Beyond Radiation Exposure: Occupational Health Challenges Across the Modern Radiology Workforce

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Radiology
• Human Factors Engineering

Background:

• Digital transformation in radiology has broadened occupational health concerns beyond traditional radiation protection.
• Radiology professionals face new ergonomic, visual, and environmental stressors from prolonged workstation use, specific scanning postures, and procedural demands.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize evidence on diverse occupational health risks in radiology.
• To propose an expanded occupational safety framework integrating radiation protection with ergonomic, visual, environmental, organizational, and cognitive risk management.
• To identify practical interventions for mitigating these risks.

Main Methods:

• This narrative review synthesizes existing evidence from cross-sectional, survey-based, and extrapolated occupational health studies.
• Evidence on musculoskeletal strain, digital eye strain, environmental factors, circadian disruption, burnout, and AI's impact was reviewed.
• The review acknowledges limitations in longitudinal and intervention studies.

Main Results:

• The radiology workforce faces significant musculoskeletal and digital eye strain, environmental challenges, and burnout.
• Emerging effects of artificial intelligence on work environments are also a consideration.
• Current evidence is primarily observational, requiring cautious interpretation of causal relationships.

Conclusions:

• A holistic occupational safety framework is proposed, complementing radiation protection with management of ergonomic, visual, environmental, organizational, and cognitive risks.
• Evidence-informed interventions, including optimized workstations, display standards, ergonomic practices, and workload management, are recommended.
• Further research is needed to validate the effectiveness of these interventions on health outcomes and professional sustainability.