Radiation oncology education and experience in the undergraduate medical setting

ABSTRACT

The goal of this study was to determine the impact and experience of radiation oncology (RO) education in the undergraduate medical experience in the USA. A list of American medical schools was complied from various sources including the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) in the summer of 2019. Data was extracted through institution website review, individual phone calls and email distribution. A total of 198 programs (155 allopathic and 43 osteopathic medical schools) were included. Every medical school curriculum had oncology lecture during MS year 1 and 2, although a minimal amount (4%) had a RO-specific lecture during MS year 1 and 2. There were significant differences in the RO education and experience in allopathic (MD) versus osteopathic (DO) programs. Home radiation oncology programs and career advising were associated with a radiation oncology elective during year 3 and 4. Furthermore, RO career advisors and older schools were associated with having one student match into radiation oncology. RO education during the didactic portion of the undergraduate medical experience remains extremely limited. This limitation is even more pronounced in medical schools without RO mentorship and in osteopathic medical schools. This lack of RO exposure perpetuates itself by bringing less students into the field. These issues require attention both on a national and medical-school-specific level.

KEYWORDS:

• Radiation oncology
• education
• undergraduate medical education

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Department of Radiation Oncology at Upstate Medical University for their support of this research.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest

Data availability statement

The authors declare that they had full access to all of the data in this study and the authors take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Previous presentation

Part of this work was presented at 2020 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting