Nuclear medicine technologist and physicist workforce
Radioactive cancer treatments need specially trained technologists and physicists to prepare and check every dose, and there simply are not enough of them. Hospitals in Europe, the US and Canada are all reporting job vacancies that stay open for months.
Overview
A 2024 EANM cross-sectional survey of the European nuclear medicine workforce (239 respondents, 31 countries) found that 80.2% of departments reported at least one open vacancy, with technologists/radiographers hit hardest (61.6% vacancy rate) followed by physicians (57.1%); more than half of all open positions (57.7%) had remained unfilled for six months or longer. In the United States, a 2026 SNMMI-TS/NMTCB salary and workforce study surveyed 26,336 nuclear medicine technologists and received 2,271 responses, finding median hourly pay had risen 15% (to $51.28) since 2022 -- itself a sign of a tight labour market pushing wages up to attract staff.
The pipeline problem is structural, not just cyclical: a US analysis found the certified nuclear medicine technologist workforce shrank by about 1,438 people (6%) between 2012 and 2022 as training programmes closed and experienced staff left the field, and a follow-up regional survey found roughly a quarter of working technologists plan to retire or leave direct patient care within 5-10 years. SNMMI's own 2025 Theranostics Stakeholders Summit survey found 70.5% of responding institutions had current hiring vacancies in nuclear medicine or theranostics.
This workforce gap sits underneath, and partly explains, several of the field's other access problems: without enough technologists to run cameras and generators, and physicists to support dosimetry and quality assurance, expanding hot-lab and treatment-room capacity does not translate into more patients treated.
- Accredited nuclear medicine technologist training programmes have closed in several countries, shrinking the pipeline just as radioligand therapy caseloads are growing.
- A wave of experienced technologists and physicists is approaching retirement at the same time demand is rising.
- COVID-era attrition reduced the healthcare workforce broadly, and nuclear medicine has not recovered as quickly as some other specialties.
- Pay and career-pathway visibility have historically lagged other imaging professions, making recruitment harder even where training capacity exists.
- University of Alabama at Birmingham / SNMMI Nuclear Medicine Therapy Intensive (launched 2024) providing dedicated short-course training for the theranostics workforce.
- EANM educational outreach, career pathway resources and professional development initiatives flagged in its 2024 workforce survey.
- Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine's 2025 National White Paper on the technologist shortage, informing provincial training-capacity planning.
- Rising technologist pay (SNMMI-TS/NMTCB 2026 study) as institutions compete for a limited pool of qualified staff.
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