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©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Radiology education in Europe: Analysis of results from 22 European countries
Bhavya Rehani, Yi C Zhang, Madan M Rehani, András Palkó, Lawrence Lau, Miriam N Mikhail Lette, William P Dillon
Bhavya Rehani, Yi C Zhang, William P Dillon, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94110, United States
Madan M Rehani, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States
András Palkó, Department of Radiology, University of Szeged, H-6720 Szeged, Hungary
Lawrence Lau, Consultant Radiologist, Melbourne, 3103 Victoria, Australia
Miriam N Mikhail Lette, Consultant Diagnostic Radiologist, RAD-AID International, 1110 Geneva, Switzerland
Author contributions: Rehani B, Zhang YC and Dillon WP made substantial contributions to conception and design of the study and acquisition of data, and the remaining authors made substantial contributions to acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; all authors made substantial contributions to drafting the article or making critical revisions related to important intellectual content of the manuscript; all authors gave final approval of the version of the article to be published.
Institutional review board statement: The University of California San Francisco IRB does not consider this project as human subject research.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Bhavya Rehani is the recipient of a RSNA Education Scholar grant for development of RISEMed.org. All other authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at bhavya.rehani@ucsf.edu. Consent was not obtained but the potential benefits of sharing these data outweigh the potential harms because the data does not contain any personal information. The data only pertains to radiology education infrastructure on a national level.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Bhavya Rehani, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, 1001 Potrero Ave, San Francisco, CA 94110, United States.
bhavya.rehani@ucsf.edu
Telephone: +1-415-2068024 Fax: +1-415-4760616
Received: July 30, 2016
Peer-review started: July 31, 2016
First decision: September 2, 2016
Revised: October 25, 2016
Accepted: December 1, 2016
Article in press: December 2, 2016
Published online: February 28, 2017
Processing time: 212 Days and 12.4 Hours
AIM
To assess the state of radiology education across Europe by means of a survey study.
METHODS
A comprehensive 23-item radiology survey was distributed via email to the International Society of Radiology members, national radiological societies, radiologists and medical physicists. Reminders to complete the survey were sent and the results were analyzed over a period of 4 mo (January-April 2016). Survey questions include length of medical school and residency training; availability of fellowship and subspecialty training; number of residency programs in each country; accreditation pathways; research training; and medical physics education. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze and summarize data.
RESULTS
Radiology residency training ranges from 2-6 years with a median of 5 years, and follows 1 year of internship training in 55% (12 out of 22) European countries. Subspecialty fellowship training is offered in 55% (12 out of 22) European countries. Availability for specialization training by national societies is limited to eight countries. For nearly all respondents, less than fifty percent of radiologists travel abroad for specialization. Nine of 22 (41%) European countries have research requirements during residency. The types of certifying exam show variation where 64% (14 out of 22) European countries require both written and oral boards, 23% (5 out of 22) require oral examinations only, and 5% (1 out of 22) require written examinations only. A degree in medical physics is offered in 59% (13 out of 22) European countries and is predominantly taught by medical physicists. Nearly all respondents report that formal examinations in medical physics are required.
CONCLUSION
Comparative learning experiences across the continent will help guide the development of comprehensive yet pragmatic infrastructures for radiology education and collaborations in radiology education worldwide.
Core tip: The authers report survey results of radiology education across 22 European countries with respect to length of training, subspecialty fellowship availability, research opportunities, and national certification and credentialing. Given the diversity in training requirements and its impact on cross-border training recognition, our results provide important insights to understand radiology education and its potential on portability across different countries in Europe.
