Learning objectives
Interventional radiology is one of the most forward-looking areas of clinical medicine. Due to the minimally invasive nature of interventional procedures, they are usually less risky for patients compared to conventional surgical approaches. Thus, minimally invasive therapies are becoming increasingly important in many medical fields, so the role of interventional radiology is constantly growing.
To familiarize students with interventional radiology (IR) and to support them in their IR training, the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE) [1] as well as the German Radiological...
Background
To assess the students' knowledge of IR, a 17-item online survey on different IR procedures and distractors was developed. Data collection took place at two measurement points (winter 2021 and summer 2022). Participants were different cohorts of third-year and fifth-year medical students taking radiology courses. From the 610 invited students (321 third-year and 289 fifth-year medical students), 143 third-year medical students (45%) and 58 fifth-year medical students (20%) completed the online survey (n = 201, response rate = 33%).
Findings and procedure details
Only one-third of the IR procedures listed (4 of 12) were correctly identified by the majority of students (Fig. 2). Thus, about three-quarters of the students correctly assigned each of arterial revascularization (77%), endovascular aortic repair (73%), or percutaneous angioplasty (71%) to IR. That the venous access port implantation is an IR procedure was known by slightly more than half of the students (55%). [Fig 2]
Accordingly, two-thirds of the typical IR procedures (8 of 12) were not identified as such by the majority of...
Conclusion
The results show that medical students have only a very limited knowledge of IR and its variety of treatment options. This is consistent with the findings of other studies worldwide [3-10]. Accordingly, the call by O'Malley and colleagues (2012) a decade ago to expose medical students to IR early [10] has not been acted upon to date.
This emphasizes the still current need for a dedicated and focused education in the field of IR for future medical students. Accordingly, an early awareness should be created...
Personal information and conflict of interest
L. Fröhlich:
Nothing to disclose
A. H. Mahnken:
Nothing to disclose
References
1. CIRSE (2019) Interventional Radiology Curriculum for Medical Studens. CIRSE Central Office.
2. Ertl-Wagner B, Barkhausen J, Mahnken AH, Mentzel HJ, Uder M, Weidemann J, Stumpp P (2016) White Paper: Radiological curriculum for undergraduate medical education in germany. Fortschr Röntgenstr;188: 1017–1023.
3. Agrawal D, Renfrew MA, Singhal S, Bhansali Y (2019) Awareness and knowledge of interventional radiology among medical students at an Indian institution. CVIR Endovasc;2:45.
4. Alsafi Z, Bhrugubanda V, Ramachandran S, Alsafi A, Hamady M (2017) Is it time for a specific undergraduate...