Abdominal Radiology: Our Education
Teaching is an inseparable component of the activities of the Abdominal Radiology Division. The division is responsible for teaching of radiology residents, medical students and post-residency Fellows. One or more Radiology residents are assigned to each of the six subdivisions on a weekly basis. The residents routinely monitor all of the examinations performed in the Gastrointestinal, Genitourinary, and Abdominal MR subdivision, and then preview nearly all of these studies and those in the Abdominal CT and Ultrasound subdivisions prior to review and discussion with the assigned faculty radiologist.
Medical students choosing a Radiology elective typically rotate through the Abdominal Division where they observe procedures being performed and participate in the interpretation sessions that occur at the view boxes multiple times during the day. The students also attend the two separate 45-minute teaching sessions held daily which are given by the attending Radiology faculty including those from the Abdominal Division.
At these designated teaching sessions material is presented in either a didactic or an unknown-case format, or a combination of the two. Although these daily formal teaching conferences are designed primarily for the radiology residents, medical students taking a radiology elective are also in attendance. The Abdominal Division faculty presents four of these teaching sessions each month.
Along with the Ultrasound and the Abdominal MR subdivisions, the Abdominal CT subdivision participates in the Cross-sectional Imaging Fellowship. One or more Cross-sectional Fellows rotate through the Abdominal CT and Ultrasound areas several months during the year, and instruction of the Fellow is an important aspect of the overall teaching responsibility of this subdivision. During their first few weeks on these rotations, the Fellow typically reviews many or all of the cases with an attending faculty, but the Fellow then gradually increases the number of cases viewed independently as his/her experience and confidence increases.
