Curriculum

The Diagnostic Radiology Residency includes daily conferences — led by Department of Radiology faculty, monthly guest lecturers, and the residents themselves — interdisciplinary conferences, clinical teaching at picture archiving and communication system (PACS) monitors and teaching medical students. The department also hosts a robust monthly Radiology Grand Rounds. Residents are encouraged to attend Chicago Radiology Society meetings to interact with other radiology residents and faculty in the city. In addition to the training in Feinberg’s Chicago campus, the department pays for residents to attend both the American Institute for Radiologic Pathology and a Physics Review Course during the third year of residency training.

Ample opportunities exist to participate in research activities in the department with protected research time. Residents receive time and travel funding if they have accepted research or presentations at a meeting.

Rotations

There is a standardized block schedule and residents rotate through all the core rotations with multiple elective opportunities. First year residents rotate through all the modalities and specialties.  Below is an example the rotation schedule for a first year radiology resident.

Call responsibilities vary among Feinberg’s affiliate hospitals. At Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH), there are not call responsibilities after working a normal rotation, there are one-month ED blocks, with both a junior and senior resident on call overnight in the emergency room and covering the hospital. Our program is unique in our ED specific rotations. Residents have autonomy overnight and gain invaluable experience in a Level 1 trauma center emergency department in a high volume system with a variety of complex and unusual cases. Faculty are available if needed.

Residents are given feedback and evaluated monthly by the faculty on their rotations and the residents anonymously evaluate the attending staff and rotations as well.

Technology

All studies at NMH are read off of cutting-edge PACS monitors. Simplified access to this archive of digital images in conjunction with an advanced radiology information system allows for the development of personal and departmental teaching file databases.

Educational Resources

Residents are provided with multiple online radiology educational and study tools including question banks.  The resources are chosen yearly based on resident preference and feedback.

Department resources include an exclusive resident room with multiple computers, lockers, and a refrigerator and microwave.

The Galter Health Sciences Library also offers a full complement of paper and electronic resources, including access to the top radiology journals.

Radiology Interest Tracks

The department offers multiple elective Radiology Interest Tracks to complement and enhance the residents' training: Business of Radiology, Education, Research, Global Health and Informatics. Current residents have the opportunity to be enrolled in the ACR's Radiology Leadership Institute, an online business curriculum.