Introducing First-Year Medical Students to Radiology: Implementation and Impact.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

The aims of our study were (1) to describe a new educational intervention for first-year medical students that gave a substantial, early exposure to radiology and (2) to examine how this early exposure was received by the students.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Our new curriculum incorporated a new 2-week course very early in the M1 year entitled Foundations of Diagnostics and Therapeutics. Among other topics, the course included a substantial introduction to radiology primarily through small-group seminars and online materials, administered using a flipped-classroom approach. The students were given pre- and postcourse surveys that assessed the degree to which they felt prepared to learn about radiology, as well as their interest in radiology. Results were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

RESULTS

Survey responses were obtained from 170 students before the course and 65 students afterward. Upon completing the course, students showed significantly increased academic interest in radiology (P = .008) and a heightened perception of the effect of radiology on patient care (P = .04), without a significant change in interest in pursuing radiology as a career. Students showed an overwhelmingly positive response to the course, although some noted that previous anatomy training would have been helpful. Eighty percent agreed or strongly agreed that the flipped-classroom structure was an effective educational model.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study demonstrated that students were very excited to gain exposure to radiology early in their medical school curriculum, and such exposure led to an improved perception of the field.