Purpose: The strongest factor in dissuading medical students from a radiology career is the perceived lack of patient contact. Only 26.9% of US diagnostic radiology residents in 2013 were female, stable since 1990. There has been no study investigating radiology interest in pre-medical students, who are amenable to exploring lesser known specialties. Students typically gain career insight through in-person shadowing. Due to COVID-19, this has evolved into Virtual Shadowing (VS), a live, physician-led presentation focused on career mentorship and de-identified case-based learning that is shared on social media, which allows for hundreds of viewers at a time and increases access to rural or underserved areas. Breast radiology has a high proportion of female physicians and involves direct patient care. We believe this field can serve as a model specialty for increasing interest and awareness of radiology in pre-medical students as a possible career.
Materials and Methods: In this IRB-exempt prospective study, our breast radiology VS session was advertised on Instagram. A pre-session survey consisting of two questions using the 5-point Likert response scale was sent to participants prior to the presentation. Question 1 read “Rate your overall knowledge about radiology and what a radiologist does” and Question 2 read “Rate your interest in looking into radiology as a potential career.” The session consisted of a 60-minute live PowerPoint presentation and two 15-minute Q/A sessions broadcasted through YouTube Live. The session can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Ycccv5J70 An identical post-session survey and free text comment box were provided following the session. Statistical analysis was performed with non-parametric Mann Whitney and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests.
Results: 345 answered the pre-session survey and 202 answered the post-session survey (170 female, 30 male, 2 other). Age distribution is summarized in Figure 1. There was a significant increase in median pre-session to post session survey scores and overall distribution for both questions (p < 0.001, Figure 2-3). 8 representative comments out of 94 are shown in Figure 4. To date, our VS session has garnered 6,250 views on YouTube.
Conclusion: Breast radiology is a model specialty that can increase interest and awareness of radiology in pre-medical students, a traditionally untapped market in radiology recruitment. The benefits of VS are substantial enough to warrant continuation in the non-pandemic era and represents a modern way for students to learn about radiology.
Clinical Relevance Statement: Breast Radiology is a model specialty that can increase interest and awareness of radiology in pre-medical students through Virtual Shadowing sessions shared on social media.
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