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North Dakota radiologists raise funds for a scholarship endowment designed to help grow their ranks.
The calmness in Dr. Erica Martin-Macintosh’s voice betrayed the fact of the matter: following a years-long trend, less than one percent of senior medical students matching into an American residency program in 2024 matched into either diagnostic or interventional radiology programs.
“There’s a national shortage of all physicians, but radiology is especially short,” said the two-time UND alumna. “The number of grads going into radiology is not enough to meet demand. We can all attest to that, and we feel that on the daily.”
A diagnostic radiologist at Sanford Health in Fargo, N.D., Martin-Macintosh was referring to herself and her fellow radiologists Drs. Allison Clapp, Martha Kearns, and Michael Lucin. The quartet had gathered on a video call to chat with North Dakota Medicine about the new scholarship endowment – the North Dakota Chapter of the American College of Radiology Scholarship Endowment – the four helped establish with the UND Alumni Association & Foundation this year.
“Students who end up at UND are more likely to be from North Dakota and the region,” added Lucin. “So, just like Dr. Martin-Macintosh said, encouraging them with a scholarship might help bring them back here after residency. We’re just hoping to facilitate those relationships.”
As Lucin suggested, part of the challenge in North Dakota is that any UND medical student interested in radiology needs to go out-of-state for a radiology residency after graduating. And because the majority of physicians end up practicing close to or within the communities where they complete their residency, states without a radiology residency are automatically at a recruitment and retention disadvantage.
To address this disadvantage, said Lucin, North Dakota’s chapter of the American College of Radiology (ACR) has focused its energy of late on exposing more medical students to radiology earlier and “making sure that students feel supported and encouraging them to go into radiology.”
Kearns agreed, explaining how the local ACR group has worked to engineer a two-birds-one-stone scenario wherein practicing radiologists might be energized to devote time and energy to their local professional organization at the same time as the organization helps attract and keep future talent.
“Our members said that this was important to them, so we really looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve got to find a way to make this happen,’” Kearns said. “We knew that this was possible, and certainly a lot of the radiologists in North Dakota did train at UND. We were hoping that we would gain some excitement both for the School and for the ACR for staying here, and maybe encourage other radiologists to give back.”
The result of these efforts was a scholarship endowment, which came online earlier this year, designed to finance one or more scholarships to students who have “matched into a radiology residency.” Furthermore, the endowment’s documentation notes that “Preference will be given to a member of the North Dakota Chapter of the American College of Radiology.”
Taking advantage of the State of North Dakota’s challenge grant funding match, the ACR amassed a $50,000 gift to UND that became $75,000 almost overnight. Distributions from the fund to graduating medical students will begin in 2026.
All four radiologists on the call serve in leadership positions for the North Dakota ACR. Kearns serves as president while Clapp is the group’s treasurer, Lucin is the young professional alternate councilor, and Martin-Macintosh is councilor.
The organization’s mission, according to its website nodakrad.org, includes not only “advancing the science of radiology” and “improving radiologic services to patients and the medical community” but encouraging “improved and continuing education for radiologists.”
The endowment helps accomplish each of these goals not only within the practice of diagnostic and interventional radiology in North Dakota, but for physicians specializing in nuclear medicine, radiation oncology, and medical physics, said Martin-Macintosh.
“Gifts to the fund don’t come back to ACR – they go to the students of North Dakota interested in our profession,” she said. “We’re optimistic because this can only help patient care in the future. We could certainly use more well-trained individuals in our field, especially if they’re products of North Dakota.”
Smiling as her colleague made her pitch, Kearns shifted in her seat.
“I live in Fargo and I selfishly admit that I would like to have quality care when I go to the hospital,” she laughed. “That’s what we’re hoping to do with this fund. North Dakota deserves top-notch physician led care. It’s tougher to attract and retain physicians in states without training programs in specialties like radiology. It’s our hope that the scholarship program will encourage physicians that pursue radiology in other states to return and practice here.”
“Our members really want to give back to the community, and a way to do that is through UND’s medical school and getting students the help they need to have a successful career – and hopefully an interest in radiology,” added Clapp.
With support and a little bit of luck, she mused, “maybe they’ll come back to North Dakota.”
To give to the Radiology Endowment, contact the UND Alumni Association & Foundation at 701.777.2611 or visit pd.undalumni.org/acr-scholarship.
