Drs. Kelly and Thapa would like to welcome you to the 2013 inaugural edition of the annual Alliance of Medical Student Educators in Radiology and Alliance for Clinician Educators in Radiology (AMSER/ACER) issue of Academic Radiology ! We would like to express our great appreciation for the ideas, vision, and hard work of Dr. Richard Gunderman and Dr. Stanley Baum, and the AMSER and ACER leadership, which have resulted in this first issue. These tie in with the AMSER missions, which include promoting excellence in radiological education as an essential component in medical school education through a standardized curriculum . This also aligns with ACER’s missions, which include the provision of programs at the Association of University Radiologists (AUR) annual meeting that foster the needs of clinician educators . Indeed several of the articles in this issue were first presented at the last AUR meeting. Having an annual issue devoted to educational scholarship will also help the joint AMSER and ACER missions to promote development and distribution of resources for medical student education and to encourage, support, and aid promotion of medical student and clinician educators in radiology .
The field of medical education is growing rapidly, yet educational research has suffered some criticism for its lack of scientific approach, poor study designs, deficient research methods and reporting quality, and a lack of meaningful outcomes that inform practice . The impact of medical education on important health outcomes such as patient care is unclear but likely underestimated. This is exacerbated by the difficulty of finding time and funding for educational research efforts, a lack of resources for educators to further their knowledge, and for the apparent disjoint between education and health care outcomes. An analysis of publications in the educational literature found that 72% were justification (comparison of educational interventions) studies, 16% were descriptive (observations without comparisons) studies, and only 12% were clarification (experimental, prospective cohort, correlation, and qualitative outcomes research) studies .
The main goal of medical education is to produce physicians who will deliver high-quality health care. A recent commonwealth report stated that the quality of patient care is determined to some extent by the quality of medical education that students and residents receive . There have been recent calls for greater accountability and return on investment for all research efforts and clinical practice. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Bureau of Health Professions of the Health Resources and Services Administration have called for improvements in educational research frameworks . The Medical School Outcomes Project of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Outcome Project of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education both reflect an acknowledgment of the need to examine medical training and ensure the quality of the graduates of medical education programs . The 2001 Institute of Medicine report “Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century” highlighted the need for medical education and workforce training to be reoriented to address health care quality and to develop strategies for restructuring clinical education to fit current health care needs . We therefore look forward to welcoming contributions that will enhance educational research and publication and place it in the position it so well deserves, alongside non educational research.
This AMSER/ACER educational issue of Academic Radiology captures some of the best of the educational offerings at the 2012 AUR meeting. Medical school curricula will benefit from the input of radiologists and other specialties as to which radiological topics are important to teach, and Kondo et al give the perspective of residency program directors from multiple disciplines from a nationwide survey . Medical students’ opinions and knowledge of radiology are evaluated in a survey by Pressia et al with some interesting findings . Saha et al expanded on this in a nationwide survey of interns in practice about their medical school training in radiology and preparation for practice . How to evaluate medical students’ radiological knowledge has been made possible using a web-based standardized national board of medical examiner format, peer-reviewed, and peer-tested questions based on the AMSER national medical student curriculum, and Lewis et al describe their experiences of its development and implementation . Straus et al review the increasing and central role that radiology plays in teaching anatomy to preclinical medical students and underlies the importance of radiology overcoming challenges in order to contribute a greater role .
Concerns have been expressed about residents’ working hours and how they affect safety and quality; Ruutiainen et al evaluated error rates in preliminary reports issued by radiology residents working more than 10 consecutive hours overnight with some important findings . With the advent of the new core and certifying examinations, educators are grappling with how to prepare and assess residents, and Grayev et al share their experiences and residents opinions of a novel end-of-rotation evaluation method . Similarly, Blackmon et al describe a new web-based physics course for radiology residents preparing for the exam of the future . Radiology practice is also constantly changing for residents, and the results of the latest yearly surveys of the American Association of Chief Residents in Radiology are presented by Sauk et al . It is important for new entrants to our specialty to rapidly acquire a lot of new knowledge, and Chapman et al share their experiences of setting up and assessing an introductory lecture series for first-year radiology residents . For residents, noninterpretative skills are important, and Brandon et al. discuss teaching medical management and operations engineering for systems-based practice to radiology residents .
For radiologists in practice, Andoh et al present their original research of the effects of educational and feedback interventions on the application of the current and new Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) . For all educators, being able to make learning objectives are crucial to the creation and implementation of any radiology curriculum, and Webb et al describe their need and how to write them . There has been an explosion in the use of electronic devices to disseminate educational information, and radiology lends itself to the transfer of images and supporting data to remote locations around the nation and the world; many of these innovations are described by Bhargava et al . Keeping up to date with continued medical education (CME) is also relevant to all of us, and Gross et al share practical tips on how to set up a radiology CME program . Finally, Slanetz et al share their interesting perspective on teaching radiology in the millennial era . This issue of Academic Radiology illustrates the interest and growth in the area of education, and we hope that you enjoy reading the articles as much as we have reviewing and editing them. Finally, we wish to thank Flora Cauley and the team at Academic Radiology for their constant and unwavering support in this endeavor!
References
1. Alliance of Medical Student Educators in Radiology (AMSER) website. Available at: http://www.aur.org/Affiliated_Societies/amser/index.cfm . Accessed December 10, 2012.
2. Alliance for Clinician Educators in Radiology (ACER) website. Available at: http://www.aur.org/Affiliated_Societies/ACER/index.cfm . Accessed December 10, 2012.
3. Kelly A.M.: Evaluating and writing education papers compared with noneducation papers. Acad Radiol 2012; 19: pp. 1100-1109.
4. Cook D.A.: Description, justification and clarification: a framework for classifying the purposes of research in medical education. Med Educ 2008; 42: pp. 128-133.
5. Yarris L.M., Deiorio N.M.: Education research: a primer for educators in emergency medicine. Acad Emerg Med 2011; 18: pp. S27-S35.
6. Chen F.M., Bauchner H., Burstin H.: A call for outcomes research in medical education. Acad Med 2004; 79: pp. 955-960.
7. Institute of Medicine, Committee on Quality of Health Care in America: Crossing the quality chasm: a new health system for the 21st century.2001.National Academy PressWashington, DC
8. Kondo K.L., Swerdlow M.: Medical student radiology curriculum: what skills do residency program directors believe are essential for medical students to attain?. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 263-271.
9. Pressia C., Vorona G., Greenspan R.: Fourth year medical student opinions and basic knowledge regarding the field of radiology. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 272-283.
10. Saha A., Roland R.A., Hartman M.S., et. al.: Radiology medical student education: an outcome-based survey of PGY-1 residents. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 284-289.
11. Lewis P.L., Chen J.Y., McNulty N.J.: Radiology exam web: development and implementation of a national web-based examination system for medical students in radiology. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 290-296.
12. Straus C., Phillips A.W., Smith S.G.: The role of radiology in preclinical anatomy: a critical review of the past, present and future. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 297-304.
13. Ruutiainen , Durand D.J., Scanlon M.H., et. al.: Increased error rates in preliminary reports issued by radiology residents working more than 10 consecutive hours overnight. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 305-311.
14. Grayev A., Ziemlewicz T., Kim D., et. al.: Resident education: survey: residents’ perception of a novel end-of-rotation evaluation method. Acad Radioly 2013; 20: pp. 312-319.
15. Sauk S., Jokerst C., Gould J., et. al.: Results of the 2012 Survey of the American Association of Academic Chief Residents in Radiology. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 320-331.
16. Blackmon Descriptive Study: Resident education: a web based foundations of radiological physics for diagnostic radiology residents. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 338-344.
17. Chapman T., Chew F.: Introductory lecture series for first-year radiology residents: implementation, investment and assessment. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 332-337.
18. Andoh H., McNulty N.J., Lewis P.L.: Improving accuracy in reporting CT scans of oncology patients: assessing the effect of education and feedback interventions on the application of the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 351-357.
19. Brandon C.J., Mullan P.B.: Teaching medical management and operations engineering for systems-based practice to radiology residents. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 345-350.
20. Webb E.M., Naeger D.M., Fulton T.B., et. al.: Learning objectives in radiology education: why you need them and how to write them. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 358-363.
21. Bhargava P., Lackey A., Dhand S., et. al.: Radiology education 2.0-on the cusp of change. Part 1. Tablet computers, online curriculums, remote meeting tools and audience response systems. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 364-372.
22. Bhargava P., Lackey A., Dhand S., et. al.: Radiology education 2.0-on the cusp of change. Part 2. eBooks; file sharing and synchronization tools; websites/teaching files; reference management tools and note taking applications. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 373-381.
23. Gross J.A., Fisher C.W., Thapa M.M.: Practical considerations to setting up a radiology CME conference: how we do it. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 382-386.
24. Slanetz P.J., Kung J.W., Eisenberg R.L.: Teaching radiology in the millennial era?. Acad Radiol 2013; 20: pp. 387-389.