Everyone learns in different ways. When it came to education specifically for junior radiology residents in Canada, Dr. Rebecca Spouge believed there had to be a new, effective way reach these medical student groups with high quality educational content.
Dr. Spouge is a radiology resident at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and teamed up with fellow UBC resident Dr. James Roberts to create and host a podcast addressing this need. Started in 2021, their initiative called Learning in the Dark is a radiology podcast designed to orient listeners to high yield on call pathologies that will prepare them for call, taking cases in rounds, and the board exams.
Dr. Spouge says the podcast concept was borne of a study break in the early days of the pandemic.
“It’s funny how the simplicity of kayaking during quarantine can spark creativity. I was in the process of studying for my LMCC at the time and found listening and learning through podcasts (mostly EM clerkship, the Internet Book of Critical Care and Surgery 101) provided a great means to get outdoors while also studying. There were not, however, any podcasts available targeting junior radiology residents, and thus a need was found.”
The goal of the podcast is to offer residents an approach on how to look at studies while detailing important imaging findings for common cases encountered on-call. So far, says Dr. Spouge, the podcast has been incredibly well received.
“We have been excited and grateful for the positive feedback. Learners at many different stages in training in both radiology and other specialties have reached out to tell us how beneficial they’ve found the podcast for their learning. We have reached over 100 listeners so far for each episode, with episode views continuously growing! Having guests on our show has also been an enriching experience, providing expert advice on approaches they’ve honed during their careers.”
With five episodes fully recorded and produced, Dr. Spouge says there is still plenty more information to cover.
“The topics are endless in radiology, and we want to make the information fun and mobile. We’re looking forward to the future of Learning in the Dark which will include episodes for each of the common on call pathologies and interspersing the mini-interview series with staff physicians across Canada. Hopefully we can make those on-call nights just a little brighter!”
The CAR and the Resident and Fellow Section are proud to support the great work by Dr. Rebecca Spouge and Dr. James Roberts. You can listen to the Learning in the Dark podcast here.