Program Overview
The Radiology residency class starting in July 2010 will be the first class subject to the new American Board of Radiology certification timeline. This new system is designed to encourage subspecialty training among Radiologists, beginning during residency. More information is available at the ABR site at http://www.theabr.org/DR_Pri_home.htm
The Stanford University Department of Radiology has revised its residency curriculum to reflect these changes. We will now be offering a four-year program following the internship year in which the final Radiology year will be entirely elective and flexible. During the first three years, residents will rotate through all clinical subspecialties of Radiology including pediatrics, emergency Radiology, genitourinary, gastrointestinal, chest, musculoskeletal, interventional/angiography, neuroradiology, mammography, ultrasound, abdominal CT, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the fourth year, residents will have the option to select either one year, six month, or four-month subspecialty training blocks.
Residents spend the majority of time at Stanford Hospital, with additional rotations at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center and Lucile Packard Children’s hospital. In the second part of year one, residents also rotate for one month on the Emergency Radiology Service at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. All residents have the opportunity to take a four-week elective at the Registry of Radiologic Pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, D.C, usually during the third year.
The clinical material at the four hospitals covers a wide spectrum of cases in imaging diagnosis. There is emphasis on the more specialized procedures including angiography, interventional radiology, ultrasound, CT, and MRI. All studies in which residents participate are performed under the supervision of the faculty. As part of the review process, the residents evaluate the problem initially, then discuss the case with the faculty member during the imaging readout. Residents are given increased responsibility, commensurate with performance, during their advancement through the training program.
Conferences are held twice daily, at 7:30 AM and noon, with a mix of case presentations and didactic lectures. Residents also take a year-long didactic course in the physics of diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine during the first year of the training program, as well as a course in radiobiology (as it pertains to diagnostic radiology). These courses are taught by physicists in the Department of Radiology.
Dedicated research time is available to residents in six-month or one-year blocks, or in half-day increments over the course of the four years. Residents are encouraged to participate in a wide range of departmental research efforts, including the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford and the Radiological Sciences Laboratory / Richard M. Lucas center. Many give formal presentations at major national Radiology meetings and publish their work in peer-reviewed journals.
