Rationale and Objectives
Traditional approaches towards teaching magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning
and physics have limitations that a hands-on course may help overcome. A dedicated
week of MRI instruction may help improve radiology resident confidence and competence.
Additional benefits may include improved physician-technologist communication and
accelerated mastery of MRI safety.
Materials and Methods
Surveys and tests were approved by our Program Evaluation Committee and administered
at the beginning and at the end of this one-week course. The course consisted of protected
reading time as well as practice scanning with a research magnet and assisting with
clinical scanning under the close supervision of a licensed MRI technologist. Eighteen
senior residents (nine third-year and nine fourth-year) participated in this course
during its first year.
Results
Few residents had previous experience with MRI physics, scanning, or research prior
to residency. After this course, mean resident confidence increased by 0.47 points
(3.33 vs 2.86; p=0.01) on a five-point Likert scale. Understanding of MRI physics, as measured by
pre- and post-tests, increased by 22% (0.72 vs 0.50; p<0.01), corresponding to a large effect size of 1.29 (p<0.001). Resident feedback reported that this course was efficacious (5/5), engaging
(4.9/5), and had optimal faculty oversight. The most highly rated component of the
course was the opportunity to experiment with the research MR scanner (5/5).
Conclusion
A dedicated week of MRI education was highly rated by residents and associated with
improvements in confidence and understanding, suggesting a positive correlation between
confidence and competence. Additional metrics, such as trends in scores on the American
Board of Radiology's Core Examination over the next several years, may further support
the apparent benefits of this hands-on MR course.
Key Words
Abbreviations:
ABR (American Board of Radiology), ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), PGY (postgraduate year), QA/QI (quality assurance and quality improvement), R3 (third-year radiology resident), R4 (fourth-year radiology resident)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Academic RadiologyAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Trends in use of medical imaging in US health care systems and in Ontario, Canada, 2000-2016.JAMA: J Am Med Assoc. 2019; 322: 843-856
- Teaching radiology residents, and radiology residents as teachers.Acad Radiol. 2003; 10: S97-S101
- Hands-on physics education of residents in diagnostic radiology.Acad Radiol. 2017; 24: 677-681
- Curricula for teaching MRI safety, and MRI and CT contrast safety to residents: how effective are live lectures and online modules?.J Am Coll Radiol. 2015; 12: 1093-1096
- Education techniques for lifelong learning: writing multiple-choice questions for continuing medical education activities and self-assessment modules.Radiographics. 2006; 26: 543-551
- Flipping radiology education right side up.Acad Radiol. 2016; 23: 810-822
- Challenges facing radiology educators.J Am Coll Radiol. 2005; 2: 681-687
- Learning objectives in radiology education: why you need them and how to write them.Acad Radiol. 2013; 20: 358-363
- Teaching radiology trainees from the perspective of a millennial.Acad Radiol. 2018; 25: 794-800
- A review of innovative teaching methods.Acad Radiol. 2019; 26: 101-113
- Flipping the classroom: an alternative approach to radiology resident education.Acad Radiol. 2020; 27: 882-884
- Making learning fun: gaming in radiology education.Acad Radiol. 2019; 26: 1127-1136
- Learning theory in radiology education.Radiology. 2004; 233: 15-18
- Changing radiology resident education to meet today's and tomorrow's needs.J Am Coll Radiol. 2004; 1: 671-678
Rahim S, Ros P. Moving away from spoon-feeding as a teaching style in radiology. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2016; 207:1232-1238.
- Teaching physics: figuring out what works.Phys Today. 1999; 52: 24-30
- Residents’ perceptions of MRI training in the United States.J Am Coll Radiol. 2004; 1: 331-337
- Radiology resident teaching skills improvement: impact of a resident teacher training program.Acad Radiol. 2011; 18: 518-524
- Radiology residents from learners to teachers: a multi-centric study.Eur J Radiol. 2021; 134109408
- Improving the relationship between confidence and competence: implications for diagnostic radiology training from the psychology and medical literature.Acad Radiol. 2022; 29: 428-438
- Virtual MRI: a PC-based simulation of a clinical MR scanner.Acad Radiol. 2005; 12: 85-96
- Teaching radiology physics interactively with scientific notebook software.Acad Radiol. 2018; 25: 801-810
Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 13, 2023
Accepted:
December 3,
2022
Received in revised form:
November 25,
2022
Received:
September 30,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 The Association of University Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
