The Juggle Is Real: Balancing Teaching and Clinical Productivity

Resident education is a cornerstone of academic medicine. However, increasing pressures to generate revenue through clinical productivity metrics like relative value units have introduced complex tensions between education and clinical service. Balancing teaching with relative value unit generation is a common and complex challenge in academic radiology. It requires a strategic approach that addresses both the need for high-quality resident training and the economic pressures of clinical practice. In this article, we discuss practical strategies to achieve balance between resident education and revenue production, including developing academic compensation models and identifying innovative teaching methods.