ABSTRACT
This study, involving 19 centres, establishes the status of medical student radiology teaching in Australia and New Zealand. It aims to document the academic and clinical staff profile involved in teaching, to indicate the methods of instructions used, to outline the available radiology library resources for medical students, to list the textbooks used in teaching and to uncover how many radiology departments are involving medical students in research. The findings can be used to plan and execute further actions that will enhance radiology teaching of medical students.
Subject(s)
Education, Medical/methods , Radiology/education , Teaching Materials , Teaching , Australia , Curriculum , Faculty, Medical/statistics & numerical data , Humans , New Zealand , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
The present study describes some practical advantages and disadvantages of problem-based learning (PBL), and makes suggestions to improve PBL radiology teaching of medical students.
Subject(s)
Internship and Residency , Problem-Based Learning , Radiology/education , Cohort Studies , Humans , Internship and Residency/methods , Internship and Residency/organization & administration , Problem-Based Learning/methods , Problem-Based Learning/organization & administrationABSTRACT
Radiology can be more interesting if the principles of decision making are understood and used to the advantage of the radiologist, referring clinician and patient. This article seeks to revise the principles that radiologists use intuitively. Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of the pre-test probability, as it can be shown to: (i) vary with the referral pool of patients; (ii) be a major determinant of the amount of additional information gained from the test; (iii) alter the sensitivity and specificity of the test; and (iv) determine largely the significance of a positive or negative test result. An investigation helps a clinician by providing information that will move the probability of disease above an action threshold or below its exclusion threshold. If this does not occur as a result of one study, another is selected. This article also describes the factors involved in such a decision tree analysis, as well as discussing the reasons for both selecting a particular examination and deciding when a test should not be performed.
Subject(s)
Decision Making , Radiography , Bayes Theorem , Decision Trees , Humans , Predictive Value of Tests , Probability , ROC Curve , Sensitivity and SpecificityABSTRACT
A radiology/referral form has been designed and is offered as a basis for modification to meet the specific requirements of any department. The new form elicits more information, is ergonomically superior to the one it replaced, is designed to increase compliance in the completion of all relevant sections by the referring clinician and fulfils an educative function.
Subject(s)
Forms and Records Control , Radiology Department, Hospital , Referral and Consultation , Quality Assurance, Health Care , Radiology Department, Hospital/organization & administrationABSTRACT
A useful sign in diagnosing an astrocytoma is described. It consists simply of observing whether the patient moves on to the CT table of his own accord. A case is presented where the CT findings were of a large, low attenuation lesion in the cerebral white matter and where the sign was positive. This indicated that the diagnosis was a low grade astrocytoma rather than infarction, cerebritis or oedema of another cause.
