IR Educational Resource Reviews

Disclaimer - The reviews below are the opinion of the site creator supplemented by feedback we receive from others. Everyone learns different and what works for one person may not work for someone else. Please share your experiences to help us improve this page.

Online

Stepwards - Free website seemingly geared towards medical students created by Dr. Masis Isikbay. Provides overview of basic skills and workflows for IR and other topics.

  • Pros - Clean design, approachable, great way to get the “lay of the land” before starting an IR rotation.

  • Cons - Content level is pretty basic and likely less helpful to those in residency and beyond.

TeachingIR.com - Free website similar to what we hope to create at Learn IR. Provides overviews or various IR topics organized in three levels, R1-R3 year.

  • Pros - Best existing site for residents to learn about IR. Content is well organized and even supplemented with a boards prep question bank.

  • Cons - Does not provide much information about how to perform procedures. Design is a bit basic with embedded powerpoint-like presentations.

Residency Essentials and The Fundamentals - Online curricula from SIR for PGY 2-4 (The Fundamentals) and PGY 5-7 (Residency Essentials).

  • Pros - First official curriculum provided by a major IR society. Provides mix of content (linked videos and journal articles). Created with input from multiple IRs rather than single person.

  • Cons - Very expensive, difficult to navigate, not well-organized, multiple typos. Answers to pre and post tests are not provided making them somewhat pointless. No overview or structure for learning IR is provided. Each topic just has links to journal articles and videos of talks from prior SIR conferences.

Question Banks

Board Vitals - Paid subscription for qbanks designed for various levels from the core exam to certifying exam.

  • Pros - One of only a few available qbanks focused on these exams. Question style is similar to the real exams.

  • Cons - Questions tend to be a little easier than the actual exam. Not IR specific.

TeachingIR.com - Free website with free IR boards prep question bank.

  • Pros - Only free IR-specific question bank available. Good mix of interactive questions.

  • Cons - Limited design. No filters. No ability to save your place and come back to it later.

RadPrimer - DR curriculum and question bank with IR sections.

  • Pros - Difficulty level is similar to actual core exam. Good mix of IR questions within the DR curriculum/qbank.

  • Cons - Not IR specific or interactive (just multiple choice questions).

Textbooks

Abrams’ Angiography - Tried and true, long standing interventional radiology textbook. However, very long and dense. Less helpful for overview of topics.

Kandarpa Handbook of Interventional Radiologic Procedures - Less dense and nicer overview with step-by-step guide to procedures.

Vascular and Interventional Radiology: A Core Review - One of the most commonly recommended resources for boards preparation.

Pocketbook of Clinical IR: A Concise Guide to Interventional Radiology - Very popular resource among medical students and early residents. Perhaps less helpful later in training and after.

IR Playbook - Another popular resource. Gives nice overviews of topics and procedural steps though in less detail to be as helpful later in training.

Vascular and Interventional Radiology: The Requisites - Good depth to dig deeper into the evidence and reasoning of IR practice. However, it is dense and provides less of a practical overview or step-by-step guide to procedures.

Interventional Radiology: Fundamentals of Clinical Practice - Somewhat dense with plenty of details and evidence behind various areas of IR practice but felt less practically helpful