As image technology has improved it's become increasingly important for medical treatment and diagnosis. It's important now that radiology is a medical specialty. A radiologist reads or interprets x-rays and other special digital images (including CT scans, MRI studies, PET scans, nuclear imaging studies, and others) as a diagnostic tool. In some cases, the radiologist may also be responsible for creating the image or supervising image acquiring. In order to become a licensed radiologist, you need to complete medical school and earn an M.D. That means you need a four-year undergraduate degree. A typical path would be: 4 years of undergraduate (B.A. or B.S.) 4 years of medical school (M.D.) 4 years of residency training 1 year of (optional) fellowship training for a sub-specialization in fields like neuroradiology (brain imaging and diagnosis), body imaging, musculo-skeletal imaging, among others. A radiologist in the U.S. also has to pass the USMLE exam, pass a board certified exam in radiology, and meet state license and certification requirements, as well as those of any hiring hospital or clinic. Because this is a relatively new specialization, radiologists in particular need to be prepared for continuous education as the field expands and technology improves. This might be a particularly good occupation for someone adept at science and analysis, but not as adept at social interaction with patients, since radiologists spend less time directly interacting with patients than many other medical specialties spend. It helps to be interesting in and very comfortable using computer technology, since many images are now created and analysed using computer technology. Preparation for a later radiology degree benefits from early concentrations on the sciences, even in high school. A college undergraduate degree in Biology, physics, pre med, or another science, with courses in chemistry, anatomy, and human biology and higher level math and physics classes, is good preparation. Two or more years of a second language is exceedingly beneficial. Radiologists typically have a high level of expertise with mathematics and a solid grounding in physics. Their standardized scores on the MCAT and other exams are typically extremely high, since radiology is an extremely demanding profession, requiring not only medical knowledge, but great expertise in analytic thinking.