• Daniel M DePietro, Sarah E Santucci, Neil E Harrison, Ryan M Kiefer, Scott O Trerotola, Deepak Sudheendra, and Susan Shamimi-Noori.
• Department of Radiology, Division of Interventional Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce Street, 1 Silverstein, Radiology Department, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Electronic address: daniel.depietro@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
• Acad Radiol. 2021 Jan 1; 28 (1): 128-135.

Rationale And ObjectivesIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic reducing medical student presence on clinical services and in classrooms, academic institutions are utilizing a virtual format to continue medical student education. We describe a successful initial experience implementing a virtual elective in interventional radiology (IR) and provide the course framework, student feedback, and potential improvements.Materials And MethodsA 2-week virtual IR elective curriculum was created utilizing a combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning and the "flipped" classroom educational model. Students virtually participated in daily IR resident education conferences, resident-led case review sessions, and dedicated lectures. Asynchronous prelearning material consisted of text and video correlating to lecture topics. Anonymous precourse and postcourse surveys were sent to all participating students (n = 10).ResultsTen students (100%) completed precourse and seven (70%) completed postcourse surveys. Enrolled students were considering residencies in surgery (50%), internal medicine (40%), interventional radiology (30%), and/or diagnostic radiology (30%). Students' understanding of what IRs do and the procedures they perform (p < 0.001), when to consult IR for assistance in patient management (p = 0.005), and the number of IR procedures students could recall (p = 0.015) improved after the course. Case-review sessions and virtual lectures ranked as having the highest education value. Students recommended additional small-group case workshops.ConclusionThis successful virtual IR elective provides a framework for others to continue IR medical student education during the pandemic and grow the specialty's presence within an increasingly virtual medical school curriculum. The described model may be modified to improve IR education beyond the COVID-19 era.Copyright © 2020 The Association of University Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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