People on this tread probably need to get a handle on what radiology actually is before postulating that they can't imagine it taking 5 years of residency. I defer to others for the specifics, but from my not so limited vantage point it is a bit more than looking at pictures. These are the consults for every specialty in the hospital. ENT needs their advice on locating and opening up a peritonsilar abscess. Then ortho needs to know if there is meniscal damage they should arthroscopically repair. Then neuro needs to know if their patient has a brain bleed, and from where. And cardiology needs a stress test to see if a post-MI patient still has viable heart muscle before cath'ing. The ED needs to know if this patient has acute appendicitis and general surgery needs to know if that patient has ischemic bowel and if so, how far from the cecum. And so on. There are very few specialties out there which involve the entire spectrum of human anatomy and all disease processes, each in multiple modalities to boot (CT, MRI, ultrasound, x-ray/fluoro, nuclear imaging). You have to learn the intricacies and procedures involved for every portion of the body (most of which have fellowships for sub specialization). The amount of information involved dwarfs many other specialties. I doubt as many radiology residents are working on their golf swings as compared to those in fields like PM&R or derm.
As for average salaries, the last medscape survey put ortho and radiology tied as the top average salary with averages in the $300k range.
