Radiology research publications see marked increase thanks to resident-managed peer mentor program
Radiology research publications saw a marked increase after the implementation of a resident-managed peer mentoring program at West Virginia University. The growth in participation was highlighted this week in Academic Radiology.
“Time constraints of faculty physicians in a clinically busy residency program can make cultivating effective faculty-student and faculty-resident collaborations challenging for scholarly activity,” wrote Dhairya A. Lakhani, MD, with WVU's Department of Radiology, and coauthors.
Researchers hypothesized that peer mentorship managed by residents would effectively increase scholarly activity as well as garner more interest from medical students in the specialty.
For their research, doctors first classified participants into three categories: novice learners (medical students and resident physicians new to research), intermediate learners (resident physicians with exposure to research) and faculty advisors (radiologists well-versed in research).
The novice learners first met with faculty advisors to discuss interests and were then assigned to clinical research projects. From there, they met with intermediate learners who were involved with the project. They were assigned small tasks appropriate for beginners to build upon and were offered guidance and feedback by intermediate learners throughout the entire process of publishing research.
As a result of the intervention, publications from radiology residents and faculty physicians increased by 47.8% during the first year, and 167.4% in the second year. Resident participation and authorship increased by 140% and faculty physician authorship saw a boost of 125.3% during the first year. These numbers continued to rise in the following years.
Since faculty physicians might face time constraints that hinder their availability to novice learners, authors note their study results could be due to the accessible guidance and active engagement with an intermediate learner.
“Strong advantages of utilizing a resident preceptor are that it reduces the time constraints of faculty advisors in a clinically busy program, promotes leadership and teaching by residents, and allows faculty advisors to effectively mentor more trainees,” the doctors explained.
This study is further evidence of the importance of mentorship pertaining to the future of research in radiology. The authors believe this program model can also be replicated in other programs and specialties.
You can read the detailed research in Academic Radiology.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She joined Innovate Healthcare in 2021 and has since put her unique expertise to use in her editorial role with Health Imaging.