Curriculum
Roughly one month is spent on each rotation, including fluoroscopy, ultrasound, plain radiography, CT/MR, neuroradiology, ER (call) and interventional radiology. Fellows with specific subspecialty interests, such as cardiac imaging, fetal imaging, nuclear medicine and musculoskeletal radiology, may choose to spend more time in these areas and less time in the other elective rotations.
All of the fellows will rotate through the same introductory rotations in the first two months, followed by their first overnight call shifts. We then blend elective 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 correction or further work.
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.
Didactic
Texas Children’s Hospital Department of Radiology has a robust lecture schedule, including daily conferences at either 7:30 a.m. or noon. Conferences are a balanced mix of didactic format and hot seat/case conferences, and many faculty employ interactive formats including polling and game show-style case competitions.
Although our lectures were previously broadcast for the radiologists and trainees at remote sites (West Campus and the Woodlands), now our entire curriculum has moved to Zoom, in light of the pandemic and need to avoid group gatherings. The Zoom lecture format allows residents, fellows and faculty to participate from any site, including home workstations. One of our best conferences, a weekly interesting case conference formerly known as “Green Dot” (referring to an old practice of putting green stickers on film jackets of interesting cases) has transitioned to a new virtual conference called “Body Buddies LIVE!” which is now scheduled twice per week, allowing faculty members and trainees to show each other interesting cases.
The Department of Radiology also participates in over 40 interdisciplinary conferences with various clinical departments, ranging in frequency from daily (Neonatology Morning Report) to weekly (Solid Tumor Rounds, Pediatric Surgery/Radiology/Pathology conference) to monthly (Pulmonary Rad-Path conference, Musculoskeletal Sarcoma conference). Radiology has a primary role in the majority of these conferences, all of which are now being presented in virtual format.
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.
Our clinical and basic science research faculty provide several helpful lectures on research methodology, study design, statistics and manuscript writing. The department schedules practice sessions for all trainees and faculty prior to the actual meeting so that the faculty and trainees can serve as a sounding board and help polish presentations ahead of time. The department also employs a full time research manager and statistician. Fellows have web access to journals via the Texas Medical Center library (link to http://library.tmc.edu), which serves all 56 TMC member institutions.
