Rationale and Objectives
We surveyed radiology residents to understand which information sources residents use to learn radiology.
Materials and Methods
A 15-question survey on learning resources was given to radiology residents at one institution. The survey queried residents about their preferences for sources when encountering a question in the reading room and when attempting to learn radiology and about the frequency with which they read radiology/medical journals. Residents ranked Internet sites for these learning purposes. The IRB gave administrative approval for the survey.
Results
All residents (60 of 60) completed the survey. When a question is encountered in the reading room, 50 of 60 (83%) respondents prefer to use the Internet as a first-line resource, and 15% prefer a textbook. When using the Internet, 46 of 60 (77%) residents use Google as their first source, 12% use eMedicine, 3% use StatDx, 3% use UpToDate, and 2% use RSNA online journals. eMedicine was the most popular second resource at 65%. Of 60, 59 (98%) residents prefer to use physician/scientist professional Web sites (e.g., eMedicine) rather than consumer/patient-oriented Web sites. When using the Internet to learn radiology, 32% of residents prefer AuntMinnie, 30% use Edactic.com, 22% use ACR Case-In-Point, 3% use www.learningradiology.com , 2% use radquiz.com, and 2% use RadioGraphics online. On average, residents listed 6.2 Internet sites. For textbook learning, 58% of residents prefer case review or requisite books, while 32% prefer traditional textbooks. The mean number of textbooks owned is 5.3, while the mean number of case review or requisite books is 5.4. Of 60 residents, 8 own most or all the case review and requisite books. Twenty-eight percent of residents read radiology textbooks daily; 45%, weekly; 8%, monthly; and 15%, occasionally. Twenty-three percent of residents read radiology journals monthly; 15%, quarterly; 37%, occasionally; and 23%, never. Five percent of residents read medical journals (e.g., The New England Journal of Medicine ) monthly; 2%, quarterly; 48%, occasionally; and 45%, never.
Conclusion
Currently, residents prefer the Internet when researching a question, with Google as the Web site most commonly used. Case review or requisite books are more commonly used than are traditional textbooks. Radiology resident learning has rapidly shifted from traditional textbooks and journals to the Internet and short case review books.
The use of medical references has rapidly changed since the introduction of the Internet ( ). Reference Web sites such as UpToDate and eMedicine have become a staple of basic medical research for medical students and residents in all specialties over the past decade. It might be reasonable to assume that in a technology-oriented field such as radiology, the use of medical references would have changed at least as quickly as in other fields and possibly even more quickly ( ). From an observation of radiology residents in the reading room, we suspect that educational reference materials used by residents have rapidly moved from the standard textbook format to the Internet and case-based review books ( ). However, to our knowledge, this has not yet been documented. We surveyed the radiology residents at one institution to examine the ways in which they answer questions in the reading room and learn both medicine and radiology.
Materials and methods
A 15-question written survey ( Fig. 1 ) on learning resources was given to all radiology residents at one large program. During the survey design process, five residents were informally polled as to the Web sites they most commonly use in the reading room and the Web sites they most commonly use in their free time. Web sites included on the survey were chosen from their responses. The survey queried the residents as to their gender, year of training, and their first line educational resource (textbook, Internet, journal, or other) when encountering a question in the reading room. The residents ranked Internet Web sites that they use while researching a question in the reading room according to their frequency of use. They also indicated whether they prefer physician- and scientist-oriented Web sites (e.g., eMedicine) or patient-oriented Web sites (e.g., National Multiple Sclerosis Society Web site). Next, the residents were queried about the Web sites they use to learn radiology in their free time, and they subsequently ranked these Web sites according to frequency of use. They were asked whether they would prefer to learn from a textbook or a case review or requisite book. Finally, they reported the frequency with which they read radiology and medical journals. The IRB gave administrative approval for the survey.
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Results
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Table 1
Resident Responses Indicating First Line Resource When Encountering a Question in the Reading Room
N=60 Internet Textbook No Response Female (12) 11 (92%) 1 (8%) Male (48) 39 (81%) 8 (17%) 1 (2%) Junior Residents (30) 24 (80%) 5 (17%) 1 (3%) Senior Residents (30) 26 (87%) 4 (13%) Total (60) 50 (83%) 9 (15%) 1 (2%)
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Table 2
Resident Responses Indicating Top Choices of Internet Resource When in the Reading Room
1 st Choice 2 nd Choice Web Site Address Google 46 (77%) 8 (12%) www.google.com eMedicine 7 (12%) 39 (65%) www.emedicine.com UpToDate 2 (3%) 3 (5%) www.utdol.com StatDx 2 (3%) 3 (5%) www.StatDx.com RSNA Journals 1 (2%) 0 http://intl.rsnajnls.org/ OVID/PubMed 0 3 (5%) www.pubmed.com www.ovid.com University-affiliated web sites 0 2 (3%) American Academy of Family Physicians 0 1 (2%) http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/residents.html No Response 2 (3%) 2 (3%)
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Table 3
Resident Indicating Top Choice of Internet Educational Resource for Learning Radiology
1 st Choice 2 nd Choice Web Site Address AuntMinnie 19 (32%) 17 (28%) www.auntminnie.com EDACTIC 18 (30%) 11 (18%) www.edactic.com ACR Case in Point 13 (22%) 12 (20%) http://caseinpoint.acr.org/ LearningRadiology.com 2 (3%) 1 (2%) www.learningradiology.com RadQuiz 1 (2%) 1 (2%) www.radquiz.com RadioGraphics 1 (2%) 0 http://radiographics.rsnajnls.org/ ChestX-Ray.com 0 1 (2%) http://www.chestx-ray.com/ StatDx 0 1 (2%) www.STATdx.com No Response 6 (10%) 16 (27%)
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Table 4
Resident Responses Indicating Preference of Traditional Textbooks or Case Review and Requisite Books
N=60 Case Books Textbooks No Response Female (12) 5 (42%) 6 (50%) 1 (8%) Male (48) 30 (63%) 13 (27%) 5 (10%) Junior residents (30) 13 (43%) 14 (47%) 3 (10%) Senior residents (30) 22 (73%) 5 (17%) 3 (10%) Total (60) 35 (58%) 19 (32%) 6 (10%)
Table 5
Resident Responses Indicating Frequency of Radiology Textbook Reading
N=60 Daily Weekly Monthly Occasionally No Response Female (12) 3 (25%) 7 (58%) 1 (8%) 1 (8%) 0 Male (48) 14 (29%) 20 (42%) 4 (8%) 8 (17%) 2 (4%) Junior residents (30) 13 (43%) 13 (43%) 2 (7%) 2 (7%) 0 Senior residents (30) 4 (13%) 14 (47%) 3 (10%) 7 (23%) 2 (7%) Total (60) 17 (28%) 27 (45%) 5 (8%) 9 (15%) 2 (3%)
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Table 6
Resident Responses Indicating Frequency of Radiology Journal Reading
N=60 Monthly Quarterly Occasionally Never Female (12) 1 (8%) 0 8 (67%) 3 (25%) Male (48) 13 (27%) 9 (19%) 15 (31%) 11 (23%) Junior residents (30) 10 (32%) 1 (3%) 9 (29%) 11 (35%) Senior residents (30) 4 (14%) 8 (28%) 14 (48%) 3 (10%) Total (60) 14 (23%) 9 (15%) 23 (38%) 14 (23%)
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Table 7
Resident Responses Indicating Frequency of Medical Journal Reading
N=60 Monthly Quarterly Occasionally Never Female (12) 0 0 3 (25%) 9 (75%) Male (48) 3 (6%) 1 (2%) 26 (54%) 18 (38%) Junior residents (30) 2 (6%) 1 (3%) 16 (52%) 12 (39%) Senior residents (30) 1 (3%) 0 13 (45%) 15 (52%) Total (60) 3 (5%) 1 (2%) 29 (48%) 27 (45%)
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Discussion
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Conclusion
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