Body Imaging Fellowship Program
Apply Now
The program proposed is a 1 year clinical Fellowship of postgraduate medical education in Body Imaging to include Ultrasound, CT & MRI as well as Fluoroscopy of the Abdomen and Pelvis.
Institutions:
The program is based in the academic Department of Radiology at the University of Alberta and is organized in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, Office of Postgraduate Affairs with funding provided by Medical Imaging Consultants. The clinical part of the program will occur at the University of Alberta Hospital, the Royal Alexandria Hospital and to a lesser degree at the smaller peripheral hospitals including the Grey Nuns Hospital and Strathcona Hospital. Large volumes of clinical material (in-patient and out-patient) can be expected. Large volumes of clinical material (in-patient and out-patient) can be expected. The imaging teams work in a close- knit fashion, tightly connected to the clinical teams. The Radiology Department at the University of Alberta Hospital plays a leadership role nationally in performing detailed imaging studies of various organ transplants i.e. Liver, Kidney, Dual Kidney and Pancreas, Pancreatic Islet Cell, and Small Bowel. The Royal Alexandra Hospital is a tertiary referral centre for Northern Alberta for obstetrics and gynecology, urology, as well as hosting a large gastroenterology and hepatology service. In addition to offering specialized medical and surgical services, the Royal Alexandra Hospital features one of Canada's busiest emergency departments, serving a large urban population, as well as being a regional trauma centre, in conjunction with the University of Alberta Hospital.
Responsibility:
The Fellow will be primarily responsible to the Mentor(s) for this Fellowship position (Drs. Florin Manolea, Anu Kumar, and Gavin Low). Ultimately responsibility is to the Academic Chair (Dr. D. Emery).
Structure of clinical rotation:
The Fellowship will be primarily based at the University of Alberta Hospital and the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Rotation to Grey Nuns Community Hospital might also occur later. For Scheduling information, please see below.
Evaluation:
Evaluation will be performed quarterly via the Mentor(s) to the Fellowship Program Director.
Resources and Expectations:
Staff/Supervision: Supervisory and Teaching Faculty includes full time Staff members rotating through the University and Royal Alexandra Hospitals. Each Fellow is assigned a Mentor(s), responsible for the Fellowship as well as a research supervisor. The work atmosphere is warm and collegial, and everyone is treated as a respected and valued member.
Clinical:
The Fellow will be allotted sufficient time in each area to master their skill set. The workload and call schedules are not onerous, and there is time both to read/study and to pursue other interests.
Educational Program: Will include an educational program designed exclusively for the Fellows including didactic sessions, quiz sessions and "hands-on" practical workshops. Fellows will get dedicated academic teaching from the mentor/supervisor during the fellowship. These sessions will include case presentations, approach to the diagnosis, detailed differentials, Clinical and Radiological approach to a finding or disease as well as on-call training. Fellows will be encouraged to attend daily morning rounds, noon conferences and journal clubs. Each case read by the fellow will be double read by a staff radiologist and the fellow will be provided immediate feedback, which makes for the best opportunity to learn and grow.
Fellows will be asked to conduct regular resident teaching rounds and conduct a lecture for noon grand round/conference/ journal club. Fellows will also be encouraged to participate in the multidisciplinary meetings organized by the transplant team and liver tumor boards.
Research Program: Dedicated academic time, averaging a day each will be protected. The fellow is encouraged to attend at least one major conference during the fellowship and to present some of the research component done during the fellowship.
Specific Objectives:
Clinical Objectives:
The goal of our Fellowship program is to expose and educate Fellows in abdominal and pelvic imaging including transplants so that they may become leaders in their academic and clinical worlds.
Without doubt, this is a superb fellowship for many important reasons. The Body Division really does function as a closely-knit team. The work atmosphere is incredibly warm and collegial. The range and quantity of case material is enormous. Besides the usual mix of emergent, inpatient and outpatient studies, we do the imaging for various (indeed world-class) transplants or imaging modalities like MRI triple scan (Liver elastography/fat/iron quantification). Our working relationships with the referral services are excellent. As a result, we get to see an extensive array of pathology, with all the complexities they involve. This makes the fellowship an unusually rich and enjoyable experience. The program has important additional highlights. There is a large volume of image guided intervention, including US guided and CT guided percutaneous biopsies, drainages and tumour ablations, in which the fellow may gain valuable hands-on experience. All diagnostic studies will be double read by a dedicated usually subspecialty trained body radiologist that works on that day with the fellow and the fellow will be provided feedback and teaching on the read of each scan, giving a great opportunity to learn from every interpreted study. The fellow will also be supervised and helped throughout all the US and CT guided procedures according to the level of expertise acquired by the fellow at that moment.
Research Objectives:
Expectations for research by the Body Imaging Fellow will be:
- To start and complete one original/main clinical project
- Also encouraged to do a secondary more minor project/report to editor
This will result in at least one scientific presentations and publications. Dedicated academic time will be protected into the clinical schedule (one day per week). Fellows will be expected to participate in at least one or two project/s during the year, and presentation at a radiology conference will be strongly encouraged. Funding for attending meetings exists as detailed above. The main Researcher Supervisor is Dr. Gavin Low.
For presentations and publications, the primary authorship will be given to Fellows, followed by involved faculty.
Education/Teaching Objectives:
Didactic Teaching:
- Educational program exclusively for a fellow including didactic sessions: Case presentations, approach to the diagnosis, detailed differentials, Clinical and Radiological approach to a finding or disease and on-call training.
- Teaching around the cases seen on the day to day work.
- Fellow may prepare a topic for discussion for journal club; and a topic for our grand rounds.
- Fellow will conduct regular rounds for residents, as per schedule.
Clinical Meetings:
- Fellow may prepare and present the cases for the Multidisciplinary Rounds (GI rounds, Urology Rounds, Liver transplant/tumor Rounds) with the help of a radiologist.
Example of Scheduling:
Program Schedule:
The Fellow will be rotated in Ultrasound, CT Body, MRI body, Fluoroscopy and General Radiology (chest and abdominal radiographs) with rolling one-week rotations focused on US guided procedures, CT body and MRI body.
The Ultrasound rotation includes: Transplant imaging, Extensive Doppler US, Emergent, Inpatient and outpatient General US, Small parts, Intraoperative studies, guided biopsies and drainage procedures, hysterosonography, tumour ablations. Additionally, contrast enhanced US may be performed in challenging cases for problem solving. There is also an option for a dedicated block in the Royal Alexandra Hospital Maternal Fetal Medicine unit, which is a tertiary referral centre for high risk obstetric ultrasound. Elective ambulatory ultrasound experience can also be obtained within supported private outpatient clinics.
The CT rotation includes: Abdominal pelvic studies (Inpatient and outpatient, emergent and elective), to include all aspects of transplant imaging, and CT Angiography, also CT guided biopsies (including CT guided lung biopsies) and drainage procedures.
The MR rotation includes: Abdominal pelvic studies (Inpatient and outpatient, predominantly elective but also inpatient/emergent), to include all aspects of transplant imaging, and MR Angiography (Renal MRA). At UAH there is a particular interest in MR Imaging of the cirrhotic liver, including state of the art MRI liver triple scan to assess liver fibrosis, fat and iron deposition in one single study.
The Fluoroscopy rotation includes all aspects of GI Fluoroscopy including invigilation and interpretation of ERCP.
In each rotation, the cases will initially be checked by Fellows, discussed with attending staff, then dictated and followed by Fellows. Subsequently the fellow will progress towards an attending role to dictate cases independently and send the cases to the attending staff radiologist for review and approval. An elective time of 3 weeks is available towards the end of the fellowship to obtain additional training in some specific areas either in or outside of Abdominal Imaging.
On Call Duties:
Fellows will be treated fairly in the call schedule. The call schedule will include Ultrasound, Body CT as well as emergent body MRI and plain films.
Call frequency and responsibility will be similar to that of attending Staff members, with Staff backup available at all times. The fellow will do 4 weeks of evening float call and 6 weekends at UAH or RAH.
The call schedule will start after the 3rd month of Fellowship, after passing the 3 months evaluation and be contingent on the agreement of the members of supervisory Staff/Mentor and the Fellowship Program Director.
Application Prerequisites:
- Applicants should have successfully completed (or be in progression towards) a recognized Radiology postgraduate qualification (FRCPC, FRCR, etc.).
-
Due to CPSA licensing requirements, all physicians practising in Alberta need to be able to communicate clearly with their patients in English. Unless exempt, you need to complete an academic version of an English Language Proficiency (ELP) test within 24 months before submitting your CPSA application.
*The CPSA must be able to verify the test results with the issuing organization. Please see the CPSA website for more information:
https://cpsa.ca/physicians/registration/english-language-proficiency/
Please contact our department for further information regarding the application process.