Recruiting Medical Students to Interventional Radiology: Current State of Affairs

Objective: Interventional radiology/diagnostic radiology (IR/DR) is the newest primary specialties offered to trainees, one that medical students can now apply to directly out of medical school. However, medical students are disadvantaged in that the integrated IR/DR pathway requires early decision when often radiology rotations are not part of the core clerkship curriculum. Based upon results from a survey to Integrated IR/DR Program Directors, we report strategies being used by programs to introduce and attract medical students to IR.

Materials and methods: A questionnaire was written touching on various aspects of medical student engagement. The questionnaire was sent out electronically to 51 IR/DR Program Directors and answers were collated by the Society of Interventional Radiology Resident Fellow Student Section, IR Residency Training Committee.

Results: Eighteen responses were recorded from programs across the country. All programs encouraged applying to both DR and IR programs. All except one offered research opportunities (94%). The majority offered shadowing opportunities, had dedicated IR interest groups, and invited medical students to device workshops (78%). Planned informal opportunities for medical students to meet faculty and a dedicated department website were made available by most (67%). Little more than half invited medical students to journal clubs (59%). Formal medical student-faculty mentorship program and social media outreach initiatives like Facebook, Student Doctor Network, Twitter, LikedIn, Youtube, and podcasts rounded out the bottom two (50%). Importantly, respondents indicated that they were interested in hearing the results of the survey.

Conclusion: Our survey offers a snapshot of exactly what program directors are doing to address the issue of medical student recruitment.