The European Society of Radiology (ESR) has published a white paper containing guidelines and a proposed curriculum for teaching radiology in academic institutions.
The white paper, titled "Undergraduate Education in Radiology," is part of a society-wide goal to improve and harmonize educational standards throughout Europe, and it was published online on June 14 in Insights into Imaging. The paper is the result of an initiative started in March 2010 with the establishment of a Working Group on Undergraduate Teaching in Radiology.
In addition to providing a core curriculum, the white paper also recommends methods of teaching radiology. It suggests how to involve radiologists in undergraduate programs and how to expose undergraduates to radiology services in a practical manner.
Recommendations were made, in part, following a 2010 survey mailed to radiology teaching staff and heads of teaching hospitals in 430 European teaching centers. The survey asked how undergraduate teaching of radiology was delivered, what topics are examine, what types of staff are responsible for teaching the subject, when the subject is taught, and what proportion of the overall medical school curriculum focuses on radiology or radiology topics.
Ninety-three responses, or 21.6%, were received from 26 countries, according to Dr. Éamann Breatnach, chairman of the ESR Education Committee.
Ninety-two percent of the respondents reported that radiology courses were incorporated in the formal curriculum. It is currently taught both as an independent discipline and as part of modular clinical thematic teaching models covering systems or parts of the body. Approximately 70% of the medical schools teach radiology during the fourth year of training.
The overarching concern of the ESR is that effective practice of radiology should contribute to increasing standards of patient care, and that a logical beginning to this process is the involvement of radiologists in teaching medical undergraduates.
The ESR is planning to disseminate the white paper throughout the European radiology community.
