A Curriculum in Cardiothoracic Radiology for Medical Students, with Goals and Objectives

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education is the accrediting body for medical education programs leading to the MD degree in the United States and Canada. According to the Committee’s accreditation standards (1), “The curriculum must provide grounding in the body of knowledge represented in the disciplines that support the fundamental clinical subjects, for example, diagnostic imaging and clinical pathology.” In a survey of 119 directors of medical student education in radiology, 46 (39%) responded to questions regarding the teaching of radiology to medical students at their institution (2). A core radiology clerkship was required at 13 (29%) of 46 schools responding and was an elective at 33 (72%) (2). The number of schools with a required radiology clerkship has not changed since 1994 (3). The clerkship is given in the 3rd year at 12 (26%) of 46 schools, in the 4th year at 20 (44%), and in either the 3rd or 4th year at 14 (30%) (2). Twenty-six (57%) of 46 programs have computers in the department that students use during the course, usually shared with residents. Reported simultaneously with these survey results were results from a second survey of directors of medical student education, in which 69 (50%) of 139 responded (2). Six (9%) of 69 responding programs directed the medical school’s gross anatomy course, and 14 (20%) taught some portion of the course. A telephone survey (4) showed that a formal dedicated radiology clerkship was a graduation requirement in only five of the 16 top-ranked medical schools in a U.S. News & World Report ranking (Cornell, Duke, Harvard, University of California at San Francisco, and University of California at Los Angeles) (5). In contrast, a survey of 322 nonradiologist physicians showed that 87% believed formal radiology instruction should be mandatory (6). Radiology can be taught to medical students through an integrated curriculum, an independent curriculum, or a combination of the two. In an integrated curriculum, radiology faculty provide radiology instruction to medical students rotating through a nonradiology course or a course that is jointly sponsored by radiology and nonradiology departments. For example, radiologists teach projectional and cross-sectional imaging to medical students enrolled in a gross anatomy course. Radiologists may give a series of imaging lectures related to topics covered in a required medicine clerkship. Collaboration can occur when radiology faculty participate in required introductory courses that expose students early in medical school to physical examination techniques, history taking, and writing patient notes. These courses have various titles, such as “Introduction to Clinical Medicine” or “Patient, Doctor, and Society.” Radiology faculty can provide correlative imaging instruction in most required courses. The Alliance of Medical Student Educators in Radiology is a group associated with the Association of University Radiologists whose purpose is to promote radiology as an essential component of the medical student curricuAcad Radiol 2001; 8:1247–1251