Temple University Hospital, the major clinical teaching facility of Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, was founded in 1891. Today's modern facility serves as both a tertiary referral center and a primary health provider for the surrounding community. The SmithKline Beecham Department of Diagnostic Imaging performs more than 275,000 procedures annually. The following provides insight into some of the hospital's extensive patient care services, research activities, and the Department of Radiology residency training program.
The Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program has been in continuous existence since 1932 and has trained more than 350 radiologists. While much has changed in the past 75 years, the principal objectives of the program have been constant. The goals are to equip our trainees with highly developed interpretative and procedural skills, provide them the opportunity to develop and refine their clinical judgment, encourage them to explore the world of research, and ultimately prepare them to thrive in the practice environment of their choice.
The residency in Diagnostic Radiology is a four-year program and provides all requirements for certification by the American Board of Radiology. The program is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. There are a total of 20 residency positions, five per year. Prior to matriculation, each resident must have completed a minimum of one year of clinical graduate medical training.
The entering resident takes part in an orientation program that begins with an introduction to radiation physics and safety, diagnostic technique, and department functions. The main component of the program is a didactic course encompassing all subspecialties in radiology.
The clinical services of the Department of Radiology are divided into subspecialty sections and further divided as subsections. Each section has a physician assigned administratively as section chief. Residents rotate through the various sections and, therefore, receive their training from subspecialty experts. Each section provides the resident with the required interpretation and procedure skills. The rotation system provides progressive experience so that the resident tackles more complex procedures only after mastering the more basic ones. It is firm Department of Radiology policy for the staff radiologists to review every study seen by a resident before formal report approval. The Department is fully digital, affording residents the opportunity to learn image interpretation in a modern PACS environment with voice recognition for transcription.
Concentrated training is offered in each of the following:
- Breast imaging
- Gastrointestinal radiology
- Genitourinary radiology
- Musculoskeletal radiology
- Neuroradiology
- Interventional neuroradiology
- Nuclear medicine
- Pediatric radiology
- Thoracic radiology
- Ultrasonography
- Vascular/interventional radiology
- Magnetic resonance imaging
- Emergency radiology
The Department provides patient care and residency training in all imaging modalities using state-of-the-art equipment. Three months are spent in pediatric radiology using the resources of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. While on rotation at Temple University Hospital, pediatric radiology is integrated with adult radiology in some subsections, further enhancing the pediatric radiology training and experience.
Most residents choose to spend a four-week elective taking the Radiologic Pathology course at the American Institute of Radiologic Pathology with financial support by the Temple University Hospital for tuition and lodging.
Didactic lectures representing the core curriculum cover all aspects of radiology. Interdepartmental conferences are based on clinical case material and feature active resident participation from all clinical services. Formal physics instruction includes courses in:
- Physics of diagnostic radiology
- Physics of nuclear medicine
- Principles of radiopharmacy
- Radiation biology
Additional city-wide conferences and lectures held under the aegis of the Philadelphia Roentgen Ray Society or city-wide radiology clubs such as the monthly city-wide Pediatric Radiology Conference at St. Christopher's Children's Hospital provide further opportunities for structured learning. The Department of Radiology also currently authorizes each resident to attend one national meeting or course, usually during the last year of training.
Residents are encouraged to participate in research projects and in the preparation of manuscripts for publication. The Department provides financial support for residents to present their research findings to local or national radiological meetings.
Residents handle night and weekend call in rotation. New residents spend time on-call with senior residents in order to acquire sufficient experience to serve. Radiology staff is always available to supervise any procedure or to provide back-up interpretation using teleradiology. A faculty member for each subspecialty area is assigned to interpret studies on the weekend.
The Gustavus C. Bird Library is one of the Department's most valuable ancillary resources. Included in the collection are a large number of textbooks, journal subscriptions, and DVDs. Online resources include StatDx and RADPrimer. Our full-time librarian is extremely knowledgeable of radiology source materials and offers invaluable study assistance in performing MEDLINE literature searches via the library's direct computer link with the National Library of Medicine, and can routinely provide the most current information to supplement research or teaching activities.
Salaries are among the most competitive with those of other hospitals in the region. Fringe benefits include medical and dental insurance, professional liability insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, uniforms, and discount for purchase of textbooks. We believe that the Department of Radiology provides a complete university learning environment in a modern, fully equipped, state-of-the -art digital facility that serves an optimal patient case mix for training radiologists. Our department and program are large enough to offer the full complement of subspecialty services, yet we are small enough to foster the collegial faculty-resident interpersonal relationships that result in the best graduate medical education and long term promotion of career development support. We are gratified by our residency's deserved reputation for excellence and the success of our graduates.
We encourage you to apply, review our curriculum and facilities, and to strongly consider joining the Temple Department of Radiology.
Beverly Hershey, MD