Advocacy and organized medicine teach early career professionals the importance of communication, collaboration, negotiation and leadership.
I recently had the opportunity to publish an article in the JACR® about engaging young professionals in radiology advocacy. The article was inspired by the work I helped accomplish during my term as chair of the Texas Radiological Society (TRS) Young Professional Section (YPS) last year. I would like to take a moment to thank Jay R. Parikh, MD, FACR, for his collaboration during that time as TRS president and for his invaluable support. I am incredibly proud of how we revitalized the YPS and created a stronger, more meaningful role for early-career professionals within the TRS.
I want to clarify that when I refer to “radiology,” I mean Radiology with a big “R.” The House of Radiology is an inclusive community that encompasses diagnostic radiologists, interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists and medical physicists.
Young professionals practice in a unique stage of their careers. We are no longer trainees, but many of us are still learning how to navigate our practices and institutions while also building our professional identities. We are not only balancing growing clinical responsibilities, but also starting families, paying off loans and managing numerous other personal demands on our time. As a result, involvement in organized medicine and advocacy can easily fall to the bottom of the proverbial list — particularly when there is no clear pathway to get involved or when participation does not feel meaningful. Our goal within the TRS was to change that.
One of our biggest priorities was ensuring that young professionals had a real voice within the TRS. We secured YPS representation on several important committees, including Programming, Legislative Affairs, Membership, Communications, and Economics and Practice. This allowed early-career professionals to participate directly in conversations and decisions affecting our specialty rather than having a separate section that operated on the sidelines.
One of our biggest priorities was ensuring that young professionals had a real voice within the TRS.
We created the “For YPS, by YPS” webinar series, which focused on topics directly relevant to young professionals, including advocacy and radiology economics. These sessions were led by young professionals themselves, giving our members opportunities not only to learn but also to teach, lead and share their experiences with their peers.
In addition, we formalized the role of the YPS within the leadership structure of the TRS. The YPS Chair now serves as a Councilor, and the Vice Chair serves as an Alternate Councilor at ACR annual meetings. These are not simply honorary titles — they provide young professionals with meaningful responsibility, exposure to policy discussions and opportunities to better understand how the College works at both the state and national levels.
We also emphasized mentorship, particularly for Texas-based ACR fellowship recipients, junior TRS members, residents, and fellows. That connection between trainees, young professionals and senior leaders was and remains essential. Mentorship helps young professionals find their place within the ACR — while also creating a pipeline of future leaders who are prepared to carry this work forward.
Early career involvement matters because the decisions being made today will directly affect us, our practices and our patients throughout our careers. Issues such as reimbursement, AI, workforce shortages, scope of practice, corporatization, remote work and access to imaging are not simply abstract policy discussions. They influence how we practice, how our work is valued and how we care for our patients every day.
We need to be present and serve as our own voice. If we are not involved, others will advocate and make decisions on our behalf, and those decisions may not necessarily reflect our needs or benefit the future we want for our specialty. Young professionals bring new perspectives and first-hand knowledge of today’s training and practice environments. Our voices need to be part of these conversations.
Being involved also helps us grow professionally. Advocacy and organized medicine teach communication, collaboration, negotiation and leadership. They help us build relationships outside our own institutions to better understand the forces shaping our specialty. Ultimately, this makes us better professionals, colleagues and advocates for our patients.
My hope is that other ACR chapters will learn from the TRS experience and adapt these initiatives for their own YPS. Each chapter may approach this differently, but the central principle remains the same: young professionals need visible roles, meaningful responsibilities, mentorship and opportunities to lead. If we intentionally invest in early-career professionals today, we will strengthen the future of the College, our profession and the high-quality care we provide for our patients.
As your career grows, the relationships you build locally become just as important as the resources you access nationally. Your state chapter helps connect you with radiologists in your area who understand your market, your challenges, and the issues impacting your practice every day.
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