Medical imaging and radiotherapy professionals develop a crucial role at healthcare institutions in providing diagnostic images or deliver radiation treatment. As characteristic in the healthcare field, this work is performed in a multidisciplinary team and environment, which requires soft skills to contribute for the good team functioning and healthcare provided. The technological equipment and information and communication systems are a strong facet of the professional practice, which is in constant evolution, leading to changes in the clinical workflow and in the essential personal competencies in these contexts. Consequently, the training of these professionals is demanding and requires a continuous adaptation of teaching and learning strategies. Active teaching and learning, which should promote the search for knowledge and skills acquisition, and developing a “learning to learn” philosophy may be applied in schools and expand through a lifelong learning context to deal with the professional scenarios in a constantly evolving world.
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Allied health professionals are crucial players in providing healthcare, assuming different roles that contribute to several phases of the process. In this context, the role of medical imaging and radiotherapy (MIR) professionals is to work with imaging and treatment equipment to provide complementary useful diagnostic images or deliver radiation treatment, as required by the physician, in a multidisciplinary team, as usual in the healthcare field. The strong technological component and the rapid evolution of technology and information systems have promoted a gradual development of medical imaging modalities and related equipment. This evolution has significantly modified clinical workflow as well as the skills and competences required for professional practice in advanced technological contexts.
Education of future MIR professionals is particularly challenging due to the complexity and variety of clinical scenarios, requiring the acquisition of knowledge and development of interpersonal, systemic and instrumental competences in a safe and controlled environment (Santos et al., 2019). To date, MIR education has been implemented through more conventional methodologies, in a face-to-face approach, and, as reported in England (2017) and McNulty (2016, 2017), MIR education programs show some variability across Europe; however, they all include a strong practical component (England et al., 2017; McNulty et al., 2016, 2017).
The acquisition of technical skills and critical reasoning for mobilizing knowledge to act correctly in a clinical context can be enhanced by sharing knowledge and resources between the academic community and health institutions. The mimicking and sharing of clinical infrastructures (hardware and software), as well as imaging studies, for training purposes, have benefited from recent hospital developments which, applied to an academic context, could be empowered by using e-learning platforms.
Teaching MIR is a challenge due to the wide variety of topics to address, the required facilities and software, and the need for a real or simulated clinical practical environment. MIR education, nowadays, can benefit from emergent technologies, for example, in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) and medical engineering, which can be applied in an innovative way to mediate and facilitate the learning process. These technologies facilitate the application of active and experiential learning strategies in which students are encouraged to participate in their own education and be responsible for it. Team-based learning (TBL), collaborative teamwork and the flipped classroom are some strategies already used in this context, breaking the traditional approach that does not follow the mentioned evolution. Instead of thinking about how topics should be taught, the focus should be on the enhancement of a student’s learning and on the creation of a good atmosphere for student-centered learning.
The effort in educational innovation is notable, fostered by training in teaching methodologies and communication tools in which many teachers are involved, through participation in dedicated programs developed by higher education institutions. The pedagogical and technological training of university teachers should be continued throughout their professional life in order to be able to empower the students with the most recent and appropriate competences for their professional context.
The multidisciplinary context of healthcare demands that the educators consider the interaction of professionals from different backgrounds in the education programs. One way of promoting this interaction is through clinical simulation, which is well validated and is particularly important in healthcare education, since it allows for the improvement of learning standards in a supportive and safe environment.
The future is written by demanding change and continual evolution; therefore, an assessment of the professional needs should be performed periodically and systematically to adjust education programs and, on the other hand, to match the needs of lifelong education of healthcare professionals, to continuously acquire new knowledge and develop or improve skills and attitudes for proficient practice.