Rationale and Objectives
The purposes of this study were to determine the degree to which medical students are exposed to interventional radiology (IR) in medical school, to assess their knowledge of the field, and to gauge their interest in IR as a career choice.
Materials and Methods
An institutional review board–approved survey was generated using the website www.surveymonkey.com . Medical student participation nationwide was elicited by sending e-mails to administrators of medical schools and radiology residency program directors and asking them to distribute the survey link to their students.
Results
Seven hundred twenty-nine medical students from 21 states responded to the survey. Although 58% of students said they were interested in a hands-on career, only 5.5% of students said they had participated in an IR rotation and only 12.7% were interested in IR. Less than half of the IR domain–related questions used to assess understanding of IR were answered correctly, with greater understanding found among the students who had participated in an IR rotation.
Conclusions
Exposure to IR in accredited US medical education programs is inconsistent, although interest in the field is moderate among medical students compared with interest in other hands-on specialties. Understanding of IR is limited among the study population. Improved understanding of the field and recruitment could result from greater exposure.
For the near future, there is a projected shortage in interventional radiologists in North America . Until recently, interventional radiologists were a subset of residents who entered the specialty after first completing a 4-year diagnostic radiology residency chosen during medical school or afterward. Overwhelmingly, those students who entered the traditional diagnostic radiology residency did not become interventional radiologists . Stemming from this, pilot programs, such as the 6-year vascular and interventional radiology DIRECT Pathway, were introduced in the United States to allow clinically oriented medical students to enter the field straight out of medical school, rather than selecting interventional radiologists solely from the pool of diagnostic radiology residents . There are currently 25 DIRECT Pathway–approved programs in the United States, although four of them are not currently recruiting new residents ( http://www.theabr.org/ic-vir-direct ). With expanding “turf battles” with other specialties , recruitment of medical students into interventional radiology (IR) has become a significant problem being addressed by those passionate about maintaining survival of the field.
From a medical student’s perspective, there are several problems in generating interest in the field of IR. One of the problems cited anecdotally is a lack of exposure, because there is no core rotation in the field . Furthermore, it has been suggested that students do not have as fulfilling an experience during their IR rotation due to limited participation in procedures and clinical management compared with other “hands-on” rotations such as general surgery and emergency medicine . Other problems cited include lack of role models for medical students and the perception of radiologists being antisocial . Last, with the growing development of image-guided techniques in other specialties such as cardiology and vascular surgery, there may be confusion among medical students as to which of these fields truly presents the best opportunity for training in and practice of such procedures .
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Materials and methods
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Results
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Table 1
List of US States of Survey Respondents’ Medical Schools
State No. of Respondents Arkansas 2 Alabama 1 Alaska 2 Arizona 81 California 63 Florida 62 Illinois 10 Kentucky 1 Louisiana 5 Minnesota 1 Missouri 103 Montana 3 New York 2 Ohio 1 Pennsylvania 26 Tennessee 69 Texas 51 Utah 66 Virginia 3 Vermont 3 Washington 166 Not specified 8
Table 2
Distribution of Respondents by Medical School Year
Answer Options No. of Respondents Percentage Year 1 166 22.8 Year 2 170 23.3 Year 3 169 23.2 Year 4 208 28.5 Other 14 1.9 Answered question 727 Skipped question 2
Table 3
Respondents Reporting on Mandatory Interventional Radiology Rotation as Part of Their Curriculum
Answer Options No. of Respondents Percentage Yes 3 0.4 No 512 70.8 I am not sure 208 28.8 Answered question 723 Skipped question 6
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Table 4
Respondents’ Interest in Participating in an Interventional Radiology Rotation
Answer Options No. of Respondents Percentage My school has a mandatory interventional radiology rotation 0 0.0 I have participated in an elective interventional radiology rotation 37 5.5 I plan to participate in an elective interventional radiology rotation 71 10.5 I do not plan to participate in an elective interventional radiology rotation 354 52.3 I’m not sure 215 31.8 Answered question 677 Skipped question 52
Table 5
Respondents’ Interest in Interventional Radiology
Answer Options No. of Respondents Percentage I am interested in diagnostic radiology 32 4.4 I am interested in interventional radiology 92 12.7 I am interested in both diagnostic and interventional radiology 135 18.6 I am not interested in either diagnostic or interventional radiology 465 64.2 Answered question 724 Skipped question 5ß
Table 6
Respondents’ Interest in a “Hands-on Medical Specialty (eg, Surgery/Surgery Specialty, Invasive Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Ear-Nose-Throat, Obstetrics-Gynecology, etc)”
Answer Options No. of Respondents Percentage Yes 420 57.9 No 168 23.1 I’m not sure 138 19.0 Answered question 726 Skipped question 3
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Table 7
Number of Didactic Questions Answered Correctly by Respondents
Correct Answers (No. of 10) No. of Respondents Percentage 10 10 1.4 9 34 4.7 8 46 6.3 7 70 9.7 6 115 15.9 5 115 15.9 4 125 17.2 3 98 13.5 2 62 8.6 1 37 5.1 0 13 1.8 Answered questions 725 Skipped questions 4
Table 8
Performance on Didactic Questions Stratified by Medical School Year
Correct Answers Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 10 0.0 0.0 1.2 3.8 9 0.6 0.6 5.3 11.3 8 0.6 4.8 8.8 10.3 7 6.6 9.0 8.8 13.6 6 10.8 19.2 17.0 16.0 5 16.9 15.0 15.8 15.0 4 18.1 19.8 18.7 13.6 3 17.5 13.8 14.6 9.4 2 15.1 8.4 6.4 4.2 1 7.8 9.0 2.9 2.3 0 6.0 0.6 0.6 0.5 Average 3.69 4.43 5.06 5.81
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Discussion
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Conclusions
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Appendix 1
Didactic Questions on Interventional Radiology (correct answer underlined)
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