Cultivating the next generation of radiologists: A single institution's experience with radiology preclinical electives for medical students.

Abstract

Medical students often lack meaningful exposure and educational opportunities in radiology, especially those facilitated by practicing radiologists. This limits the cultivation of early radiology interest into a future career, since preclinical radiology education often focuses on anatomic correlation. To increase medical students'knowledge, participation, and interest in the field, we created a preclinical elective that emphasizes the clinical application and practice of diagnostic radiology. The preclinical elective in diagnostic radiology has been held at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center since Fall 2021. Medical students attended ten-day sessions that included visiting reading rooms, attending resident- or faculty-led lectures, and simulating image-guided procedures. Upon completion of the elective, informal student feedback was collected and used to adjust curriculum content for future cohorts. A post-course electronic survey was also distributed to the 2024 cohort to provide objective feedback about the provided curriculum. Our institution's experience indicates that preclinical electives serve as effective educational instruments for enhancing early clinical radiology exposure for medical students. Our educational model highlights the clinical aspects of diagnostic radiology practice while also creating mentorship opportunities, bolstering student understanding of the role of a radiologist, and increasing student motivation to pursue a career in radiology. In this manuscript, we describe our step-by-step approach to building the structured learning curriculum of the radiology preclinical elective and its evolution throughout its four years of implementation.