Mattes Malcolm D, Kaya Erin A, Thomas Rehema J, Chaurasia Avinash R, Ponce Sara E Beltran, Vidal Gabriel, Franco Idalid, Longo John M, Pardo Dayssy A Diaz, Vega Raymond B Mailhot, Mohindra Pranshu, Diaz Roberto, Patel Shilpen, Deville Curtiland
Department of Radiation Oncology, Rutgers Cancer Institute, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Department of Radiation Oncology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon.
Adv Radiat Oncol. 2025 Feb 2;10(4):101734. doi: 10.1016/j.adro.2025.101734. eCollection 2025 Apr.
Virtual learning in radiation oncology (RO) has potential to reach medical students who otherwise lack access to RO exposure or mentorship at their school. This study characterized the relative effectiveness of different methods of promoting virtual education content, to inform future efforts to expand access to RO education.
A 4-part "Oncology Virtual Series for Medical Students" was developed to emulate an oncology interest group (OIG). All academic RO department chairs and residency program directors were asked to engage their respective Dean's office or OIG to promote to students, especially groups with primarily underrepresented in medicine membership. Promotional emails were also sent to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office of all allopathic United States (US) medical schools, and Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) regional directors. The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) promoted via ASTROgram, social media, and ROhub. Descriptive statistics are reported.
A total of 660 students preregistered, and 140 attended, at least 1 session. Attendees represented 53 allopathic and 2 osteopathic US medical schools, and 18 international schools. One hundred six attendees (87%) were from schools with an affiliated RO department, and 79 (65%) with an affiliated RO residency. Fifteen schools had at least 3 students attend, with the highest number of attendees from the principal investigator's home institution (n = 10). These 15 schools accounted for 52% of all attendees, of which 10 had an affiliated RO residency. Two hundred eighty of six hundred sixty preregistered students (42%) described how they heard about the series: 87 (31%) medical school faculty, 75 (27%) social media post or email, 53 (19%) OIG, 16 (6%) SNMA or LMSA, and 15 (5%) ASTRO.
Disproportionately high attendance was from a few schools, suggesting that radiation oncologists' individual efforts and pre-existing relationships with students, Dean's offices, and student groups are most effective for promoting nationwide virtual RO education.
放射肿瘤学（RO）的虚拟学习有潜力惠及那些在其学校无法获得RO接触或指导的医学生。本研究对推广虚拟教育内容的不同方法的相对有效性进行了特征描述，以为未来扩大RO教育获取途径的努力提供参考。
开发了一个由四部分组成的“医学生肿瘤学虚拟系列”，以模拟肿瘤学兴趣小组（OIG）。要求所有学术性RO系主任和住院医师项目主任让各自的院长办公室或OIG向学生推广，特别是医学成员代表性不足的群体。还向所有美国（US）全科医学医学院的多样性、公平性和包容性办公室以及学生全国医学协会（SNMA）和拉丁裔医学生协会（LMSA）的地区主任发送了宣传电子邮件。美国放射肿瘤学会（ASTRO）通过ASTROgram、社交媒体和ROhub进行推广。报告了描述性统计数据。
共有660名学生预先注册，140名学生至少参加了1次课程。参加者来自53所美国全科医学医学院和2所 osteopathic医学院以及18所国际学校。106名参加者（87%）来自设有附属RO系的学校，79名（65%）来自设有附属RO住院医师项目的学校。15所学校至少有3名学生参加，参加人数最多的是主要研究者所在的机构（n = 10）。这15所学校占所有参加者的52%，其中10所设有附属RO住院医师项目。660名预先注册的学生中有280名（42%）描述了他们如何听说该系列：87名（31%）是医学院教师，75名（27%）是社交媒体帖子或电子邮件，53名（19%）是OIG，16名（6%）是SNMA或LMSA，15名（5%）是ASTRO。
少数学校的出勤率过高，这表明放射肿瘤学家的个人努力以及与学生、院长办公室和学生团体的既有关系对于在全国范围内推广虚拟RO教育最为有效。
