For many Medical students, interpreting radiological images is not something that comes easy. However with the proper mindset, and a little bit of focused effort, you can definitely develop this skill. In this article I will be giving 7 tips for studying radiology as a medical student.

Study what normal looks like

In order to get good at Radiology you have to know what normal image looks like. If you only only study what looks wrong, you may be able to memorize what pathologies look like but you are not really developing the ability to distinguish what the looks like compared to a normal image.

You’ll start asking questions like:” is that opacity supposed to be there?,” or “Is that a part of the heart or is that a nodule?”

Knowing what normal looks like will help you know what structures to look for and your brain will immediately be able to pick up on things that deviate from what it perceives as normal.

Know your anatomy

Knowing your anatomy well can allow you to visually picture where certain structures are supposed to be if you come across a radiological image which you are struggling to identify.

It also helps to know anatomy well because if you know you are looking at a particular structure your brain can better  orient itself to a structure. A common problem that occurs is that as soon as a student sees an image, they immediately become confused because they do not understand how it sits in 3 dimensions in the human body.

Study images from different planes

A big mistake many medical mistakes make is that they only study a radiology image from one plane. For me the biggest problem was not studying enough images from the axial view of CT scans. Studying images from different planes will allow you to understand what structures look like in 3 dimensions and ultimately allow you to make a more accurate diagnosis.

Understand how the different modalities work

Understanding how the different modalities work will help you better memorize things such as when fluid is present or whether or not calcification is present. It may seem tedious to understand how the different modalities work, however, knowing how they operate will help you better visualize structures seen under them. For example, to improve your ability to identify radiological images it is important to understand that X rays display images based on how much radiology is absorbed by body parts of different densities. Bones will absorb radiation the most and therefore appear the brightest, while things such as fat appear more grey because it absorbs less radiation.

Understand the view the image is being looked at from

Particularly for CT scans I always had trouble understanding that the images shown should be interpreted as if you are looking at it looking form the viewpoint of the patients feet. This will help you orient yourself as to which is left and which is right. An example of a CT image is shown below.

Use question banks/ anki

When learning anything, it is important to do multiple repetitions of the new skill. The same goes for radiology. Over time, and many repeated efforts your eye begins to develop the ability to notice particular patterns in radiological images.

One of the good things that I like about anki is that you can get a large amount of repetitions in a relatively short period of time.

One really good source for quality Radiology Practice questions is Anatomy Bootcamp. They have radiology quizzes that pretty much cover each of the anatomical systems. Additionally their radiology quizzes, also test on foundational topics of how modalities such as CT X ray and ultrasound actually work. You can read a full review on Anatomy Bootcamp here. To access the radiology quizzes, do the following

First click on Gross Anatomy on the Home page of the website

then click on the part which says radiology which is located just above where the lesson plans are. you can see it in the picture below.

Not only does Anatomy Bootcamp have practice questions, but they also have videos that talk you through how to interpret images in various planes and with different imaging modalities.

Below is an example of a radiology quiz question in Anatomy Bootcamp

In Conclusion

As you can see although Radiology is a very difficult class, you can still improve your skills with deliberate and consistent practice. Even if you do not having aspirations of becoming a radiologists, being well adept at looking at a variety of radiological images will surely make you a better overall practicing physician.

If you found this article, then you might find the following article helpful

• 8 best question banks for Radiology for medical students