the listening landscape, published Wednesday in Insights Into Imaging. Scouring Google and 10 different platforms, UK researchers discovered 41 different English-language, radiology-focused podcasts available for download.
They also noted a “rapid” increase in the number of new rad-related shows created over the last two years, with at least 10 developed in 2019 alone. This mirrors growing overall interest in a medium that now offers 700,000 different shows and 29 million episodes, experts noted.
“To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first review in the literature and highlights the increasing availability of podcasting in radiology,” wrote lead author Christopher Clarke, an abdominal radiologist with Nottingham University Hospitals in the United Kingdom, and colleagues. “Further research regarding the profile of the podcast audience, the listener motivation and experience, and the most appreciated type of content for radiology podcasts would be valuable for optimizing usage of this medium,” the team added later.
Researchers noted that 23 radiology podcasts were still active at the time of their study last year, having produced an episode in the last six months. Another 18, meanwhile, have gone dormant. Number of episodes logged varied widely ranging anywhere from just one to 269, as did the frequency of broadcast.
Clarke and colleagues found “radiology current affairs” was the most popular topic (44%), followed by education (22%), “journal podcast” (19.1%) and radiography (7.3%). And the vast majority were targeted toward radiologists (88%) and produced in the U.S. (70%). Radiologists or radiologists-in-training hosted nearly half of the podcasts in the study, they discovered, with the rest emceed by docs in different specialties, radiographers and other professionals.
RSNA’s long-running audio show was noted as one shining example, producing the most episodes of any broadcaster over its 10-year run. Hosted by Radiology Editor David Bluemke, MD, PhD, “the authors felt the quality was high with topics well-selected, which could be explained by the fact that the content is related to the content of the journal,” according to the study.
Clarke noted that “education” is the second-most popular category in general podcasting, behind comedy. And previous analyses have found that the majority of general listeners fall in the 25-44 age range. For radiologists looking to dabble in this space, this could be a solid clue to get started.
“It would only seem logical that most radiology-related podcasts currently focus on content that is relevant to this target group and features either specific educational material or topics that may be of special interest to an audience at the beginning or in the early middle of their career,” the research team noted.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.