Abstract

Background: Interventional radiology (IR) is a minimally invasive method that uses different radiological techniques, where most parts of the body are reached by image-controlled procedures. Thus, this study aimed to assess the level of IR awareness among pre-clinical and clinical medical year students and between the four public medical universities in Riyadh.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students in clinical and pre-clinical years from September to October 2020. The data were collected via a questionnaire that was distributed online using social media. The questionnaire consisted of 17 items about IR awareness and students' interest, training paths, and hospital responsibilities.
Results: A total of 562 medical students participated in the survey from different universities in Riyadh. Of which, 294 (52.3%) students were in pre-clinical years, while (268) 47.7% were in their clinical years. Almost 178 (31.7%) students had poor level of knowledge, 80 (14.2%) students had good knowledge, and only 42 (7.5%) students had excellent knowledge about IR. Knowledge was higher in clinical students than pre-clinical students with significant correlation (p-value < 0.00) and clinical students had more tendency toward a career in both IR and radiology than pre-clinical students. Clinical research projects, self-directed research, and problem- based learning tutorials were the most favored tools reported by students in learning IR (mean scores = 4.87, 4.52 and 4.34, respectively).
Conclusion: This study showed that majority of the medical students had poor knowledge of IR, especially among pre-clinical year students as compared to clinical year students.

Key words: Intervention radiology, medical education, medical students, awareness