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SIR 2025

General IR

Scientific Session

Session: Training and Education

Positive Impact of a Single-Day Educational Event on High School Students’ Awareness, Understanding, and Interest in Interventional Radiology

Wednesday, April 2, 2025
11:24 AM – 11:33 AM CT
Location: Music City Center, 205 BC
Purpose: Despite efforts to increase diversity in radiology, the proportion of women, African American, and Hispanic individuals in the field remains low {Wu et al 2022}. It has been suggested to increase interest in the field radiologists should consider bringing age-appropriate topics into the early education sphere {Sieck 2022}. We propose that an ideal time to expose students to diagnostic and interventional radiology (DR/IR) is in their late high school years, as they contemplate future educational and career choices. This study evaluated the impact of a single-day educational event on high school students’ awareness, understanding, and interest in DR and IR.

Materials and Methods: Forty-five students participating in a healthcare careers summer program were invited to participate in a half-day event. Students were given a 12-question pre-event survey before engaging in four activities: endovascular simulation, abscess drainage simulation, ultrasound demonstration, and a Kahoot! radiology game. Students were then given a 16-question post-event survey aimed at evaluating the change in their awareness and interest in DR and IR. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine overall changes in students' awareness, understanding, and interest, followed by post-hoc analyses of individual survey items with one-way ANOVA (IBM SPSS Statistics, Version 29.0.2.0 Armonk, NY).

Results: Overall, survey responses showed a significant increase in students' awareness, understanding, and interest in radiology [F(9, 76) = 657.14, p< 0.001; Wilks’ Λ=0.01, ηp² = 0.98]. Post-hoc analysis found that students both knew the difference between DR and IR (p< 0.001) and felt like they could explain the difference between DR and IR to a family member or friend (p < 0.001). Students were more aware of the educational requirements to becoming a radiologist (p< 0.001). Students were also more likely to consider IR as a career after the event (p< 0.03). There was also a trend towards students’ considering DR as a career, but did not quite reach significance (p< 0.15).

Conclusion:

High school students may be a good demographic for focused efforts to build awareness and interest in DR and IR. Students came into the day with minimal understanding and awareness of radiology, but their perceptions of the field were changed after this event. Further efforts aimed at educating high school students about DR and IR seems warranted.