Simulation Training : It’s Role In Promoting Interest In Interventional Radiology Residency Amongst Medical Students : Early Exposure and Self-Identification in a New Residency Model

Simulation training has played an important role in developing the hand eye coordination and basic procedural skill sets necessary to perform invasive procedures in multiple procedural specialties such as interventional cardiology, general surgery, and endovascular intervention. Interventional radiology as a standalone residency is new to many medical students and as such, there can be a gap with regards to understanding and self identifying with the specialty. Simulation labs and simulation training are becoming more readily available within training institutions and larger medical centers. As such, medical simulation can be used not only as a tool for training residents in procedural skill sets, but also as a tool to help drive the interest and educate medical students in what interventional radiology is with regards to a specialty in the overall scheme of medicine, as well as to allow medical students to gain a healthy knowledge base and intrigue with regards to the residency as a whole which may help medical students make a definitive decision towards choosing interventional radiology as their residency of choice over other better known procedural specialties.