Professor of Radiology Tehran University of Medical Sciences Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Purpose: Since its introduction as an independent residency by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) in 2012, Interventional Radiology (IR) has developed rapidly. As IR application is expanding in diverse practices, the lack of IR awareness among medical students and doctors and the shortage of IR specialists is becoming more noticeable. The purpose of the current systematic review is to investigate the IR knowledge among the United States (US) medical students and to explore possible shortcomings in the presentation of this novel specialty to medical students.
Methods/Materials: The protocol of the present review is designed based on PRISMA guideline. A systematic search using a proper syntax was accomplished on PubMed, Web of science, Scopus, and Embase databases in June 2022. No limitation was considered in primary literature searching. Subsequently, to ensure all the desired evidences are collected, a manual search on Google Scholar search engine was performed. The studies which investigated the level of IR knowledge among students in the US medical schools were included in our data synthesis.
Results: After the screening of titles, abstracts, and full-texts, eight studies were included. Included studies were accomplished between 2010 and 2021 and encompassed a total of 2054 students. The IR interest and exposure were also assessed in the studies. Four studies examined the IR knowledge by a one-session survey (cross-sectional) while the other four comprised a tutorial course and the students’ knowledge was assessed before and after it (interventional). The assessments were performed either through a self-report survey or through a quiz. The overall IR knowledge was poor in all studies, however, in interventional studies, the results improved significantly in post-course surveys. Studies reported the better IR knowledge is associated with more interest and considering this specialty as a future career.
Conclusions: The present review demonstrates the knowledge of IR is limited among US medical students. The better IR exposure in medical schools will improve the students’ awareness of the field, which can lead to more interest in the specialty.
