RESIDENCY PROGRAMS

http://www2.uicomp.uic.edu/RadRes/

 

Faculty

Thirty-five faculty members, including clinical and research fellows, actively participate in educational, research and service activities within the Department of Radiology. The faculty is organized along subspecialty divisions within the department. Each division has an identified director responsible for developing appropriate reading lists and instructional curriculum within the division for the education of residents and fellows. The department also has a physicist who teaches radiation physics, radiation biology, radiation protection and diagnostic imaging to residents.

 

Curriculum

PGY I

3 months Medicine Floors*
1 month Night Float*
2 months MICU
1 month Rad Path/Anatomy*
1 month Elective
1 month Neurology
1 month Emergency Medicine*
2 months Radiology*

* call free months

The two (2) months of radiology are done during May and June.  An orientation for each resident is done at this time to help with integration and familiarization with the department of Radiology.  

 

PGY II – V

Radiology rotations during PGY II – V years are each four (4) weeks in duration allowing for thirteen (13) rotations instead of twelve (12).  Although the curriculum is subject to revision by the Curriculum Committee, the time in each area currently is outlined in the following table.  Rotations are arranged so that residents rotate in each subspecialty area early, mid and late in their residency to maximize their opportunity for in depth learning in each subject.

 

Conferences

There are eight hour-long, clinical conferences for the residents each week. Five are assigned to subspecialty divisions on a rotational basis and given by attending radiologists. Three per week are resident film review conferences where senior residents present interesting cases and help prepare junior residents prior to taking call. In addition there are one-hour didactic chairman’s rounds each week which consists of a textbook review and differential diagnosis conference. Grand Rounds, tumor board, physics lectures, hands-on ultrasound scanning conferences are also given. Monthly Journal Club and QA conferences are organized and presented by the faculty. Grand Rounds, Neuroradiology, Vascular Intervention, Perinatal Sonography and Tumor Board conferences are interdepartmental with active participation of multiple clinical specialties that enhance their educational content. All Sections of the department are adequately staffed with faculty to function without residents. This insures that residents will be able to attend all conferences.

 

Teaching

The Department of Radiology is strongly committed to teaching. The department has been awarded 18 Golden Apples from the medical students at the University of Illinois.  The department is also aggressively engaged in continuing medical education activities and sponsoring well attended regional and national CME meetings. In addition, several of the departmental faculty are invited speakers at many national radiology meetings.

Although the faculty are involved in undergraduate and continuing medical education, the central focus of the department's teaching efforts are the radiology residents. On each of the rotations described previously, the resident is teamed with an assigned faculty. This fosters close, informal interactions between resident and faculty that promotes team work and maximizes teaching opportunities. Faculty actively participate in the work of each section so that the residents should complete work each non-call day by 5:30 pm except in unusual instances. This is designed not to construct a "Country Club" atmosphere but to ensure that residents have adequate time and energy to read each night.

In addition, there is major emphasis on the core of basic knowledge in medical imaging in the form of Chairman's Rounds. This is a weekly 60 minute didactic course given by the department chairman. Over the course of a year, a standard medical imaging textbook, 1200 pages in length, is covered to give each resident a basis from which to build.

We currently offer advanced training, with fellowships in Breast Imaging, and ACGME accredited fellowship in Neuroradiology, and Vascular/Interventional Radiology.

 

Facilities

Our residents clinical educational experience is obtained at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, founded in 1877 by the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. The Medical Center has grown into a 730-bed, Level 1 trauma center with modernized facilities and state-of-the-art technology.

The Department of Radiology annually performs over 325,000 diagnostic imaging studies of all types at the main hospital campus and two outpatient centers. The Department's array of radiology facilities and equipment include:

 

General

5 Digital Fluoroscopy units.

8 Radiography units with digital capability (including tomography and a dedicated cranio-facial unit).

 

Computed Tomograhy (CT)

7 Multidetector CT Scanners- including 64 and 16 detector scanners, PET/CT units, CT fluoroscopy for interventional procedures and 3-D post processing workstations.

 

Magnetic Resonance (MRI)

6 1.5T MR scanners with MR spectroscopy, cardiac imaging, functional neuro MR and cerebral and peripheral MR angiography capabilities.

 

Sonograhy and Non-Invasive Vascular Lab

9 Philips IU-22 Ultrasound units and 3 IMEX peripheral arterial doppler units.

 

Interventional Radiology

4 Vascular/Interventional Radiology suites, including an operating-room equivalent suite for endovascular repair of aneurysms and a neuro-interventional biplane suite with adjacent patient recovery unit. Five nurse practitioners assist with patient admissions, work-ups, rounds, consultations and follow-ups in the hospital and in the outpatient interventional radiology office.

 

Nuclear Medicine

2 PET/CT scanners (16 dectector fixed unit and a 4 detector mobile unit), 2 Dual-head SPECT cameras, 2 single-head SPECT cameras and 1 whole body camera.

 

Mammography

The Susan G. Komen Breast Center, a free standing out-patient breast imaging center with conventional film and digital mammography units, computer-aided detection for mammography, dedicated high resolution sonography units for diagnostic and ultrasound-guided core breast biopsy, stereotactic-guided core biopsy unit, breast MRI for lesion detection and procedural guidance and computer-aided detection for breast MRI.

 

PACS

All digital modalities, including CT, MRI, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, digital radiographs and digital angiograms are read on computer workstations. Some radiographs are still read on film. An entirely new PACS system and digital radiography units, implemented in spring 2006, made the department entirely digital.