Assessment of Approaches Promoting Virtual Radiation Oncology Educational Content to Medical Students

Purpose: Virtual learning in radiation oncology (RO) has potential to reach medical students who otherwise lack access to RO exposure or mentorship at their school. This study characterized the relative effectiveness of different methods of promoting virtual education content, to inform future efforts to expand access to RO education. Methods and Materials: A 4-part “Oncology Virtual Series for Medical Students” was developed to emulate an oncology interest group (OIG). All academic RO department chairs and residency program directors were asked to engage their respective Dean's office or OIG to promote to all students, especially groups with primarily underrepresented in medicine membership. Promotional emails were also sent to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office of all allopathic United States (US) medical schools, and Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) regional directors. The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) promoted via ASTROgram, social media, and ROhub. Descriptive statistics are reported. Results: A total of 660 students preregistered, and 140 attended, at least 1 session. Attendees represented 53 allopathic and 2 osteopathic US medical schools, and 18 international schools. One hundred six attendees (87%) were from schools with an affiliated RO department, and 79 (65%) with an affiliated RO residency. Fifteen schools had at least 3 students attend, with the highest number of attendees from the principal investigator's home institution (n = 10). These 15 schools accounted for 52% of all attendees, of which 10 had an affiliated RO residency. Two hundred eighty of six hundred sixty preregistered students (42%) described how they heard about the series: 87 (31%) medical school faculty, 75 (27%) social media post or email, 53 (19%) OIG, 16 (6%) SNMA or LMSA, and 15 (5%) ASTRO. Conclusions: Disproportionately high attendance was from a few schools, suggesting that radiation oncologists’ individual efforts and pre-existing relationships with students, Dean's offices, and student groups are most effective for promoting nationwide virtual RO education.