Megaconference: A Radical Approach to Radiology Resident Education With Full-Day Weekly Conferences

Conference Didactic Planning and Structure: An Evidence-based Guide to Best Practices from the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors

Emergency medicine residency programs around the country develop didactic conferences to prepare residents for board exams and independent practice. To our knowledge, there is not currently an evidence-based set of guidelines for programs to follow to ensure maximal benefit of didactics for learners. This paper offers expert guidelines for didactic instruction from members of the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors Best Practices Subcommittee, based on best available evidence. Programs can use these recommendations to further optimize their resident conference structure and content. Recommendations in this manuscript include best practices in formatting didactics, selection of facilitators and instructors, and duration of individual sessions. Authors also recommend following the Model of Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine when developing content, while incorporating sessions dedicated to morbidity and mortality, research methodology, journal article review, administration, wellness, and professionalism.

A Review of Innovative Teaching Methods

Teaching is one of the important roles of an academic radiologist. Therefore, it is important that radiologists are taught how to effectively educate and, in turn, to act as role models of these skills to trainees. This is reinforced by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education which has the requirement that all residents who interact with and teach medical students must undergo training in effective methods of teaching. Radiologists are likely familiar with the traditional didactic lecture-type teaching format. However, there are many newer innovative teaching methods that could be added to the radiologist's teaching repertoire, which could be used to enhance the traditional lecture format. The Association of University Radiologists Radiology Research Alliance Task Force on Noninterpretive Skills therefore presents a review of several innovative teaching methods, which include the use of audience response technology, long-distance teaching, the flipped classroom, and active learning.