Abstract
BACKGROUND: Interventional radiology (IR) plays a crucial role in modern medicine, offering minimally invasive treatments for various conditions. Despite its growing significance, the awareness and understanding of IR among medical students are often limited. OBJECTIVE: This research aims to evaluate the level of awareness of IR among medical students at the University of Gezira in Sudan Methodology: This study is a descriptive cross-sectional study that involved 174 medical students from batches 39 and 40. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire designed to assess participants' awareness and perception of IR. The questionnaire was carried out through Google Forms platform, and the data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25 (Released 2017; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). The chi-square test was used to compare qualitative data, and a p-value of <0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Females were 97 (55.7%) of the participants, while males were 77 (44.3%). The educational level found that 85 (48.9%) are finalists (fifth year) and 89 (51.1%) have graduated. A total of 75 (43.1%) of the medical students considered themselves having poor knowledge about IR. A total of 163 (93%) have confirmed that mandatory radiology course is important to be added to the curriculum of the medical school. Furthermore, 149 (85.6%) are familiar with the concept of angioplasty, and 60 (34.5%) have seen patients treated by an interventional radiologist. Most of the students are not considering IR as a career mainly due to the lack of knowledge or fear from radiological exposure. CONCLUSION: Medical students' awareness and perception of IR is inadequate which may adversely affect their consideration of pursuing it as a career path. Educational interventions aimed at enhancing medical students' knowledge and interest in IR may be needed to improve patient outcomes and tackle healthcare challenges.