Why an Increasing Number of Unmatched Residency Positions in Radiation Oncology? A Survey of Fourth-Year Medical Students

Assessment of Approaches Promoting Virtual Radiation Oncology Educational Content to Medical Students

Purpose

Virtual learning in radiation oncology (RO) has potential to reach medical students who otherwise lack access to RO exposure or mentorship at their school. This study characterized the relative effectiveness of different methods of promoting virtual education content, to inform future efforts to expand access to RO education.

Methods and Materials

A 4-part "Oncology Virtual Series for Medical Students" was developed to emulate an oncology interest group (OIG). All academic RO department chairs and residency program directors were asked to engage their respective Dean's office or OIG to promote to all students, especially groups with primarily underrepresented in medicine membership. Promotional emails were also sent to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office of all allopathic United States (US) medical schools, and Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) regional directors. The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) promoted via ASTROgram, social media, and ROhub. Descriptive statistics are reported.

Results

A total of 660 students preregistered, and 140 attended, at least 1 session. Attendees represented 53 allopathic and 2 osteopathic US medical schools, and 18 international schools. One hundred six attendees (87%) were from schools with an affiliated RO department, and 79 (65%) with an affiliated RO residency. Fifteen schools had at least 3 students attend, with the highest number of attendees from the principal investigator's home institution (n = 10). These 15 schools accounted for 52% of all attendees, of which 10 had an affiliated RO residency. Two hundred eighty of six hundred sixty preregistered students (42%) described how they heard about the series: 87 (31%) medical school faculty, 75 (27%) social media post or email, 53 (19%) OIG, 16 (6%) SNMA or LMSA, and 15 (5%) ASTRO.

Conclusions

Disproportionately high attendance was from a few schools, suggesting that radiation oncologists' individual efforts and pre-existing relationships with students, Dean's offices, and student groups are most effective for promoting nationwide virtual RO education.

Making Radiation Oncology specialty more attractive to young medical graduates: pulling back the invisibility curtain

PURPOSE

Radiation Oncology is one of the least-known medical specialties for young graduates at the end of their studies. An in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Radiation Oncology visibility, the training plan, and why it is less attractive for new medical residents during the last years appears as the initial need to turn out this lack of knowledge.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

An anonymous pilot survey of 24 questions addressed to specialists in-training in Radiation Oncology in Spain during August and September of 2022.

RESULTS

A total of 50 in-training radiation oncologists answered the questionnaire and 90% of them believe that a lack of knowledge, mainly at the School of Medicine, was a major reason why choosing Radiation Oncology was unattractive. All responders were satisfied by choosing Radiation Oncology, and 76% were in favor of extending the residency to 5 years to improve their training. Research activity was considered essential (78%) to complete their training.

CONCLUSION

Increasing the presence of Radiation Oncology at the School of Medicine may be one solution to achieve greater attractiveness among future residents. Likewise, extending the training period to five years could help to enhance the learning of all radiotherapy techniques while promoting clinical research.