Clinical Radiology ST1 Portfolio review guidance

As part of your application for Clinical Radiology ST1, you will be required to complete a portfolio review along with submitting supporting evidence to justify the category you choose.

There are 5 domains, with descriptors of typical levels of experience which have been assigned categories. You should use your discretion to align your experience and achievements compared to these descriptors and choose a category which best reflects your situation. Include documentation to support your decision.

If you are struggling with determining your category, then please speak to a clinical colleague or tutor.

All achievements should be dated after the commencement of your first relevant undergraduate degree, and in any case, within the last 10 years prior to the application closing date.

If you are applying from the UK

For UK applicants - national refers to activity within the England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or the UK as a whole.

Local would mean at the level of a hospital single Trust or University.

Roles outside healthcare include voluntary activity, arts, and other sciences, but not paid employment.

Application

As part of your Oriel application you will be asked to provide the category that your evidence most appropriately fits for each domain, as well as the name of the evidence you will be supplying.

On Oriel as well as indicating the category your evidence will fall under, you will be asked to upload the title of the evidence and the date the evidence is achieved, this evidence will be the evidence the assessor will be expected to review and cannot change.

You are unable to amend this section after you have submitted your application. If the evidence changes then you will be awarded a 0 for that domain.

Example of section on Oriel

Domain	Category	Title of evidence	Date evidence was awarded
1	B	To be confirmed
2	C	To be confirmed
3	A	To be confirmed
4	A	To be confirmed
5	A	To be confirmed

Choosing your category

You must use the descriptors in this guidance and your professional judgement to select the category that most accurately reflects your completed achievement and supporting evidence you are going to provide.
The recruitment administrative team:

• Cannot advise you which category to select;
• Cannot confirm in advance whether your evidence will meet a particular category;
• Cannot change your selected category after you submit your application; and
• Cannot upload evidence on your behalf

Selecting a category for each domain is mandatory. If you select category E for all 5 domains, you will not be invited to sit the MSRA.

All selected categories and supporting evidence will be reviewed by an assessor. If clarification is required, the assessor may ask you questions about a maximum of 2 domains during Station A of the interview.

Portfolio upload process

You will only be invited to upload your evidence if you have been invited to interview or on the reserve list.

Please note being invited to upload your evidence does not guarantee you will be invited to interview, and if you fail to upload and submit the required evidence you will be withdrawn from the recruitment process.

Evidence requirement

Evidence - refers to the document(s) submitted by an applicant to verify that they have achieved the experience, qualification, or accomplishment claimed within a portfolio domain. The evidence must clearly support the category selected and enable independent verification by the reviewing assessor.

Candidates should follow the guidance and only provide a evidence to support the activity/achievement for that domain. Except if they have selected a domain category that references multiple, here please upload the best 2 pieces of evidence. For example, for a presentation you could provide the PowerPoint slides and letter from supervisor/organising body, but no evidence from 2 separate presentations. 

There will be a single piece of evidence for each domain, except for domain 1, category A, and domain 4, category A, where 2 pieces of evidence will be accepted. Evidence for each domain must be uploaded as a single, continuous document so you will have 5 PDFs in total to upload (one for each domain).

Please note that larger file sizes can cause issues with downloading, which could impact your interview as the assessor will have only 10 minutes to review all 5 domains and score.

For each domain, you must upload the evidence identified in the supporting evidence section of your Oriel application.

Evidence that differs from the title or achievement declared in your submitted application will receive a score of 0 for that domain.

Please note having vague titles eg domain 1 or audit 1 will invalidate your evidence and you will get a 0. You must enter the title that is on the evidence you will have uploaded.

After uploading your evidence, you must select Finish and submit in Qpercom.

Your evidence will not be available to the assessing panel until this step has been completed. Once you have selected Finish and submit, you will not be able to amend or replace your evidence.

Failure to upload and submit the required evidence by the published deadline will result in your application being withdrawn.

If you have already booked an interview, the interview will be cancelled.

You must report any upload problems before the submission deadline. Applicant access will be removed after the deadline, and the recruitment team cannot upload evidence on your behalf.

Categorisation

For each domain, please select the descriptor and category which most truly reflects your experience. When more than one descriptor is appropriate for you for a particular domain, choose only the one which results in the higher score (see the category score guide). Include evidence which supports your category.

If an achievement legitimately fits under multiple domains, it is valid to claim in both categories (for example, academic work which was presented orally then subsequently published).

Please note categories are finalised when the application form is submitted. This means they cannot be edited in the event of a mistake, or an additional achievement completed after the deadline.

Completed achievements only

Only include achievements which are fully completed at the time of submission. Do not include anything which is still in progress. For example:

• Do not include qualifications if you have not yet been awarded an outcome
• Do not include articles submitted for publication if they have not been accepted
• Do not include a presentation if you have not yet presented it

Over-claiming

You should be honest with your evaluation and not attempt to gain unfair advantage by exaggerating or misrepresenting achievements. If this is identified, it could be considered a probity matter which could lead to outright rejection of your application, and in extreme cases, fitness to practice proceedings.

Your responses will be reviewed by trained assessors and based on your evidence can be revised up or down.

How your evidence will be reviewed

Portfolio evidence will be reviewed during Station A of the interview.

Before you enter the station, one assessor will have 10 minutes to review your submitted evidence against the category descriptors and scoring guidance. During Station A, the assessor may ask you questions to clarify your evidence or category selection.

Your evidence will be scored using the published category scoring table. Where the submitted evidence does not support the category selected, the assessor may award a higher or lower score in accordance with the evidence provided.

Scoring guidance

Below tables will be used by the assessors. Please note for domain 1 the scores are double weighted.

Category	Corresponding score for assessor
A	4
B	3
C	2
D	1
E	0

Portfolio review domains

Domain 1: Commitment to Specialty

Descriptor	Category
Greater than one significant exposure to the work of a radiology department*	A
One significant exposure to the work of a radiology department	B
Presented at a radiology course or conference	C
Attended a radiology related conference	D
None of the above	E

*Please note: two pieces of evidence will be accepted for category A.

A significant exposure means a period of at least 3 whole day equivalent time attached to a clinical radiology department.

Examples are listed below

• A taster week/observership placement
• A student-selected component, elective, or similar part of a degree course
• A radiology based clinical research or quality improvement project involving presence in a department with a radiology supervisor

Multiple exposures must be meaningfully different; for example, more than one of the above types. Two taster weeks in different settings would qualify for the highest descriptor and score A, but 2 taster weeks offering the same experience would not and would score B.

Evidence for this section could include the following.

• Letter confirming placement from your clinical supervisor/education lead
• Official university documents confirming radiology based placement/component
• Details of a radiology based project with evidence of your involvement from your supervising consultant who should be a radiologist physician
• Course/conference certificate with evidence of presentation, for example name on the program for the conference 

Domain 2: Leadership and Management

Descriptor	Category	Examples
Hold/have held a national level leadership or managerial role involving radiology	A	National role, for example, within specialist society, royal college, nationally held fellowship position, relevant to radiology
Hold/have held a national level leadership or managerial role not involving radiology, but relating to healthcare Or, hold/have held a local/regional level leadership or managerial role involving radiology	B	National non-radiology healthcare role, for example, within British Medical Association (BMA), royal college Local role, for example, committee member of undergraduate radiology society
Hold/have held a national level leadership or managerial role outside healthcare Or, hold/have held a local/regional leadership or management role not involving radiology but relevant to healthcare	C	National roles outside healthcare may include charity work, sports, creative arts Local role relevant to healthcare but not radiology, for example, Junior Doctors Forum or Mess committee, Foundation programme representative
Hold/have held a local/regional leadership or management role outside healthcare	D	As above, at a local level
None of the above	E	Not applicable

Any roles claimed above must have been for a minimum period of 6 months. 

For UK applicants - national refers to activity within England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or the UK as a whole. Local would mean at the level of a hospital single Trust or University. Roles outside healthcare include voluntary activity, arts, and other sciences, but not paid employment.

Appropriate evidence would include confirmation of election/appointment, evidence of attendance at committee meetings, letters from chair or senior figure within relevant organisation. Evidence should specify the applicant by name, the role, and major responsibilities thereof.

Domain 3: Teaching and Training

Descriptor	Category
Hold a formal teaching qualification awarded at postgraduate level, for example: masters, CILT, PGDip, PG Cert	A
Have made a major contribution to a national or international teaching programme, with evidence	B
Evidence of other training in teaching methods after study of at least 2 days (such as Train the Trainers)	C
Have evidence of regional teaching	D
None of the above	E

For the purposes of this section a formal teaching programme should have a duration of at least 3 months in total.

A major contribution means a leading or organising role, such as a formal teaching fellowship or personally organising a formal, multi-session teaching course. National or international programmes should be open to all relevant learners in that discipline and would usually form part of a formal qualification, such as Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree, specialty diploma etc.

Local or regional programmes would be organised at the level of, for example, a single hospital Trust, and could include Foundation Programme teaching or similar activities. Formal teaching outside medicine, for example, to school students or in the community can also be included.

One-off, small group teaching would qualify in the third descriptor, as would evidence of solely delivering a single session to a larger local or national programme.
Appropriate evidence would include the following.

• Official documentation indicating your role as an organiser or deliverer of teaching
• Contemporaneous feedback collated or countersigned by a 3rd party

Domain 4: Audit and Quality Improvement

Descriptor	Category
I have led* 2 or more** audits or quality improvement projects relating to radiology which can be shown to have resulted in changed practice or evidence that current practice met the required standard (with no change needed)	A
I have led* an audit or quality improvement project relating to radiology which can be shown to have resulted in changed practice or evidence that current practice met the required standard (with no change needed)	B
I have led one or more non-radiology audit/s or quality improvement project/s, shown to have resulted in changed practice or evidence that current practice met the required standard (with no change needed)	C
I have contributed to, but not led, an audit or quality improvement project	D
None of the above	E

*Leading an audit/Quality Improvement (QI) project would usually include a major role in conception, data collection, analysis, and presentation. If your evidence does not demonstrate this, please select a different descriptor appropriately.

**An audit and re-audit to complete audit cycle will be considered as two separate audits (for example, will be category A if the audits were related to radiology).

Please note: evidence towards two pieces of work will be accepted for category A. If you have more than 2, please select your best 2 to reference and upload.

Evidence required:

• A letter from supervising consultant or QI/audit project stating level of involvement to satisfy the requirements described in the table above. The letter must be signed (can be digital signature to reproduce a physical signature) and include:
  • consultant name and GMC number (or corresponding national medical registration equivalent)
  • date
  • the body of the letter should cite the date of completion of the piece of work and/or the date of presentation. Presentation at a conference/national or international meeting could be evidenced with a CPD certificate to that effect

and

• Copy of audit project presentation outlining scope and impact (findings and improvements achieved) or, a summary of the project detailing scope and impact of the project

Demonstration of changed practice could be via a closed-loop second audit cycle showing better compliance to gold standard, or by improvement in a quality metric etc.

Relating to radiology means that diagnostic/interventional imaging formed the primary part of the project.

Domain 5: Academic Achievements

Descriptor	Category
I hold a postgraduate research degree or research Masters (PhD, MD, MDRes) Or, I have at least one peer-reviewed publication relating to radiology as first author*	A
I have at least one peer-reviewed publication relating to radiology, not as the first author* Or, I have at least one peer-reviewed publication not relating to radiology but as a first author* Or, A case report related to radiology, as first author* Or, At least one oral or poster presentation relating to radiology at a national or international level, as first author*	B
I have at least one peer-reviewed publication not relating to radiology, not as first author* Or, A case report not related to radiology, as first author* Or, At least one oral or poster presentation relating to radiology at local/regional level, as first author*	C
An author (not first author*) of at least one published case report Or, An author (first or subsequent) of at least one oral or poster presentation not relating to radiology at either local, regional, national or international level Or, Involvement in a research team as part of an elective, intercalated degree, extended student research and enterprise project, academic foundation programme, academic summer school or other research taster Or, I have at least one peer-reviewed publication as a consortium** author with any credit	D
None of the above	E

*First author - to be credited as a first author you are the primary contributor to a research paper. Your name will be first in the published paper’s list of authors.

Joint first authors – This will be up to 3 people who have been categorised as such by the publication as first authors. You will have either an asterix * by your name or your name will be in an equal contribution statement (which you will need to provide in your evidence and highlight) or in citations relating to your paper and you are not included in the et al.

**Consortium authorship- Papers with more than 12 authors will be considered consortium papers    

Please note, as mentioned above, intercalated and additional undergraduate degrees have been removed from scoring according to national specialty recruitment policy. (Points scored in this section are only for postgraduate achievements).

All activity in this section should be scientific relating to radiology means the project should involve diagnostic imaging. This does not preclude papers in other fields such as surgery, oncology and so forth if they have a significant imaging focus. Publications and presentations can relate to audit/QI activity.

Presentations should be proffered papers which have been through a process of peer-review and:

Copy of letter of acceptance of oral/poster presentation or copy of event programme citing presentation to include:

• The name of presenter or first author
• The institution convening meeting
• The date of the meeting/presentation

Evidence could include:

• Degree certificate
• Your Open Researcher and Contributor IDentifier (ORCID) summary citation including DOI/indexing service identifier (for example, PMID) conference catalogue