Data have demonstrated that individuals living in many parts of the country not only lack access to an IR but also lack access to any radiologist with image-guided procedural skills. These “IR deserts” highlight a major public health concern and a startling inequality in access to care.In the audio version of "Crossing the IR desert : The need for IRs in rural communities"  (Spring 2021 IR Quarterly, pp. 12-14), author Laura Findeiss, MD, FSIR, discusses why there's a lack of interventional radiologists in rural communities and how this disparity can be resolved.Read the article.Contact us with your ideas and questions, or read more about about interventional radiology in IR Quarterly magazine or SIR's Patient Center.(c) Society of Interventional Radiology.Support the show