CASE STUDIES IN TRAINING AND EDUCATION The Digital Disruption: YouTube’s Role in Information on Radiology Residency Bilal Irfan, BS, Ihsaan Yasin, Denise Kirschner, PhD DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM Radiology has historically been among the most competitive specialties for US medical school seniors to match. Despite a relative decline in interest among incoming physicians in pursuing diag- nostic radiology as a specialty, it con- tinues to remain at the forefront of medical practice and pathways to new innovations [1]. YouTube is a platform used globally for common entertainment purposes and information sharing and is sought out as a means to acquire health- and career-related advice. This is true even in the case for medical students, who frequently use YouTube to supplement their medical education and studying of complex concepts for licensing examina- tions, such as the US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) or Comprehen- sive Osteopathic Medical Licesning Ex- amination. Students’ desire to know the qualities of a candidate required for a successful match may also resort to using YouTube as a resource due to lack of sufficient guidance or exposure from their home institution radiology pro- grams. This study was designed to examine the current trends in radiology residency information on YouTube that are popularly and easily available in hopes of providing insight into the specialty’s match-related discourse and explore areas for potential improvement. WHAT WE DID To explore the role of YouTube and content type present on diagnostic radiology, we conducted a search on July 9, 2023, on YouTube with the keyword “radiology residency” to screen for videos. Our inclusion criteria pertained to videos in English and applicable to US residency pro- grams, while removing any potential duplicates. We screened the top 100 videos using YouTube’s built-in feature to display results by rele- vance, leading to inclusion of 21 videos meeting the aforementioned criteria. These videos spanned a depth of several years, including many before the COVID-19 pandemic–related changes in health care delivery. We also recorded metrics assessing the popularity of a video content in terms of views, comments, and likes. To prevent the introduction of bias in results display from past watching history, we erased cookies and past browsing data from pertinent devices and logged out of Google accounts synced to YouTube. OUTCOMES Out of the 21 videos included, 20 (96.52%) were made by board- certified radiologists and 1 (4.7%) was made by a different specialty physician. None of the videos that satisfied the inclusion criteria were created by individuals of other pro- fessional backgrounds. The 21 videos together contained a total of 12,197,256 views, 16,727 likes, and 1,605 comments. Table 1 offers an extensive overview of the speakers’ background stratified by the average number of likes, views, and comments in each category. A key characteristic that radiology residency program directors have indicated they wish to see in students is research potential [2]. Thus, it comes as no surprise that research experience during medical school seems to have been at the forefront of themes discussed in residency videos, showing up in 17 (80.95%) cases, as seen in Table 2. The emphasis on research for residency selection as a significant evaluating metric is by no means restricted to radiology and spans many, if not all, specialties including competitive ones such as plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, dermatology, neurosurgery, and otorhinolaryngology, among others [3,4]. Similarly, themes discussing the number of research years (90.4%) and having mentorship by senior radiologists (95.2%) before applying to programs were present across many videos. Surprisingly, USMLE step 1 scores only accounted for four (19.05%) of the videos, and letters of recommendation were discussed in seven (33.3%) of them. This is particularly interesting due to the fact that step 1 scores have been frequently associated as one of the most commonly used factors for residency matches. A survey con- ducted in 2020 by the National Residency Matching Program found that 90% of directors used step 1 Copyright ª 2024 American College of Radiology 1546-1440/24/$36.00 n https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2024.05.010 1523