An Interdisciplinary Approach Toward Developing an Engaging and Clinically Relevant Medical Imaging Curriculum

Competency in imaging is essential for physicians to diagnose and manage disease. Previously, the authors introduced radiology education in the anatomy lab. The present study transitioned the radiology education to the classroom with the primary goal of increasing engagement and clinical relevance.

To accomplish these objectives, a team of senior medical students, residents, a diagnostic radiologist, and an anatomist collaborated to design pre-work e-modules and active learning workshops focused on imaging five body regions. For three regions, interactive e-modules with built-in quizzes and videos were designed. PowerPoints were used for the other two regions. Pacsbin, a web-based Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine viewer, was used as a platform to introduce students to the basics of windowing, scrolling and labeling images. Workshops focused on 3-4 cases which instructed groups of students to scroll through and label anatomical structures on scans uploaded to Pacsbin. A questionnaire seeking students' feedback on the curriculum was given at the end of the course.

Students indicated high satisfaction with the imaging curriculum, believing that it supported their anatomical knowledge. The majority of students preferred the e-modules as opposed to PowerPoints for learning the imaging anatomy. Pacsbin was most often used only during workshops. Students' responses regarding their confidence with use Pacsbin were almost evenly distributed on a 4-point Likert scale.

Overall, this work presents an interdisciplinary way by which imaging can be incorporated into the pre-clinical medical curriculum in an engaging and clinically relevant manner.