Diagnostic & Imaging specialty
Interventional Radiology (Integrated): Salary, Residency & Career Guide
Image-guided minimally invasive treatment alongside diagnostic imaging training.
Typical Training
5+1 years
Clinical base year and five years of combined diagnostic and interventional radiology education.
Attending Compensation
$634,658
Average Total Compensation
Employment outlook
Not isolated
Projected Job Growth
Relative Competitiveness Index
67 / 100
Competitive
Start in Medical School
M1 to M4 Preparation
Practical experience, projects and rotation planning.
See the Medical School RoadmapAttending Compensation and State Wages
U.S. Attending Compensation
$634,658
Average Total Compensation
BLS does not publish a separately matched state wage series for this specialty.
Resident Pay by Institution
Clinical base year and five years of combined diagnostic and interventional radiology education..
2026–27 salaries, five published training-institution examples.
Selected institution
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
$77,049/ year
Pay varies by institution and postgraduate year.
Schedules and Work Setting
Schedule and Call
Most IR weeks combine planned catheter or image-guided procedures with consults and clinic; an acute hemorrhage or thrombectomy can disrupt the day. Compare call pool size and after-hours interventions.
Practice Settings
Hospital IR suites, inpatient consultation teams, outpatient interventional clinics and imaging departments.
Procedures and Clinical Work
- Embolization and vascular intervention
- Image-guided biopsy and drainage
- Central venous access
- Percutaneous tumor treatment
Fellowship Training
Fellowship Expectation Index
1 / 5
Fellowship Options
Common Fellowship Duration: 0–1 year(s) beyond residency. Integrated IR training qualifies for core IR practice. Additional focused training is optional.
Integrated IR residency provides the focused procedural training for general interventional radiology. Another fellowship is not the standard requirement.
Direct Practice
Core inpatient and outpatient interventional radiology services after residency.
Specialized Practice
Certain highly specialized vascular or oncologic procedures may benefit from further advanced training.
Choosing a Path
Compare programs on procedural case mix and longitudinal clinic instead of assuming you need an additional fellowship.
Potential Fellowship Pathways
- Interventional oncology
- Pediatric interventional radiology
- Complex venous intervention
Preparing in M1 Through M4
Watch IR clinic, tumor board, procedure consent, ultrasound-guided access and postprocedure management. IR physicians own complications and follow-up as well as image-guided procedures.
Research or QI
Consider a complication registry for ablation, venous access outcomes or a radiation-dose reduction project with an IR attending.
Common Mistake
Focusing on catheter techniques while ignoring longitudinal clinic, patient selection and the diagnostic radiology workload.
Preparation by Year
- 1Shadow a procedure and its follow-up visit; ask how the operator decides whether intervention is warranted.
- 2Clarify integrated IR versus diagnostic-radiology-to-independent-IR routes with a mentor.
Ask a resident this: How much resident time is dedicated to longitudinal patient clinics versus procedural coverage and general DR reads?
MD vs DO Match Outcomes
144 of 174 matched to their preferred specialty
16 of 36 matched to their preferred specialty
MD vs DO difference: 38.4 percentage points
Applicant Considerations
Interventional radiology's 2024 DO applicant group was small and its preferred-specialty match rate was substantially different from MD outcomes. Program access and comprehensive radiology performance matter.
DO Application Strategy
Seek programs with DO residents, confirm whether the integrated route is available, and obtain direct observation of patient-facing IR work before requesting an evaluation.
Job Outlook
N/A
Projected Employment Growth
2025 to 2035, BLS occupational projection
No distinct employment forecast is published for this exact specialty.
AI and the Specialty
Potential Workflow Changes
Procedure planning, segmentation and case prioritization may change with AI; procedural execution and patient follow-up remain hands-on.
Sources & Data Notes
Reviewed . National attending compensation uses Doximity's 2026 specialty survey (2025 pay) where available, then verified specialty-specific Medscape, Marit or Salary.com estimates. Doximity, Medscape and Marit report total compensation; Salary.com models base salary. Survey averages, modeled salaries and BLS wage medians measure different populations and must not be interpreted as identical metrics. BLS May 2025 state wages are shown separately and exclude self-employed physicians. The ophthalmology BLS category excludes pediatric ophthalmologists. State figures may be missing, top-coded, or suppressed. Job outlook uses BLS 2025–2035 occupational projections; it is not a local vacancy forecast. Resident stipend examples reflect published institutional scales for 2026 to 2027, by postgraduate year, not specialty. Stanford includes housing in its reported base salary; other institutions handle allowances differently.
The Relative Competitiveness Index uses a fixed score of 25 plus 1.75 times the 2024 U.S. MD preferred-specialty unmatched percentage, rounded, then applies the same 1.225 multiplier to every specialty. Neurological Surgery is 98/100; the score is not the applicant's chance of matching. It is not a 2026 estimate or DO-specific score. The MD and DO percentages compare different unadjusted applicant cohorts who ranked that specialty first. They do not account for application strategy, program selection, scores, or geography. Ophthalmology and urology have separate specialty match processes; other pathways may lack suitable NRMP cohorts.
The 1–5 Fellowship Expectation Index is an editorial assessment of customary career paths, not a measured participation rate or requirement. For residency profiles, compact training labels put specialty years before the clinical base or preliminary year; e.g. 3+1 means three specialty years and one clinical base year, even though the clinical year comes first. Fellowship-defined careers are presented in the separate fellowship explorer. Schedules, procedural scope, preparation suggestions, and potential AI effects depend on the program and practice setting; they are qualitative descriptions, not guaranteed outcomes or forecasts of physician replacement.
For Interventional Radiology (Integrated): Doximity 2026, Average Total Compensation, reported under “Interventional Radiology.” The national estimate must not be treated as a state-specific compensation figure.
Interventional Radiology (Integrated): Editorial estimate of how fellowship shapes a career path. No observed fellowship uptake percentage is implied. Specialty-specific roadmaps describe illustrative activities, not mandatory publication, shadowing-hour, rotation, or skill requirements. Common fellowship routes: Integrated IR training qualifies for core IR practice. Additional focused training is optional.