Radiologist Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital Westwood, Massachusetts, United States
Purpose: RadExam® is an extensive online image-rich multiple choice question bank and exam administration platform that is a collaborative effort of the APDR and the ACR, first rolled-out July 2018. The benefits of RadExam® are myriad, including high quality questions, formative assessment on a recurring basis that can be targeted and standardized, evaluation that is comparable across different training programs, as well as the engagement of trainees in best practices of learning, such as retrieval, spaced learning, and interleaving. Medical academic performance is improved by positive emotions, positive self-efficacy, and meta-cognitive learning strategies; so, the trainee's opinion of and experience with RadExam® matters in order for RadExam® to achieve its objectives. The purpose of this study is to understand the radiology trainee's attitudes and opinions towards RadExam®.
Methods/Materials: A survey of opinions about RadExam® was sent to all 40 current radiology residents at our institution as well as recent residency graduates from our institution that remain within our institution, including 4 R5 trainees and 4 attendings 1-2 years out of training, between February and March 2023.
Results: Respondents include 18 residents (45%), 0 R5 trainees (0%), and 2 attendings (50%). Respondents took an average of 5 RadExam® tests (range: 1-9). Overall there are positive opinions about the ease of use, quality, and educational value of RadExam® and neutral to positive opinions about its quality as an assessment tool (Graph 1). RadExam® ranks 9th of 10 educational resources in terms of educational importance to respondents. RadExam® and "Homemade" (asynchronous) examinations are the preferred OSCE formats out of 4 choices, with 38% first choice and 50% second choice responses for RadExam® and 44% first choice and 31% second choice responses for "Homemade". 40% of respondents want to use RadExam® as an assessment tool more and 30% want to use it the same amount. 60% of respondents want to use RadExam® as an educational tool more and 25 % want to use it the same amount.
Conclusions: Trainees have overall favorable opinions about the ease of use, quality, and value of RadExam® as both an assessment and educational tool.
