A Novel USMLE ® Step 1 Based Approach to Introducing Radiation Oncology to Second-Year Preclinical Medical Students

We present a novel approach to implementing an introductory RO didactic lecture to second-year medical students by interweaving associated oncological and ionizing radiation content represented on the United States Medical Licensing Exam ® (USMLE®) Step 1 examination. Students had synchronous and asynchronous opportunities to engage with the 1.0-h didactic lecture administered by an attending Radiation Oncologist faculty member. Students were electronically invited to anonymously rank the effectiveness of the lecture materials on a 5-point Likert scale. Performance on standardized board-style questions regarding radiation biology and radiation side effects was recorded before and after the lecture and compared to the historic performance of previous institutional second-year medical student cohorts. The lecture material effe ctiveness received a mean score of 4.50 on a 5-point Likert scale. There was a statistically significant improvement in student performance on a board-style radiation side effect question from 39% on a pretest to 76% on a posttest. A USMLE® topic-based approach may be an effective way to implement a formalized introduction to RO to preclinical medical students while simultaneously improving performance on relevant standardized board-style questions. Providing evidence that RO topics appear on the USMLE® Step 1 examination curriculum was a powerful incentive for implementation when negotiatin g with curriculum offices.
Source: Journal of Cancer Education - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research