This article is adapted from a post in Dr Koshy Jacob's "Building Revise Radiology in Public" series on LinkedIn.

The world does not have enough well-trained radiologists. Imaging demand is rising far faster than the workforce almost everywhere, and access to structured, high-quality training is the bottleneck. So when an institution decides to do something serious about it, and does so with real ambition, it deserves to be recognised. This article is about exactly such an institution, and about the partnership we are proud to support.

UCSI's vision, and a new academy

Earlier this year, at a signing ceremony in Malaysia, UCSI Hospital UCSI launched something genuinely forward-looking: the @Academy of Radiology Training, or ART, the new radiology arm of its Centre for Medical Education and Training (CMET) for (CMET). It is an ambitious undertaking, to build a dynamic ecosystem of learning, simulation, subspecialty development and international collaboration, and to train radiologists who are equipped not only to interpret images but to lead.

This is UCSI's initiative, and their vision. UCSI Hospital is Malaysia's first private teaching hospital, built to help turn the region into a hub of healthcare, education and medical tourism, and ART is a bold extension of that purpose. It was a privilege to join the launch, and to see the seriousness and generosity of spirit that UCSI's leadership brings to the challenge of training the next generation.

I want to acknowledge them properly, because this is their achievement. Our thanks go to the Chairman of UCSI Healthcare Group, Hisham Abdullah Tan Sri Dato' Seri Dr Haji Noor Hisham bin Abdullah, whose distinguished career in Malaysian public health needs no introduction; to Dato' Dr Peter Ng, Executive Chairman and Founder of UCSI Group and Chief Executive Officer of UCSI Hospital, whose determination to make UCSI a true teaching hospital drives all of this; to Assistant Professor Dr Dr Deepali Sharma, Senior Director of the UCSI Healthcare Group Strategy Office and CMET, who leads the programme and whom I have had the pleasure of knowing since she attended one of our earliest courses many years ago; and to Associate Professor Dr Jamali bin Wagiman, Medical Director of UCSI Hospital. Their belief in this is what makes it possible.

What we bring to it

Revise Radiology's role in this is a supporting one, and we are glad of it. But I should say a little about what we bring, because it is the fruit of many years of work.

We began with one stubborn principle: that a trainee anywhere in the world should be able to pass their radiology exams first time, with a particular focus on the FRCR. From that grew the platform we have today. We now hold one of the largest curated case libraries in the world, more than twenty-two thousand cases, mapped against the curriculum so that coverage can genuinely be trusted, together with a structured, exam-focused learning system and an international faculty of radiologists and educators. Over nine thousand radiologists have passed through our system since we began. We are also, at heart, a giving-driven organisation, our profits go to charitable causes, and that ethos sits underneath everything we do, including this.

That is what we offer UCSI: not a vision to compete with theirs, but the structured content, the technology and the teaching experience to help their vision succeed.

How it will work, and the part our faculty will play

The programme is designed on a hybrid model, because radiology cannot be learned from a screen alone. A great deal can be delivered online and delivered well, particularly the foundational years, and that is where our platform does much of its work. But the hands-on element, supervised reporting, workshops, the clinical immersion that only a real department provides, will take place at UCSI, with UCSI's own consultants leading supervision on the ground.

Part of that hands-on teaching is where our own faculty come in, and this is something I am genuinely pleased to offer them. Our hope is that our Programme Directors and faculty will travel out to teach in focused, intensive blocks, contributing to the in-person side of the pathway alongside their online teaching. Many of them told me, when they joined us, how much they love to teach. This is a chance to do it on an international stage, to help shape a new generation of radiologists in a part of the world that genuinely needs them.

And there is a quieter point here, for those of our Programme Directors who may be reading. This is precisely the kind of thing the time you reclaim can be given to. It is part of what we hoped for when we built Practice Radiology around handing you back your hours: not only time for family and for the things you love, but the freedom to give something back, to teaching and to trainees who will feel the benefit for the rest of their careers, without it costing you the life you want. This partnership is one of the most rewarding ways I can imagine to do exactly that.

The radiologist leading it in Malaysia

The Malaysian programme will be led by Professor Marymol Koshy , and we could not wish for a better person in that role. An Associate Professor of Radiology and Senior Consultant Radiologist at the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA, she helped establish radiology there from the ground up, planning and designing the unit and developing the radiology curriculum for its medical students. She subspecialises in cardiac imaging, supervises Masters and PhD students, and has contributed to national guidance in her field. Someone who has built a radiology curriculum before, to a national standard, is exactly the person you want shaping one now.

What it means, and who it is for

The learning radiologist remains at the heart of all of it. This partnership opens a pathway to internationally benchmarked, structured radiology education, connected to UK standards, without a trainee having to leave the region to access it. For Malaysia and its neighbours, it means a better trained, better prepared radiology workforce entering practice in the years ahead, and ultimately, better care for patients.

We see real promise for several kinds of doctor: the experienced clinician who wants to move into radiology through a route that respects the clinical maturity they already have; the qualified radiologist seeking to retrain to a higher standard; and the committed doctor ready to build a radiology career properly. We are beginning deliberately modestly, with a small first cohort, because getting the experience right matters far more than getting it big.

An open door

We are proud to be walking alongside UCSI on this, and clear that the vision and the leadership are theirs. It is the kind of endeavour that naturally invites others to join over time, and we would warmly welcome that, because a challenge of this scale is best met together. For now, our task is simply to support UCSI in building something excellent, and to help wherever we usefully can.

To everyone at UCSI and CMET who has brought ART to life, thank you for letting us be part of it. And to any radiologist who loves to teach and would relish being involved as this grows, or any doctor wondering whether there is a serious, supported route into radiology in the region, do follow along. Something good is being built, and we are glad to be helping.

Originally shared by Dr Koshy Jacob on LinkedIn. Follow the series there