Skip to main content
Sign In

Home Future StudentsCurrent StudentsFaculty & StaffPatientsAlumni

Department of Radiology

Radiology Banner Image
 

Radiology Residency

Didactic Lectures

ER Radiology Course- A special course in Emergency Radiology is offered for first year residents during the first six months of training. The course is organized by Dr. Ron Townsend from Denver Health Medical Center. The course has a weekly reading curriculum and meets weekly for an hour long lecture by attendings specializing in the topic covered that week. Some of the topics covered include: Maxillofacial Trauma, Stroke, Pulmonary Embolism, Bowel Ischemia, Pediatric Emergency Imaging, Extremity Infections and many others.

The residents receive two books from the department for the course: Emergency Diagnostic Imaging by Brooke Jeffrey (Amirsys; 1st edition October 4, 2007) and State-of-the-Art Emergency and Trauma Radiology: Categorical Course Syllabus published by American Roentgen Ray Society in 2008. This course provides a strong foundation in basic and emergency radiology prior to beginning independent call. At the end of each lecture, the residents take a short 5 minute quiz. The final course exam is given in January, and passage is a prerequisite for taking independent call at the start of PGY-3 year.

Introductory Core Lectures- In the first three months of each academic year, introductory topics are emphasized in scheduled conferences. The radiologic approach to major organ systems (i.e. cardiac, pulmonary, genitourinary, gastrointestinal, skeletal, etc.) is presented. Fundamental techniques of ultrasound, nuclear medicine, CT and MRI are also covered, along with basic departmental procedures and policies.

General Core Lectures- The teaching conferences within the Department of Radiology are organized to cover a curriculum which is completed on a two-year cycle. In theory, the entire curriculum in the field is covered twice during the residency. Because our field is constantly evolving, it is never exactly the same the second time, however.

Each division is in charge of developing a lecture curriculum to cover all fundamental topics. These lectures are given on Mondays and Tuesdays over the noon hour and generally emphasize a different subspecialty every 3-4 weeks.

Radiological Physics- The medical physics/radiobiology curriculum is geared towards preparing residents for the exams of the American Board of Radiology. This course begins during the second half of the first year and continues until the ABR Physics Board examination in September of the second year.

Socioeconomics of Radiology Lectures- Organized by Dr. Borgstede, recent President of the American College of Radiology (ACR) in 2006-2007 and a current trustee of the American Board of Radiology (ABR). Topics include: Reimbursement Structure in Radiology; Practice models in Radiology; Radiology Policy Making and Lobbying; Radiology Board Certification Changes/Progress and many others.

Radiology Research Course- Organized by Dr. Chuck Ray, Associate Radiology Residency Program Director and Chief of Interventional Radiology at the University Hospital. The course is designed to introduce residents to clinical research and help them prepare for their own research projects. The topics cover Study Design; Biostatistics; Research Ethics; and specifics of research at the University of Colorado.

 

Conferences

Proven Case Conference- This is usually the most popular conference among the residents. Weekly "Proven Case" (PC) conference is organized by the chief residents, with different residents bringing the case material each week. Attendings from different divisions attend the conferences to facilitate teaching. One resident is picked according to case difficulty - e.g., 4th year case is taken by a 4th year and a 1st year case is taken by a 1st year. Radiology attendings from the appropriate division will take the case with the resident to provide teaching in a "hot seat" manner (MSK attending will take a fracture or osteoblastoma case; Neuroradiology attending will take a pituitary tumor case, etc.). Cases are drawn from daily work on the radiology services and have a pathologically proven diagnosis. 1st year residents typically do not take cases until September.

Daily Noon Conference- Most often these are case conferences. Conference attendance is mandatory for all residents. The conferences are usually broadcast to the VA and sometimes Denver Health from University Hospital. Denver Health typically has a separate schedule of noon case conferences for residents rotating through their department. Residents rotating through the other hospitals are able to view and take cases via teleconferencing equipment. Residents rotating at The Childrens Hospital come to the University Hospital for daily noon conferences.

Resident Lectures- Each resident is required to present a conference based on research or extensive literature review during the second and third years of training. These conferences are given during a noon conference time slot and are broadcast to the other hospitals.

Interdisciplinary Conferences- Various such conferences (tumor boards, hepatobiliary, etc.) are available to enrich our training and offer clinical correlation to radiological exams. These conference include: Neuro-oncology tumor board every Tuesday morning at 8am, Pulmonary tumor board meets at UH every Monday at 9am, Weekly Spine Surgery interdisciplinary conference meets every Thursday at 7am, etc.


 

 

Resident Case Database- Over 2,000 cases have now been compiled by the residents into an easily accessible database for general study or boards preparation.

ACR In Service Examination- This exam is administered to all residents each year to evaluate progression of knowledge throughout training and provide a benchmark for further study.

Mock Orals- Faculty provide a mock Oral Boards examination each year to second, third and fourth year residents again to evaluate progression of knowledge but also to establish good style prior to the real thing in Louisville.

Formal Board Preparation Course- The Radiology department will allow the residents to use one week of educational time leave attendance of a formal, comprehensive board review course once per year. The residents may also receive some funding for attendance of these courses.

Each first year resident takes evening or weekend in-house call at the University with a senior resident prior to taking in-house call independently. Residents are progressively allowed more responsibility and are prepared to take independent night call at the beginning of the PGY-3 year.

Independent call at Denver Health hospital is taken 8pm-8am via a night float (NF) system, Sunday night through Thursday night in 2 week blocks. PGY-3 residents take 2 two-week blocks of night float while PGY-4 residents take 1 two-week block of night float. Overnight and weekend call at Denver Health is taken by non night float residents from Friday night through Sunday.

Additionally 5pm-10pm weekday shifts and 8am-10pm weekend call shifts are covered at the University Hospital with an in-house Attending/Fellow. All overnight coverage at the University Hospital is taken by in-house overnight attendings.

PGY-3 resident call averages Q6-7 throughout the year.
PGY-4 resident call averages Q8-9 throughout the year with significantly less call PGY-5 year.

From the beginning of the residency program, residents receive daily staff supervision. However, trainee independence is gradually increased. By the final year of training, residents are often functioning on their own with staff consultation readily available.

Regular faculty reviews are conducted on all radiologic examinations, including those performed and interpreted at night and on weekends. When morning overreads are performed at Denver Health, attendings generate case specific feedback from their PACS workstations via email sent directly to the resident.

Residents are also given the opportunity to evaluate rotations and attendings in confidential manner for each rotation.

The department provides a $2500 fund to each resident over 4 years to support AFIP attendance, books and board review course attendance. Each resident is allowed to take one educational leave week per year for research conference or review course attendance. If a resident is presenting research at a conference, he/she will be given additional protected educational leave to do so.