Teaching radiology in Egyptian medical schools: Where do we stand and how can we start?

Mohamed Badawy ,Ferial Choucair,Scott A Rohren ,Ahmed S Negm,Parth Patel,Mariam Elbatal ,Nada Shalaby,Serageldin Kamel,Mariam Saad ,Florentino Saenz,M Hussein ,Amany Elfeel,Abdelrahman Abusaif,Mahmoud F Hammad ,Amr Ahmed,Mohamed Ismael Fahmy ,Yara Elhefnawi,Islam Khalifa ,Sammar Ghannam,Mostafa Shehata ,Ahmed Elhatw,Khaled M Elsayes

doi:10.1186/s43055-021-00684-x

Abstract

BackgroundRadiology serves in the diagnosis and management of many diseases. Despite its rising importance and use, radiology is not a core component of a lot of medical school curricula. This survey aims to clarify current gaps in the radiological education in Egyptian medical schools. In February–May 2021, 5318 students enrolled in Egyptian medical schools were recruited and given a 20-multiple-choice-question survey assessing their radiology knowledge, radiograph interpretation, and encountered imaging experiences. We measured the objective parameters as a percentage. We conducted descriptive analysis and used Likert scales where values were represented as numerical values. Percentages were graphed afterwards.ResultsA total of 5318 medical students in Egypt answered our survey. Gender distribution was 45% males and 54% females. The results represented all 7 class years of medical school (six academic years and a final training year). In assessing students’ knowledge of radiology, most students (75%) reported that they received ‘too little’ education, while 20% stated the amount was ‘just right’ and only 4% reported it was ‘too much.’ Sixty-two percent of students stated they were taught radiology through medical imaging lectures. Participants’ future career plans were almost equally distributed. Near half of participants (43%) have not heard about the American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria (ACR-AR), while 39% have heard about it but are not familiar with.ConclusionsRadiology is a novel underestimated field. Therefore, medical students need more imaging exposure. To accomplish this, attention and efforts should be directed toward undergraduate radiology education to dissolve the gap between radiology and other specialties during clinical practice. A survey answered by medical students can bridge between presence of any current defect in undergraduate radiology teaching and future solutions for this topic.

Highlights

Medical education has been a concern to researchers worldwide
This could provide preliminary data on the current status of Egyptian undergraduate radiology education (Where do we stand?) and how to address potential issues (How can we start?). This is a multicenter survey across Egyptian medical schools. It was composed by American-Board-certified radiologists with many years of experience in radiology teaching; similar surveys were used as a reference [21, 22]
Focus was on five main categories: (1) demographic data; (2) preclinical radiology education; (3) clinical radiology education; (4) exposure to the American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria (ACR-AC); and (5) confidence in image evaluation (See Additional file 1: "Supplementary Material: Survey Questions")

Summary

Introduction

Medical education has been a concern to researchers worldwide. They have tried multiple ways to improve teaching methods to both students and physicians. Egyptian medical education was divided into six academic years and a final training year In their first 3 years of medical school, students establish a foundation of basic sciences (Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology) for which they build upon in the latter 3 years with clinical sciences (Internal medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics). Following these six academic years, a final training year is approached to apply the acquired clinical knowledge (as house officers) before graduation [4, 5].

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