Reimagining ACR Education in the 21st Century

Welcome to the ACR Bulletin’s special Focus on Education. At the end of this article, you'll find links to other informative pieces in this collection.

From the Chair of the Board of Chancellors Alan H. Matsumoto, MD, FACR

 

Priscilla J. Slanetz, MD, MPH, FACR
Chair, Commission on Publications and Lifelong Learning

Guest Columnist

As a longtime ACR member, I am a firm believer in the organization’s mission — to empower radiologists “to serve patients and society by advancing the practice and science of radiological care.” Although the mission focuses on empowering radiologists to lead in integrated diagnostics and delivery of equitable, image-guided healthcare, education is the foundation upon which all efforts related to empowering ACR membership in the domains of leadership, advocacy, economics, quality and safety, health equity and advances in radiological care is built. In fact, if you look back and reflect on the organization’s history, ACR has always provided its members with critical education that allows them to thrive and lead, ultimately providing the highest level of imaging care to patients.

As chair of the Commission of Publications and Lifelong Learning (CoPLL), I am privileged to oversee ACR’s educational portfolio. For many years, the ACR Education Center has provided high-level, hands-on instruction in emerging technologies and essential clinical content to ensure that its members can continue to deliver state-of-the-art care. When the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology folded in 2011, ACR founded the ACR Institute for Radiologic Pathology to ensure this valuable educational programming on radiological-pathological correlation would continue to educate current and future radiologists for generations to come. The popular Case-in-Point® series delivers world-class cases direct to each member’s inbox daily, providing clinically relevant CME activities for its members to understand both common and uncommon presentations of a diverse array of pathology while also engaging many radiology trainees. In addition, through the Continuous Professional Improvement program, ACR has created interactive case-based modules focused on specific subspecialty topics that provide CME to allow busy radiologists to keep up with current and emerging clinical practice. For trainees, ACR administers standardized in-training exams, such as RadExam, DXIT™ and TXIT™, to allow its members-in-training an opportunity for self-assessment as they prepare to enter the rapidly evolving field. ACR also provides its members with education in non-interpretative skills through the RLI, including CME-based content at the ACR Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., and its Informatics e-Learning Hub. In addition, CoPLL oversees the CME given to its members for articles published in its leading journal, the JACR®, and helps to support multiple membership communication forums, including the Bulletin.

As the new CoPLL chair, what has become apparent to me is the wonderful opportunity to find synergy and increase the efficiency of ACR educational offerings while making them even more accessible to membership. Therefore, one of my goals in my new role is for ACR to reimagine its educational portfolio and how it is delivered. First and foremost, we should bring the entire educational portfolio into one easy-to-use platform to allow members to easily access the rich educational material through one portal. For this reason, ACR has begun the process to identify and implement a new learning management system. This system will place all of our educational resources at your fingertips and provide a more tailored approach to your education.

Second, ACR is re-thinking how best to reach its learners. In this day and age of technology, our diverse learners need to be matched with diverse formats so that each learner can engage in the most efficient and effective approach to maximize their learning. The hard-copy textbook is no longer reality for most of us to master current trends in radiology practice, especially as most textbooks are outdated even before publication. Instead, we must turn to more innovative and creative ways to reach our learners, whether that be through online cases, bite-sized modules, certificate programs, podcasts, webinars, videos or even longitudinal learning groups. At the upcoming ACR Annual Meeting, we will be holding focus groups to ensure that our efforts meet the needs of our members. We welcome and encourage you to give us your ideas and input either by signing up to join a focus group or by reaching out to our commission.

Only together can we create the future of our profession — focused, forward, together!