Jobs & the Economy

Medical imaging and radiation therapy is the source of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S. economy. Whether it is a physician reviewing a scan, a technologist or technician performing a procedure or a factory worker assembling a machine, medical imaging provides high-tech, well-paying jobs that help fuel our economy.

In addition to creating a wide range of high quality jobs across the country, MITA and its members are also committed to providing continuing education and ongoing training to the imaging and radiation therapy communities, fostering rewarding careers and the delivery of excellent health care.

Beyond the jobs created by the medical imaging and radiation therapy industries, these technologies also help to keep workers healthy and active by reducing unnecessary surgeries and other more invasive procedures that require hospital stays and longer recovery times.

For example, abdominal CT scanning has been shown to reduce unnecessary appendix surgeries by 88% and research demonstrates that evaluating cancer with PET scans helps to avoid unnecessary additional tests or procedures 77% of the time. Additionally, new advances in radiation oncology are providing greater convenience for patients such as fewer treatment-related side effects or complications, and shorter and more convenient courses of therapy. As radiation therapy is generally non-invasive, it is often performed in an outpatient setting, minimizing disruption of daily activities for many of the estimated 643,000 cancer patients who receive radiation treatments each year.