"What Program Directors Think" VI: Results of the 2024 Survey of the APDR Part 2

The Association of Program Directors in Radiology (APDR) surveys its members for data gathering on impediments to resident education, variations in resource allocation and recent changes to the American Board of Radiology (ABR) certifying examination.

This was an observational, cross-sectional study using a Web-based survey. Members of the 2022-2023 Annual Survey Committee developed survey questions resulting in 40 items, including demographic data. The survey was distributed by email to all active members of the APDR in January and February of 2024. In this paper, challenges and potential solutions to residency education, current state of resource allocation, PD's opinion on return of the ABR's oral examination, and procedural skills necessary for graduating trainees are presented.

The total survey response rate was 31% (84/247). The top five challenges to education were high clinical volumes (88%), insufficient protected time for teaching (64%), remote reaching on clinical rotations (58%) and high focus on relative value units (RVU) (50%). Proposed solutions included dedicated teaching faculty on the rotation schedule, RVU balancing to better value teaching, incentivize on-site faculty, universal, validated teaching resources and increasing the number of residency slots. The results of this survey were presented at the annual Association of Academic Radiology meeting in Boston, MA (April 2024).

Survey results find that a quarter of radiology PDs do not receive the full administrative time allocation mandated by the ACGME. The majority of the respondents favor the transition to the ABR oral examination and approve of the 10 procedures created by the APDR Procedures Taskforce. The greatest challenges facing Radiology residency education are a shortage of the radiology workforce, high clinical volumes impeding the balance between education and clinical work, and a lack of engagement and desire for remote work on the part of teaching faculty. Potential solutions to the challenges in Radiology residency education that are likely to decrease burnout and promote faculty interest in education include standardizing work RVUs to account for teaching, developing a cadre of dedicated in-person teaching faculty granted clinical RVU reductions, and facilitating asynchronous teaching.