Assessing the emphasis of radiology in a first‐year medical gross anatomy course (536.7)

Abstract

Radiology is a rapidly expanding field of medicine with continual advances in noninvasive imaging techniques such as CT and MRI. It is increasingly important to integrate radiological education into medical school curriculum due to the growth in use of these images by physicians, and because the USMLE is incorporating more radiology questions. The University of Mississippi Medical Center has been implementing this, starting as early as the students’ first semester in Gross Anatomy. Beginning in 2011, the course included physician guest lectures to introduce the students to the basic physics behind the techniques, as well as to provide examples of reading radiological images within their area of specialty. The students were also offered a more interactive learning environment via small discussion groups led by radiologists. Added to the curriculum in 2013, each student was given two sets of DICOM files that included a full body CT of a male and female cadaver in all three standard planes of section to aid in their learning of radiological anatomy in conjunction with atlas illustrations and their cadaveric specimens. In addition, students were given premium access to IMAIOS’s E‐Anatomy and periodically given short radiology quizzes for them to assess their progress. The students’ performance on four region‐based multiple choice exams, specifically on radiology questions, increased progressively ~7.5% over those 5 years. Individual question and region‐based analyses also indicated differences across years. After completion of the course, the final exam will be added and statistics updated.