How millennials are changing the way radiology is taught in med schools

Millennials are changing the way medical educators are teaching radiology—and there’s a lot to keep up with, Harvard Medical physician Priscilla J. Slanetz, MD, MPH, wrote in an Academic Radiology editorial last week.

“The field of radiology has catapulted to the forefront of patient care, with imaging now playing a critical role in not only diagnosis but also treatment of nearly every human ailment,” wrote Slanetz, who’s also the radiology residency program director at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “These changes in radiology practice have brought the radiologist out of the dark room and essentially to the bedside, with the radiologist serving as an engaged and valued member of interprofessional teams.”

As the role of the radiologist changes, so must the way educators teach the future generation of radiologists about the speciality, Slanetz said.

Teaching and engaging millennials is far from a simple task. According to Jeff Nevid, PhD, who’s the director of clinical psychology at St. John’s University in New York, today’s 8- to 18-year-olds spend more time using technology than any other activity except sleeping.

“Millennials have no memory of a world without the World Wide Web, cell phones or personal computers,” Nevid wrote on the Association for Psychological Science’s website. “They are an internet-surfing, iPoding, texting, Googling, Facebooking and IMing generation. They have come of age during a time of dramatic technological changes in our society.”

Because of this, these learners have special needs, Slanetz said. Adult learning, flipped classrooms, integrated technology and blended learning environments have all become more important, as has self-directed learning and formative feedback.

“Curiosity and passion to train the next generation of radiologists has led educators to be creative, experiment with new teaching approaches and to incorporate ideas from other fields to reach millennial learners,” she wrote. “The days of the traditional didactic lecture have essentially vanished, and the interactive case-based and reflective session paired with pre-session assignments has taken hold.”

Taking advantage of tech is one of the biggest parts of the transition, Slanetz said. As millennial learners are statistically gaining less and less from conventional teaching conferences, teachers are recognizing their learners are more diverse than ever. Interactive case-based sessions, which are starting to pile up at medical meetings and teaching centers around the world, are becoming key to increasing preclinical exposure to imaging.

The digital landscape also allows new radiologists and residents the opportunity to build online learning portfolios, Slanetz said, and facilitates communication between professors and their students with email and other messaging apps.

Present-day students benefit more from one-on-one interactions with their teachers, she wrote. Recognizing their own personal accomplishments—and having them recognized by a teacher or mentor—can go a long way in maintaining a stressed resident’s confidence levels. This is especially important now, since nearly half of all practicing radiologists are at current risk of burnout.

Slanetz said educators could also be growing. With such a diverse student population, teachers also need “ to enhance their own skills in assessing the educational impact of their teaching,” she wrote.

“Knowledge of topics outside clinical radiology is also critical for the success of our field,” she said.