Available online 18 May 2023, 152101

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A persisting need remains for developing methods for inspiring and teaching undergraduate medical students to quickly learn to identify the hundreds of human brain structures, tracts and spaces that are clinically relevant (viewed as three-dimensional volumes or two-dimensional neuroimages), and to accomplish this with the option of virtual on-line methods. This notably includes teaching the essentials of recommended diagnostic radiology to allow students to be familiar with patient neuroimages routinely acquired using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT). The present article includes a brief example video plus details a clinically oriented interactive neuroimaging exercise for first year medical students (MS1s) in small groups, conducted with instructors either in-person or as an entirely online virtual event. This “find-the-brain-structure” (FBS) event included teaching students to identify brain structures and other regions of interest in the central nervous system (and potentially in head and neck gross anatomy), which are traditionally taught using brain anatomy atlases and anatomical specimens. The interactive, small group exercise can be conducted in person or virtually on-line in as little as 30 minutes depending on the scope of objectives being covered. The learning exercise involves coordinated interaction between MS1s with one or several non-clinical faculty and may include one or several physicians (clinical faculty and/or qualified residents). It further allows for varying degrees of instructor interaction online and is easy to convey to instructors who do not have expertise in neuroimaging. Anonymous pre-event survey (n=113, 100% response rate) versus post-event surveys (n=92, 81% response rate) were attained from a cohort of MS1s in a neurobiology course. Results showed multiple statistically significant group-level shifts in response several of the questions, showing an increase in MS1 confidence with reading MRI images (12% increase shift in mean, p<0.001), confidence in their approaching physicians for medical training (9%, p<0.01), and comfort levels in working online with virtual team-based peers and with team-based faculty (6%, p<0.05). Qualitative student feedback revealed highly positive comments regarding the experience overall, encouraging this virtual medium as a desirable educational approach.

Section snippetsINTRODUCTION

The formal integration of radiology into early neuroanatomical teaching in medical school curricula, though limited or nonexistent in some medical schools, is generally deemed desirable by radiologists (Branstetter et al., 2007, Branstetter et al., 2008, Poot et al., 2012, Naeger et al., 2014, Webb et al., 2015, Heptonstall et al., 2016). However, undergraduate medical curricula have been under increasing pressure for reform, often with reduction in certain areas of content (Raymond et al., 2015

Overview of the FBS exercise

To accomplish a specific set of didactic and specific learning objectives (see Appendix A), we developed the FBS exercise (see Appendix B for Lesson Plan) with three stages, briefly described below (and detailed further in the Teaching Methods section).

Stage I entailed a self-study exercise (pre-event assignment) where MS1 students learned to use neuroimaging software to navigate unlabeled “normal” brain images (e.g., images from a patient that revealed no significant pathology or

RESULTS

There was a total of 113 survey first-year medical students (MS1) respondents for the pre-event survey (100% response rate) and 92 survey respondents for the post-event survey (81% response rate). The sample size was determined by the number of participants who were emailed the survey link. The specific questions (see Appendix D for details) and responses are tabulated in Table 1 and 2. Group-level response outcomes to the survey questions are illustrated graphically in Fig. 2, charting

DISCUSSION

Overall, the FBS exercise helped MS1 students with the processes of evoking prior learned material, assimilating information, and inspiring group discussions about a patient’s medical images. Interestingly, the greatest immediately perceived influence on MS1’s interest in future specialties was for Neurology (Fig. 2F). Nonetheless, the greater exposure of pre-clerkship medical students to diagnostic radiology/neuroimaging will likely have a positive impact on advancing the education and

CONCLUSION

Overall, the “Find-the-Brain-Structure” (FBS) neuroimaging interactive exercise proved to represent a fun way for MS1 students to understand why they needed to learn and communicate with a high level of precision about brain structures using the large vocabulary of neuroanatomical terms learned in pre-clerkship years. The FBS exercise (lesson plan) evolved to be flexible for a wide range of constraints. This included being capable of being conducted either in-person in a laboratory setting or

Ethical approval

The study received WVU Project Number #1907637152 (see Methods)

Informed consent

This study qualified as an educational exemption due to minimal risk in a commonly accepted educational setting, involving normal educational practices that will not impact students’ opportunity to learn. The authors obtained informed consent form all the participants in this study. We followed standard procedures as outlined by the IRB for Research Involving Humans Course on Research Ethics.

Funding

NA

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank the anonymous patients who, unknowingly, contributed their de-identified neuroimages for use by the medical students.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Data avail ability

The Supplementary online video and the six-page PowerPoint assignment are available for download from the publisher’s website.

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