An Institutional Academic and Research Track Curriculum for Radiology Residents: Development, Implementation, and Outcomes Assessment at 6 Years

ResearchConnect.info: An Interactive Web-Based Platform for Building Academic Collaborations

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

Radiology is a rapidly evolving field that benefits from continuous innovation and research participation among trainees. Traditional methods for involving residents in research are often inefficient and limited, usually due to the absence of a standardized approach to identifying available research projects. A centralized online platform can enhance networking and offer equal opportunities for all residents.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Research Connect is an online platform built with PHP, SQL, and JavaScript. Features include project and collaboration listing as well as advertisement of project openings to medical/undergraduate students, residents, and fellows. The automated system maintains project data and sends notifications for new research opportunities when they meet user preference criteria. Both pre- and post-launch surveys were used to assess the platform's efficacy.

RESULTS

Before the introduction of Research Connect, 69% of respondents used informal conversations as their primary method of discovering research opportunities. One year after its launch, Research Connect had 141 active users, comprising 63 residents and 41 faculty members, along with 85 projects encompassing various radiology subspecialties. The platform received a median satisfaction rating of 4 on a 1-5 scale, with 54% of users successfully locating projects of interest through the platform.

CONCLUSION

Research Connect addresses the need for a standardized method and centralized platform with active research projects and is designed for scalability. Feedback suggests it has increased the visibility and accessibility of radiology research, promoting greater trainee involvement and academic collaboration.

Gender and Racial Diversity in Relation to Publication Rates at the Canadian Association of Radiology Annual Scientific Meetings 2016 to 2019

Purpose: To determine the overall rate of publication of abstracts presented at the 2016 to 2019 Canadian Association of Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting (CAR ASM), with an emphasis on gender and racial diversity. Methods: Abstracts from publicly available past programs were analyzed using PubMed, EMBASE, and Google Scholar for publication status, time to publication (TTP), author affiliation, and journal of publication. Past programs were used to determine the abstract format, abstract category, and the subspecialty and imaging modalities explored. First author demographics were identified using the Namsor software. Results: Four hundred and sixty-two abstract presentations were included in the analysis with an overall conversion rate of 34.63%. Two hundred and ninety-two (63.2%) of the first-authors were male-identified, of which 104 (35.62%) were published. In contrast, 170 (36.8%) were female-identified, of which 56 (32.94%) were published. Additionally, 50.87% first-authors were identified as white, 38.31% asian, 6.06% black, 4.76% latino, and 0.00% indigenous. While diversity was seen in demographics, 60% of publications had a white first-author. The following conversion rates were found: 40.85% white, 30.51% asian, 25% black, and 13.64% latino. In terms of abstract category, radiologist-in-training had the highest conversion rate at 60.71%. The median TTP was 14 months, with an average impact factor of 5.26. Conclusion: Less than half of abstracts at the 2016 to 2019 CAR ASM were published and both gender and racial disparities in relation to conversion rates were identified. Measures to improve publication rates and overall diversity in Radiology are warranted.

Curated collections for educators: Nine key articles and article series for teaching qualitative research methods

Background

Qualitative research explains observations, focusing on how and why phenomena and experiences occur. Qualitative methods go beyond quantitative data and provide critical information inaccessible through quantitative methods. However, at all levels of medical education, there is insufficient exposure to qualitative research. As a result, residents and fellows complete training ill-equipped to appraise and conduct qualitative studies. As a first step to increasing education in qualitative methods, we sought to create a curated collection of papers for faculty to use in teaching qualitative research at the graduate medical education (GME) level.

Methods

We conducted literature searches on the topic of teaching qualitative research to residents and fellows and queried virtual medical education and qualitative research communities for relevant articles. We searched the reference lists of all articles found through the literature searches and online queries for additional articles. We then conducted a three-round modified Delphi process to select papers most relevant to faculty teaching qualitative research.

Results

We found no articles describing qualitative research curricula at the GME level. We identified 74 articles on the topic of qualitative research methods. The modified Delphi process identified the top nine articles or article series most relevant for faculty teaching qualitative research. Several articles explain qualitative methods in the context of medical education, clinical care, or emergency care research. Two articles describe standards of high-quality qualitative studies, and one article discusses how to conduct the individual qualitative interview to collect data for a qualitative study.

Conclusions

While we identified no articles reporting already existing qualitative research curricula for residents and fellows, we were able to create a collection of papers on qualitative research relevant to faculty seeking to teach qualitative methods. These papers describe key qualitative research concepts important in instructing trainees as they appraise and begin to develop their own qualitative studies.

Developing a Comprehensive Resident-driven Research Training Pathway: A Chief Resident's Perspective

Wide variation exists in research training, experience, opportunities, and exposure across various radiology residency training programs, ranging from having a dedicated research track to no exposure to hypothesis driven projects. Studies conducted at different residency training programs with varied resources and National Institutes of Health funding have shown that resident-driven research initiatives and mentorship programs have the potential to improve research experience during residency training, engage more medical students in research, increase departmental peer-reviewed publications and increase peer-reviewed publications of early-career faculty physicians. In an attempt to standardize the research training during radiology residency, we propose a standardized resident-led program which institutions may adapt, as well as resources that the American Alliance of Academic Chief Residents in Radiology (A³CR²) might compile in collaboration with other national organizations to improve trainee's research experience during their radiology residency training.

Establishing a Departmental Symposium for Resident Scholarly Activity: How We Did It

Many radiology departments have successfully increased trainee research involvement by providing protected academic time for research, offering travel funding for conferences, and developing research-focused curriculum via resident research tracks and other mechanisms. A departmental platform for trainees to share their scholarly projects can foster intradepartmental awareness and collaborations, supplement the existing resident research curriculum, encourage peer learning amongst trainees, and allow departmental celebration of their trainees' accomplishments. The authors describe the development of a departmental symposium for resident scholarly activity at their institution and detail a practical framework for implementation and lessons learned, which may serve as a guide for other radiology departments interested in establishing a similar event.

Impact of Longitudinal Focused Academic Time on Resident Scholarly Activity

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

Meeting the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education scholarly activity requirement can be challenging for residents. Time to engage in research is one of the commonly perceived barriers. To address this barrier, our residency program implemented a focused academic time initiative of a half day per week that can be taken while on rotation. At the end of the third year of implementation, we assessed the effectiveness of this initiative on the productivity of resident scholarly activity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Radiology resident scholarly activity submitted to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education web-based Accreditation Data System were reviewed and compared to the three academic years before (July 1, 2012-June 30, 2015) and three academic years after (July 1, 2015-June 30, 2018) implementing the focused research time. The types of scholarly activity, which consisted of peer-reviewed journal publications, national conference presentations, and textbook chapters were captured. PubMed-Indexed for MEDLINE (PMID) number was used to confirm publications. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

The total number of residents per year, ranging between 37-40, was similar between the academic years 2012-2015 (116 residents total) and 2015-2018 (117 residents total). After initiating focused academic time, the number of publications increased from 45 to 75 (67%), presentations at conferences increased from 112 to 128 (14%), the number of textbook chapters increased from 4 to 15 (275%), and total number of first author publications by residents increased from 21 to 28 (33% increase).

CONCLUSION

Longitudinal focused academic time of half a day per week increased productivity of scholarly activity among our radiology residents.

Mentorship in Interventional Radiology: Addressing Obstacles to Pursuing Research and Innovation Among IR Trainees

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

To ascertain the perceived obstacles that medical students and Interventional Radiology (IR) residents face performing IR research during training and incorporating research into their future careers.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was reviewed and exempt from Institutional Review Board review. Participants' attitudes and perceived barriers toward performing IR research, and experience with mentorship in IR were assessed using a 27-item survey sent to all members of the Society of Interventional Radiology Resident, Fellow and Student (SIR-RFS, n = 445), and Medical Student Council (SIR-MSC, n = 267) sections between July and September 2020. Descriptive statistics were computed for all assessed categorical variables. Fisher's exact tests were performed to measure the significance of association between categorical variables.

RESULTS

Of the 712 students and residents surveyed, 151 (∼21%) responded. Of respondents, 100% reported that conducting research is important to advancing the field of IR. The highest ranked factors and obstacles to performing IR research were increased clinical demands (67.9%), lack of time (46.2%), lack of institutional support (41.5%), and lack of research experience (35.8%). Interestingly, those with a mentor were more likely to report an interest in pursuing a career in IR compared to those without a mentor (98.6% vs 41.0%, p < 0.0001). Furthermore, those with a mentor were more likely to report an interest in pursuing IR research compared to those without a mentor (32.5% vs 14.4%, p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

There are many obstacles to performing IR research. Strong mentorship is an avenue to address these deterrents. The deployment of mentorship programs in IR is needed to ensure trainees can overcome the barriers outlined in this study and successfully pursue research careers in IR.