Curriculum
Texas Children’s Hospital is the largest free-standing pediatric hospital in the world with more than 40 pediatric subspecialties and a level I comprehensive trauma center with large referral base, giving our fellows exceptional breadth and depth of experience with both rare and routine diagnoses.
The Texas Children’s Hospital Pediatric Radiology fellowship consists of one-month rotations in key areas such as fluoroscopy, ultrasound, plain radiography, body CT/MR, neuroradiology, and emergency radiology (call), as well as subspecialty areas including fetal imaging, nuclear medicine, musculoskeletal radiology, cardiac imaging, and interventional radiology (if desired). Fellows with specific subspecialty interests can tailor their schedule to spend more time in these areas.
The first two months involve core rotations, followed by overnight call shifts. After that, fellows alternate between core and elective rotations, typically on a weekly basis, though consecutive weeks in a specific rotation can be arranged. The program director meets with fellows quarterly to review their progress and address any areas needing further development. As fellows identify areas of interest or prepare for job searches, additional subspecialty rotations can be added.
During the Pediatric Interventional Radiology rotation, fellows gain experience in bread-and-butter cases, including vascular access, percutaneous biopsies, and drainages, as well as complex liver transplant interventions, portal vein recanalization, venous thrombectomy/thrombolysis, trauma angiography and intervention, and treatment of low-flow and high-flow vascular anomalies and vascular tumors with sclerotherapy, embolization, and ablation techniques. Fellows also have the opportunity to participate in the weekly multidisciplinary Vascular Anomalies Clinic and help care for patients with complex vascular malformations and genetic syndromes.
Didactic
The Radiology Department offers a robust structured lecture schedule, including daily conferences at 7:30 a.m. or noon. These conferences blend didactic presentations with interactive formats, such as case discussions and gameshow-style competitions.
The department also participates in over 40 interdisciplinary conferences, with varying frequencies—daily, weekly, or monthly. Most conferences are now virtual, with Radiology playing a primary role in many of the conferences, including Neonatology Morning Report, Solid Tumor Rounds, Surgery/Radiology/Pathology Conference, Pulmonary Rad-Path Conference, and Musculoskeletal Sarcoma Conference.
Clinical
Roughly one month is spent on each rotation, including the core areas of fluoroscopy, ultrasound, plain radiography, body CT/MR, neuroradiology and ER (call), as well as in subspecialty areas including fetal imaging, nuclear radiology, MSK, cardiac imaging and interventional radiology. Fellows with specific subspecialty interests may choose to spend more time in one subspecialty area and less time on the other subspecialty rotations.
All of the fellows will rotate through the same introductory core rotations in the first two months, followed by their first overnight call shifts. We then blend advanced rotations with the basic rotations, rotating on a weekly basis unless consecutive weeks on a rotation are desired. The program director meets with the fellows on a quarterly basis to review their progress and identify any areas that need further training.
As the fellows begin identifying areas of specific interest, and/or interviewing for jobs and identifying areas that need further study, we can increase the number of subspecialty rotations.
Research
Clinical and basic science research opportunities abound, with excellent research mentors available in all general and subspecialty areas. Each fellow is matched with a mentor before the fellowship year begins, based on shared interests. The fellows are allotted academic time to work on their research projects, with the goal of project completion in time for abstract submittal to the Society for Pediatric Radiology annual meeting (abstract deadline typically in late October). Accepted scientific abstracts will be presented by the fellows at the meeting, with expenses paid by the department. Fellows are strongly encouraged to publish their manuscript prior to the end of the fellowship year.
The Research Program in the E.B.Singleton Department of Radiology at Texas Children’s Hopsital is overseen by the vice-Chair for Research, Ananth Annapragada, Ph.D., FAIMBE, FNAI. All pre-award, post-award and research coordination for ongoing projects are managed by Dr. Annapragada and his staff. The Department as a whole is remarkably productive publishing between 150 and 200 papers per year (an average of 2.5 – 3 per faculty member per year!) We are the pre-eminent Research Department in Pediatric Radiology, winning the Caffey Award for best paper at the annual SPR meeting 6 of the last 12 years, including a 3-peat in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
A unique feature of the Research program is our rigorous Pilot Project Program. This is an internally funded grant program that is oriented at faculty who with their trainees wish to conduct a preliminary study leading to a larger grant application. A typical Pilot grant will support up to $30,000 of approved expenses facilitating extensive pre-clinical and clinical work. The program has had a remarkable success rate, with ~50% of awardees going on to secure significant extramural grants.
Additionally, the Department of Radiology is home to the Translational Imaging Group. TIGr is unique among Radiology departments, and works on long-term projects of significant basic-science and clinical impact, usually extramurally funded either by the NIH or other Foundation/Philanthropy sources. TIGr is considered the “SkunkWorks” in Radiology, taking projects from bench scale concept to clinical use in a 10-20 year time frame. TIGr is home to 7 faculty with ranks from Instructor to Professor, operating as a matrixed organization, sharing 14 staff, and a floating population of graduate students and other trainees. TIGr faculty provide research intensive didactic coursework for Pediatric Radiology trainees, with topics including Research Methodology, AI, 3D printing, Imaging Physics of all modalities, Chemistry and Toxicology of Contrast Agents, Nanomaterials and Nanoparticle Imaging Agents, Advances in Molecular Imaging, and Infusion Reactions. TIGr faculty are world acknowledged experts in their fields, and are available as consultants, advisors, or mentors as appropriate for any of our trainees.
