Increasing Exposure and Challenging Misperceptions: The Impact of a Student-Focused Radiology Symposium on Medical Students

Traditional medical school curricula provide limited to no exposure to both Interventional Radiology (IR) and Diagnostic Radiology (DR). To help improve the gap and provide exposure, a team of current medical students and a faculty radiologist mentor organized and implemented an international medical student-focused radiology symposium.

Materials and Methods:

The two-day medical student radiology symposium was held virtually via Zoom and included talks by radiologists from various US academic medical centers. Invitations for the symposium were sent via email and social media to medical students across all US medical schools, as well as to many international medical schools. Pre- and post- symposium surveys were distributed to attendees and included demographic factors (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, level of training) and a series of twelve questions to assess perceptions and attitudes about IR and DR, using a 5-point Likert scale. The surveys assessed changes in factors like familiarity and interest in IR & DR, career deterrents (e.g., training length, impact of artificial intelligence), and common misconceptions about the fields of IR & DR (e.g., radiologists have no patient interaction). Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests assessed changes in mean pre- and post- symposium Likert ratings.



Results:

194 medical students attended the symposium, representing 74 separate institutions within the US and 6 international institutions. One hundred attendees completed the pre-survey and 58 completed both the pre- and post- surveys. Among the 58 matched pre- and post- surveys, statistically significant (p < 0.05) increases occurred in self-perceived familiarity with both IR and DR, as well as interest to pursue a career in radiology, to shadow a radiologist, and to rotate in a clinical radiology elective. Perceptions on certain aspects of the field (e.g., radiologists have patient interaction, most subspecialties in DR involve IR techniques, and a career in radiology can involve global health experiences) changed significantly in a statistically positive manner. Additionally, a long training path was rated as less of a deterrent to pursue radiology in the post-survey versus pre-survey. Self-perceived familiarity was increased among the following radiology subspecialties: breast, GI, MSK, pediatrics, and neuroradiology.



Conclusion:

Our medical student radiology symposium significantly increased familiarity and interest in both IR and DR, as well as dispelled common radiology myths among medical students.