1. The gradual chapters were written by the senior colleagues of our Clinic and University. The length and the content of the material contains the knowledge from radiology and related clinical issues that is important for a 4th year medical student. If a student learns all text and images from these gradual chapters, she or he will most likely get one of the best marks at the exam. When writing these chapters, the main focus was on what should a referring physician (e.g. internist, surgeon, neurologis, rheumatologist, etc.) know about the physical basis of the different imaging modalities (e.g. X-ray, ultrasound, CT, MR), and which modality should be selected as a first investigation. The referring physicians should be able to understand and interpret the report of the radiologist, and should know how to proceed in the patient care. It is emphasized that radiology is a speciality of consultation, in case of any doubt, the referring physician should ask, consult the radiologist about the specific clinical question in order to decide the best option as a first and possible additional investigation. The development in radiological protocols are rapid, major changes may occur in a few years time.
The referring physicians should also be aware of the presence and basic knowledge of all image guided therapeutic procedures (interventional radiological procedures). These procedures very often replace a major surgery with general anaesthesia, large wound, opened chest or abdominal cavity; all of these have a significant risk of minor or major (including fatal) complications. Image-guided therapy, however, needs only local anaesthesia, there is no wound (only a 1-2 mm whole for a needle or catheter), in-hospital and back-to work time is remarkable shorter, therefore it is a considerably lower overall burden and less risk for complications for the patient with similar clinical benefit.
Any medical student who is interested in radiology in depth have the possibility to further imporve their knowledge from the postgradual chapters.
The gradual teaching material was created in Hungarian, English and German, since medical courses are carried out on these three languages at our University.
The electronic teaching material can be systematically used both for the students in their preparation thoughout the year and also for the lecturers to prepare questions for the midterm test and the final exam.
2. The postgradual chapters were written for the residents in Hungarian. This material by itself is undoubtedly not enough for the resident final exam, however, it gives a comprehensive overview of every major topics within radiology.
The residents should be aware of all diagnostic and interventional radiology procedures, including those that they will not practice following their final exam.
3. The case reports and example cases for continuous medical education (CME) consists of a mixture of simple and compound cases in Hungarian. The aim of these case reports are to give an opportunity for the radiologists to refresh their knowledge, whether it is an older colleague who has been working for decades in a chest X-ray unit, or a young colleague who is overspecialized working on a small selection of cases in large numbers, or an average radiologist who see a wide selection of diseases in a primary hospital.
Most cases - if available - contain medical history, relevant laboratory data, description of any surgical treatment, pathological findings and the therapy used.
4. In the practical part, postprocessing techniques (e.g. reconstructions, size, distance, angle measurements) can be overviewed and exercised on anonymized images. This file also contains a series of „must-see” images for the gradual students in Hungarian and English.
Most of the images used throughout this electronic material are from our Clinic. Some authors work at our University, but do their radiological practice on different other clinics. This fact is mentioned is the list of authors. We also used images from the Asklepios Medical School, since we are in close cooperation with them as they are the Hamburg campus of Semmelweis University.
The whole electronic material has to be maintained and supported for five years. This will serve as a great benefit of the project since all new images from our clinical pratice can be inserted and all major new developments in radiology and interventional radiology will be upgraded approximately once a year.
We do hope that the electronic learning material will further improve our gradual teaching in Hungarian, English and German, will help the postgradual students to get ready for the final exam; certified radiologists will hopefully also benefit from the CME chapters.
Viktor Bérczi, MD, PhD, DMSc (Director of Clinic); Kinga Karlinger MD, PhD (Editor); Béla Kári, PhD (Head of Consortion)
The original document is available at http://549552.cz968.group/tiki-index.php?page=Introduction+%28CME%29