Showcasin Our Profession to the Future Physician Workforce: Medical Student Radiology Expo

摘要

Rationale and Objectives: There has been waxing and waning of popularity of radiology as a career choice over the last few years. These fluctuations may in part be due to misconceptions such as the perceived lack of patient contact, as well as the perception of decreasing numbers of entry-level jobs. To address such misconceptions, it is important to reach medical students early in their training, both to give them a comprehensive and balanced understanding of radiology practice, and to appropriately frame radiologists as clinicians. Realizing the benefits of direct student outreach, a number of medical specialties are moving toward more direct recruitment efforts often through student interest groups and career fairs. The Medical Student Radiology Expo (MSRE) was proposed and executed by the Alliance of Medical Students Educators in Radiology, which was supported by the Association of University Radiologists (AUR) and the American College of Radiology. The MSRE was held immediately after the 2016 AUR annual meeting and hosted at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego. The goals of the MSRE were threefold: (1) to showcase radiology as a distinct and exciting specialty to all medical students, (2) to foster an interest in pursuing a career in radiology among medical students, and (3) to create a distributable and customizable combined symposium and workshop that could be easily replicated elsewhere.