The USMLE Step 1 Pass/Fail Reporting Proposal: The APDR Position.

BACKGROUND: The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) has convened a conference of "key stakeholders" on March 11-12, 2019 to consider reporting the results of the USMLE Step 1 as pass/fail. DISCUSSION: While the original purpose of the USMLE Step 1 was to provide an objective basis for medical licensing, the score is increasingly used in residency applicant screening and selection because it is an objective, nationally recognized metric allowing comparison across medical schools in and outside the United States. Excessive reliance on the Step 1 score in the matching process has led to "Step 1 Culture" that drives medical schools to "teach to the test," increases medical student anxiety, and disadvantages minorities that have been shown to score lower on the USMLE Step 1 examination. The outsize role of the USMLE Step 1 score in resident selection is due to lack of standardization in medical school transcripts, grade inflation, and the lack of class standing in many summative assessments. Furthermore, the numeric score allows initial Electronic Residency Application Service filtering, commonly used by programs to limit the number of residency applications to review. CONCLUSION: The Association of Program Directors in Radiology (APDR) is concerned that pass/fail reporting of the USMLE Step 1 score would take away an objective measure of medical student's knowledge and the incentive to acquire as much of it as possible. Although the APDR is not in favor of the Step 1 exam being used as a screening tool, in the absence of an equal or better metric for applicant comparison the APDR opposes the change in Step 1 reporting from the numeric score to pass/fail.

IR Residency Training: Is It Appropriate for the Private Practice IR?

Interventional radiology (IR) training programs have undergone many changes in the recent past. These changes largely revolve around making programs more "clinical" in nature by requiring each program to have a formal consult service, outpatient clinics, and admitting privileges. Instituting these changes has been challenging, but the programs are up and running. As a testament to the success of these changes, IR has now become one of the very most competitive residencies to enter. This article provides insights into the process of change within the IR training paradigm, and describes the personal experience of one of the architects of the new training programs.

Baby on Board: Managing Occupational Radiation Exposure During Pregnancy.

This article reviews the issue of occupational radiation exposure as a deterrent to recruitment of women into the field of interventional radiology and provides the reader with three strategies to optimize radiation protection during fluoroscopically guided procedures. These include personal protective shielding, use of ancillary shielding, and techniques that limit fluoroscopy x-ray tube output. When optimal radiation safety practices are implemented as the norm in the IR suite, very little extra needs to be done to ensure that fetal dose of a pregnant interventionalist is negligible.

Metallic coil and N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate for closure of pancreatic duct leak (with video).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Pancreatic fistula is a challenging yet common adverse event of partial pancreatectomy. Our objective is to determine the feasibility of endoscopic closure of a pancreatic fistula using a combination of a metallic coil and N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate (NBCA) glue. METHODS: A patient with a postoperative pancreatic stump leak recalcitrant to conservative management and pancreatic duct stent placement underwent endoscopic/fluoroscopic placement of a metallic coil in the pancreatic duct followed by injection of .5 mL NBCA and lipiodol mixture directed at the coil. The patient's clinical condition, Jackson-Pratt (JP) drain output, and pancreatic enzyme content were monitored daily after the procedure. RESULTS: The patient's clinical condition improved. JP drain output and amylase/lipase levels progressively decreased to resolution within 7 days of the procedure. No adverse events occurred as a result of the procedure. CONCLUSIONS: Endoscopic closure of pancreatic fistula with a metallic coil and NBCA glue is feasible and may be a useful modality for treatment of refractory postpancreatectomy-related fistula.

Interventional radiology residency: steps to implementation.

Implementation of an interventional radiology (IR) residency program requires significant planning, as well as clear communication and consensus among departmental and institutional stakeholders. The goal of this short article is to highlight key decisions and steps that are needed to launch an IR residency, and to illustrate a possible timeline for implementation of the integrated and independent IR residency models.

Beyond hemostasis: spectrum of gynecologic and obstetric indications for transcatheter embolization.

Percutaneous vascular embolization is a useful therapeutic option for a wide range of gynecologic and obstetric abnormalities. Transcatheter embolization procedures performed with the use of radiologic imaging for guidance are minimally invasive and may obviate surgery, thereby decreasing morbidity and mortality and safeguarding the patient's future fertility potential. To integrate this treatment method optimally into patient care, knowledge is needed about the clinical indications for therapeutic embolization, the relevant vascular anatomy, technical considerations of the procedure, and the potential risks and benefits of embolization. The most well-known and well-studied transcatheter embolization technique for treating a gynecologic-obstetric condition is uterine fibroid embolization. However, the clinical indications for transcatheter embolization are much broader and include many benign gynecologic conditions, such as adenomyosis and arteriovenous malformations, as well as intractable bleeding due to inoperable advanced-stage malignancies. Uterine artery embolization may be performed to prevent or treat bleeding associated with various obstetric conditions, including postpartum hemorrhage, placental implantation abnormality, and ectopic pregnancy. Embolization of the uterine artery or the internal iliac artery also may be performed to control pelvic bleeding due to coagulopathy or iatrogenic injury, and ovarian vein embolization has been shown to be effective for the management of pelvic congestion syndrome. The article discusses these and other gynecologic and obstetric indications for transcatheter embolization, provides detailed descriptions of imaging findings before and after embolization, and reviews procedural techniques and outcomes.

Interventional radiology: management of the pregnant patient.

This article reviews a practical approach to managing the dose of ionizing radiation during IR procedures where the patient is, or might be pregnant.