Original ReportChoice of the specialty of diagnostic radiology by results of the competitive examination to assign residency positions from 2006 to 2015Análisis de la elección de la especialidad de radiodiagnóstico en el examen MIR desde el año 2006 hasta 2015☆
Introduction
In Spain, in order to be able to practice medicine, the college degree of Bachelor in Medicine and Surgery, Bachelor in Medical Science or degree in Medicine is needed. Since 1984 and as the only available way to be able to have access to specialized medical training it is mandatory to pass a nationwide access exam that the Ministry of Health, Social Services, and Equality announces every year. This exam is known as the MIR (Medical Residency Exam).1
Since 2009, the exam consists of 225 multiple choice test-like questions together with 10 reserve questions. Theoretically, the maximum number of net questions one candidate can take is 225, yet noone has ever been able to take more than 200 net questions. Net questions are those questions answered correctly in the exam minus one third of the amount of questions failed.1, 2, 3 The grade obtained in the exam (90 per cent of the final grade), added to the assessment of the scale or academic record (10 per cent of the final grade) is used to classify all candidates from first to last based on their respective scores. A higher total score equals a lower position in the classification, so candidate #1 will be the candidate with the highest final grade of all who will have earned the right to be the first one to choose his/her medical specialty among the different medical specialties available in the existing accredited academic institutions across the country.
Diagnostic radiology is one of these medical specialties since the MIR exam became a reality for choosing medical specialties back in the 1980s. The official denomination of this specialty – diagnostic radiology dates back to 1984 and is defined as that medical specialty based on imaging diagnoses aimed at achieving diagnostic impressions from macroscopic images of the inside of the body obtained using minimally or absolutely non invasive procedures that may include the use of different kinds of ionizing radiations and other types of power sources. Also, radiologists are responsible for what is known as the “method as the basis for the technique”’ that includes two different moments: choosing the most appropriate procedure (radiological technique) and acknowledging, analysing and interpreting the radiological signs.1, 2
The main goal of this paper is to study what the profile of these candidates who choose the specialty of diagnostic radiology is by analysing the variables associated with the positions made available by the government from the very beginning, and the variables associated with the position within the MIR classification list that, in general, allowed the candidates to choose this specialty, based on sex, origin, hospital, and geographical region. The secondary goal of this paper is to compare the tendencies in the candidates’ profile with other published papers in other settings of similar profile,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and make a correlation between them and surveys from the Spanish Ministry on specialists in medical training.14, 15
Section snippets
Materials and methods
One retrospective descriptive analysis was designed of the numbers of order, exam grade, age, sex, nationality of the candidaes and destination hospitals with the specialty of diagnostic radiology in the access test to the MIR medical residency exam announced publicly every year by the Spanish Ministries of Health and Education, from 2006 until present.
The denomination of the exam follows the nomenclature by the Spanish Ministry of Health including the year the exam was publicly announced -
Results
The average of positions offered from 2006 though 2015, both inclusive, was 217.1; the year with the largest public offer was 2009 with 229 positions and the year with the smallest public offer was 2014 with 207 positions. The percentage of positions with respect to the total was 3.36 per cent and ranged between 3.25 per cent and 3.46 per cent depending on the year (Table 1, Fig. 1). In Spain, the specialty of diagnostic radiology ranks #8 in the list of medical specialities with the largest
Discussion
The specialty of diagnostic radiology is one of the classic specialties that started offering traning positions for specialized physicians back in the 1980s. We have picked the last ten (10) years for our study for two reasons: because they are pretty homogeneous in the positions offer with respect to the total, and because there are no significant variations in its geographic distribution.
The amount of positions offered for all medical specialties varies on a yearly basis. For example, in the
Protection of people and animals
The authors declare that no experiments with human beings or animals have been performed while conducting this investigation.
Data confidentiality
The authors confirm that in this article there are no data from patients.
Right to privacy and informed consent
The authors confirm that in this article there are no data from patients.
Authors’ contribution
- 1.
Manager of the integrity of the study: EMQ.
- 2.
Study idea: EMQ, JBR.
- 3.
Study design: EMQ, JBR.
- 4.
Data mining: EMQ, JBR, FSL, JMRL.
- 5.
Data analysis and interpretation: EMQ, FSL, AFS, JMRL, MCR.
- 6.
Statistical analysis: EMQ, FSL, JMRL.
- 7.
Reference: EMQ.
- 8.
Writing: EMQ, SCG, JBR, MCR, AFS, SCG.
- 9.
Critical review of the manuscript with intellectually relevant remarks: MCR, JBR, AFS, FSL, JMRL, MCR, SCG.
- 10.
Approval of final version: all authors.
Conflicts of interests
The authors declare no conflict of interests associated with this article whatsoever.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Ms. Conchi García, Head of the Spanish Medical Residency Examination (MIR Asturias).
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Cited by (0)
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Please cite this article as: Murias Quintana E, Sánchez Lasheras F, Fernández-Somoano A, Romeo Ladrero JM, Costilla García SM, Cadenas Rodríguez M, et al. Análisis de la elección de la especialidad de radiodiagnóstico en el examen MIR desde el año 2006 hasta 2015. Radiología. 2017;59:232–246.