The global radiology classroom: increasing accessibility to radiology education
A D Baheti1, B Jankharia2, C P Mehta3
1Department of Radiodiagnosis, Tata Memorial Centre and Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Aim:
Online education provides a wonderful opportunity to democratise global access to quality education. The purpose of the study was to describe and analyse an ongoing online educational initiative of free-to-access radiology webinars.
Materials And Methods:
This retrospective review describes our experience in organising an ongoing series of 750-plus free-access educational radiology webinars, including the basic details regarding their timing and frequency, process for topic and speaker selection, webinar promotion, and financial viability. We also evaluate the webinar attendance for 449 consecutive webinars held between Oct 2020 and Feb 2024, using data obtained from Zoom™. The overall feedback from 323 attendees obtained via an anonymous survey is also evaluated.
Results:
Cumulatively, 131,473 unique viewers attended the 449 webinars from a median of 29 countries (range: 14-41). A median of 279 unique viewers (range: 67-654) and a maximum of 215 concurrent viewers (range: 46-514) attended the webinars. The number of countries logging in demonstrated a gradual increase, with an average of 24 countries in the initial 10 webinars analysed and 32 countries in the last 10. Ninety-four percent of the respondents rated the webinars as 4/5 or 5/5. Eighty-three percent preferred an online webinar over an in-house physical talk on the same topic, with 69% feeling more comfortable asking queries in the Q and A online. Overall, 99% respondents felt that the webinars contributed to them becoming better radiologists.
Conclusion:
Our format of regular online free-access webinars can be a sustainable model of radiology education, which cuts across local, national, and international barriers, with gratifying attendee feedback.
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