Radiology and new curriculum.

Abstract

The awareness that the medical profession faces an increasing number of problems in the future has led to the formation of many committees and commissions to explore possible solutions. Outstanding among the reports are two in which Lowell T. Coggeshall, M.D., and John S. Millis, Ph.D., made several recommendations designed to improve medical education and training for medical specialties. It is accepted by all radiologists that the problems facing their specialty are as grave as if not more so than those of other physicians. The well known NACOR Report (Radiology 87∶ 957, 1966) was prepared by a Committee chaired by Russell Morgan, M.D. At the present time a “Survey of Academic Radiology” is being conducted by a special committee chaired by Joseph C. Hinsey, M.D. When completed, this report will be presented jointly to the Division of Medical Sciences of the National Research Council and the American Board of Radiology. Most radiologists believe that perhaps the greatest problem facing their specialty is the sparsity of young physicians being trained in Radiology. What is the best source of candidates for Radiology residencies? Does it vary with geographic location? The following discussion presents what may be a partial solution, worked out by the staff of the Medical College of Virginia. The education of the radiologist could well be divided into three phases: the predoctoral or Medical School, the postdoctoral or Intern and Residency years; and Continuation Education. While it is true that some of the residents in Radiology are obtained during their intern years or occasionally transfer from another specialty or from general practice, it is our opinion that the best source of future radiologists is found in the predoctoral period of training. The Millis report proposed abolishing the internship as we know it and including this year of postdoctoral training into the residency requirements of a specialty board. Many radiologists, however, object to the idea of abolishing the internship. Among their reasons is the feeling that it is in this period that many candidates for residencies in Radiology make their decision. On the other hand, residents in Radiology are being appointed earlier and earlier, and it is now common practice to give a candidate an appointment as a resident in Radiology during his senior year of Medical School or in the first or second month of his internship. After several years of planning, our institution embarked in 1964 upon what was called a “new curriculum.” The June 1968 graduates will be the first to have spent their entire period of predoctoral training in this course. This new curriculum should probably not be called “core,” inasmuch as it has not shortened the period of training or exemplified the system or block method of teaching throughout the entire four-year period.