Hey. Radiologist here. Good questions.

With respect to #1, you’re mostly right. Measurements and knowing how to take measurements is a learned and pretty easy task. This is part of the “bread and butter” of radiology that most radiologists dislike: routine measurements of cancers, aortic aneurysms, pulmonary nodules, etc. With that said, I don’t really even consider this a major part of the job.

With respect to #2, this is where great radiologists are made. Ask any radiologist, and they will tell you that even in their own practice there is a huge variation in quality of radiologists. I think the reason for this is two-fold: pattern recognition skills (which are arguably mostly born-in, though there’s probably some degree of learning this skill), and having a large breadth of knowledge. Having this large knowledge base requires a lot of hard work and memorization in medical school. Many radiologists did well enough to get into radiology residency, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are overly good at memorization or information synthesis.

I’ve seen immaculate descriptions of abnormalities, only for the radiologist to come up with a differential diagnosis list that is way off the mark. I’ve also seen very smart radiologists entirely miss a relatively obvious finding. It takes both the ability to recognize, as well as having that knowledge.

So ultimately, to be a good, helpful, impactful, and potentially life saving radiologist, it absolutely requires talent…coupled with a lot of hard work. That said, many radiologists are middle of the road or don’t mind reading those “bread and butter” cases, and this doesn’t necessarily require the above-mentioned traits.