A survey evaluating the beliefs of radiology residency program directors regarding incorporation of numeric standards into accreditation standards.
OBJECTIVE
Numeric standards do not exist for the evaluation and comparison of radiology resident education. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has recently proposed the evaluation and assessment of residents by using numeric values for films read in various radiology modalities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate radiology residency program directors' perceived need for numeric standards for radiology residency programs.


METHODS
Program directors were surveyed via a three-part questionnaire. Initial contact was made by e-mail, with follow-up by telephone if necessary. The survey questions were: (1) Do you feel that a need exists for a set of numerical standards for the number of films read by radiology residents in each of the various subspecialties? (2) Specify the needs that you see. (3) What are the barriers and disadvantages to acquiring such data?


RESULTS
Survey responses were received from 44 of 192 radiology residency programs (23% response rate). Overall, 34 (77%) of 44 program directors were against implementation of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education proposal, whereas 8 (18%) of 44 program directors were in favor of the proposal and 2 (5%) of 44 were undecided. A variety of reasons, both for and against the proposal, were provided by program directors.


CONCLUSIONS
Among the program directors responding to the survey, there was strong opposition to implementation of mandatory standards for specific numbers of radiologic examinations by residents as the basis for program accreditation.
McGuire
Charles W
CW
Wesley Medical Center, Wichita, KS, USA.
Kotecha
Manish
M
Isaac
Mitchell
M
D000068:Accreditation / Q000592:standards*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D011871:Radiology / Q000193:education*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States