Training and educationCase studies in training and educationWebinar-Based Contouring Education for Residents
Introduction
As the field of radiation oncology has transitioned from a 2-D to a 3-D method of radiotherapy delivery, we have seen many changes in the requirements of residency education. In the modern era, it is essential that a radiation oncologist have a comprehensive understanding of radiologic anatomy, as well as an advanced ability to analyze a variety of imaging modalities, including CT, MRI, and PET. Advanced experience in these techniques allows the delineation of elegant and accurate target volumes and the creation of high-quality treatment plans. However, formal radiology and contouring education is exceedingly variable within US residency training programs. As a result, many specialty societies, including the American College of Radiation Oncology and the American Society for Radiation Oncology, have developed specific conference seminars geared at addressing the lack of standardization in contouring education for all levels of training.
Webinars offer a unique platform to address this educational variability. These online tutorials allow experts in the field a streamlined ability for national and even international outreach in the form of lectures and question-and-answer sessions. Over the past several years, we have curated a dedicated subcommittee focused on resident-specific webinars. To address the need for contouring training and to explore the current state of contouring education in the United States, we developed a contouring webinar series that included online resident surveys to investigate these topics.
Section snippets
Materials
In the fall of 2016, we developed a three-part contouring series to address several high-yield topics in radiation oncology. The following webinar sessions were conducted: (1) 3-D image-based brachytherapy for cervical cancer, (2) an overview of selecting and planning spinal SBRT, and (3) contouring for H&N cancer. The consensus of our committee was that education in these three topics was particularly variable, as well as inconsistently encountered from institution to institution, and thus
Results
A total of 36, 72, and 106 participants registered for the gynecologic, spinal SBRT, and H&N webinars, respectively, with a total of 102 pre- and postwebinar surveys completed. Of all participants, 16 (70%), 27 (87%), and 37 (74%) completed the prewebinar survey, and 8 (35%), 22 (71%), and 21 (42%) completed the postwebinar survey for each of the aforementioned webinars, respectively. A summary of participants for each session, including numbers of partakers of the pre- and postwebinar survey,
Discussion
Our results demonstrate several prevalent themes on the basis of our contouring webinar surveys. First, there is a notable discrepancy in attending radiation oncologist in-person contour review and feedback and attending radiation oncologist adjustments of resident contours. Second, dosimetrists were the primary party responsible for ancillary imaging fusions, and as such many residents did not feel confident with independent image fusion. Third, although resident confidence in identification
Conclusions
Our results demonstrate interesting variations in resident contouring education, which highlight important areas of focus for future resident educational outreach programs. Webinar-based lectures offer a unique technique for disseminating knowledge to large groups of participants, and are particularly well suited for resident education. Other areas for future educational topics include interpreting MRI examinations, evaluating treatment plans, and evaluating image-guided radiation treatments.
Acknowledgments
Dr Sushil Beriwal, Dr Amol Ghia, and Dr Sue Yom were kind enough to offer their time to conduct the webinars discussed in this report. D. M. Kennedy assisted in the creation of survey graphics.
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The American College of Radiation Oncology donated funds to support this study. The authors have no conflicts of interest related to the material discussed in this article.