Redefining radiology education for first-year medical students: shifting from a passive to an active case-based...

The aim of the study is to design and implement an elective course in which first-year medical students learn about radiology by actively integrating imaging with hospital records and radiology reports, rather than passively observing radiologists or images.

Twenty students enrolled in an elective entitled "Introduction to Clinical Radiology." Students were divided into groups of two or three and given a case file describing the hospital visit of a patient with a common computed tomographic (CT) diagnosis. Files contained a PowerPoint presentation with all images from the patient's CT examination (allowing students to scroll through the images as if viewed on a picture archive and communication system workstation), as well as emergency department records, admission and discharge summaries, surgical notes, pathology reports, and radiology reports. Group discussion was facilitated by radiology staff acting as consultants, rather than instructors. As a final project, each group presented its case to the students and faculty.

Compared with before the course, students' understanding of the role of radiologists in the clinical management of patients significantly increased, but interest in radiology as a specialty was unchanged. Students significantly preferred scrolling through images on their own, rather than being shown static images in a didactic format. Students significantly agreed that they would recommend the course to a classmate.

Case-based instruction in radiology, in which first-year medical students are actively engaged in the integration of clinical and imaging information, can affect students' views on the role of radiologists and their clinical management of patients.