JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Radiology is underrepresented in undergraduate medical education. The proportion of US medical schools requiring a radiology clerkship declined from 24% in the 2014–2015 academic year to 16% by 2019–2020, and existing supplemental digital tools are often paywalled or institution-restricted. Gamification, spaced retrieval practice, and microlearning are established strategies for enhancing learner engagement and knowledge retention, yet no free, publicly accessible, daily-format gamified radiology platform existed prior to this work.

Objective:

This paper describes the development and early user engagement analysis of Radiordle, a free, web-based, daily radiology diagnostic puzzle game. The platform applies Wordle-inspired game mechanics, progressive hints, limited guesses, streak tracking, and community comparison, to radiology image interpretation. We report cumulative engagement metrics, organ-system-specific performance patterns, temporal trends, dissemination data, and qualitative user feedback, and propose models for institutional curricular integration.

Methods:

Radiordle publishes one radiology image puzzle daily across X-ray, CT, MRI, ultrasound, and nuclear medicine modalities. Users receive up to four progressive clinical hints and five diagnostic guesses, followed by structured learning points linked to peer-reviewed educational content. The platform is free, requires no login, and collects only anonymous aggregate gameplay data. We performed a descriptive analysis of platform engagement metrics from December 30, 2025, through May 14, 2026 (136 days), including per-puzzle performance across seven organ system categories. Qualitative feedback was collected from public Reddit comments and voluntary website feedback submissions and organized by theme.

Results:

During the study period, 19,026 unique players completed 103,808 games across 121 published puzzles. The overall win rate was 79.9% with a mean of 2.29 guesses per win. Return visits accounted for 81.7% of all gameplay. Per-puzzle win rates ranged from 28.5% to 99.7% (median 84.8%, interquartile range [IQR] 70.5%–91.4%). Organ-system analysis revealed a 13.4-percentage-point spread between the lowest-performing system (Chest/Pulmonary, mean 70.6%) and the highest-performing (Endocrine/GU/Reproductive, mean 84.0%). Platform traffic originated from 106 countries across six continents. Social media dissemination via four Reddit posts generated 82,000 views, 359 upvotes, and 329 shares. Qualitative feedback from users spanning M1 students to postgraduate year 4 (PGY-4) diagnostic radiology residents demonstrated perceived educational value, enjoyment, and daily habit formation.

Conclusions:

Radiordle demonstrates that a free, daily gamified radiology tool can engage over 19,000 users across 106 countries with high retention and perceived educational value. Organ-system performance data provide actionable insights for identifying and addressing content-specific knowledge gaps. Controlled studies assessing knowledge retention and diagnostic accuracy are needed to establish educational outcomes.