Multidisciplinary approach of teaching radiology to medical students in Egypt: Is this an effective method?

Yasmeen Nabhani,Nada Shalaby,Mazzin Elsamaloty,Mariam Saad ,Scott A Rohren ,Ahmed Elhatw,Mohamed Badawy ,Sammar Ghannam,Mahmoud F Hammad ,Hrishabh Bhosale ,Umayma Abdullatif,Zaid Almubaid,Yara Elhefnawi,Ferial Choucair,Victoria K Xie,Mostafa Shehata ,Serageldin Kamal,Abdelrahman Abusaif,Islam Khalifa ,Rehan Karim,Parth Patel,Ahmed S Negm,Khaled M Elsayes

doi:10.1186/s43055-021-00672-1

Abstract

BackgroundIn multidisciplinary education, different perspectives from more than one discipline are used to illustrate a certain topic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an online, multidisciplinary radiology curriculum to teach radiology to medical students in Egypt. A multidisciplinary team of radiologists, surgeons, and internists taught a series of 5 case-based radiology sessions on a web conference platform. Topics included common clinical case scenarios for various body systems. Undergraduate medical students across Egypt were enrolled in the course. A pre-test–post-test design was used to evaluate the efficacy of each session. Upon course completion, students filled out a subjective survey to assess the radiology education series.ResultsOn average, 1000 students attended each session. For each session, an average of 734 students completed both the pre-test and post-test. There was a statistically significant increase in post-test scores compared to pre-test scores across all 5 sessions (p < 0.001) with an overall average score improvement of 63%. A subjective survey at the end of the course was completed by 1027 students. Over 96% of students found the lecture series to be a worthwhile experience that increased their imaging knowledge and interest in radiology, and that the use of a multidisciplinary approach added educational value. About 66% of students also reported that the session topics were “excellent and clinically important.” There was a marked increase in reported confidence levels in radiology competencies before and after attendance of the sessions.ConclusionsAn online radiology curriculum with a multidisciplinary approach can be implemented successfully to reach a large group of medical students and meet their educational objectives.

Highlights

Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted medical education around the world
Radiology education in many medical schools is often not part of the required curriculum and is only offered in the forms of electives often taught by non-radiologists, such as anatomists [6, 7]
Participants of this study provided informed consent to authorize the use of the test results and the analysis of the survey answers for research purposes

Summary

Introduction

Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted medical education around the world. Within Egypt, in-person undergraduate medical courses and Nabhani et al Egypt J Radiol Nucl Med (2021) 52:292 modalities including the flipped classroom model, didactic lectures, case-based discussions/read-outs, online modules, interdisciplinary conferences, and small group activities have received mostly positive reviews [2,3,4]. Radiology education in many medical schools is often not part of the required curriculum and is only offered in the forms of electives often taught by non-radiologists, such as anatomists [6, 7]. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an online, multidisciplinary radiology curriculum to teach radiology to medical students in Egypt. A multidisciplinary team of radiologists, surgeons, and internists taught a series of 5 case-based radiology sessions on a web conference platform. Students filled out a subjective survey to assess the radiology education series

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