The Department of Radiology at U of L

Why choose Radiology as a Specialty?

Radiology is one of the most dynamic and exciting, as well as vital, areas in contemporary medicine.

Exponential growth in technological advances within recent years has put the radiologist in the forefront of medicine as an advisor to clinicians of all specialties. Through his or her application of anatomic and pathophysiologic knowledge, the radiologist is often able to develop a comprehensive differential diagnosis. These inherent responsibilities of Radiology can be both challenging and rewarding. Today's radiologist must be able to utilize spatial, analytical, observational, and communicative skills to correlate the diagnostic findings with the patient's history, in addition to being adept at performing both invasive and non-invasive procedures.

The Radiology Residency Program at the University of Louisville offers its potential residents many advantages. Our program offers a well-rounded curriculum, integrated training sites with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, and an array of educational resources, as well as full accreditation.

Our residency program provides a well-rounded four year core curriculum for those medical school graduates that have finished at least one year of clinical training. During their four years in training, the residents rotate through Radiology subspecialty areas such as: nuclear medicine, mammography, general radiology, pediatric radiology, angio/interventional radiology, neuroradiology, abdominal imaging, and bone/musculoskeletal radiology. While rotating through the various subspecialties, residents learn how to utilize all of the state-of-the-art imaging modalities located at our institutional training sites including magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and ultrasonography.

The resident curriculum includes daily didactic lectures, which cover all aspects of clinical radiology and its subspecialties, as well as radiologic physics, radiation biology, radiation protection, and pathology. All of our department faculty, along with a number of local radiologists in private practice, participate in the these daily lectures and case presentations.

In addition, our program jointly sponsors speakers to the Greater Louisville Radiological Society, which allows our residents exposure to eminent visiting speakers from other major medical schools on a monthly basis.

Our residents also actively participate by presenting cases of their own, both inside and outside the department, and are encouraged to attend various interdisciplinary conferences within the hospital.

Furthermore, our residents are encouraged to get involved in research and are often present at the annual convention of Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

During their residency in Radiology, the residents rotate through four separate, yet integrated training sites: University of Louisville Hospital (parent institution) and a level I trauma center, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Jewish Hospital (the region's heart center), and the Veterans Administration Medical Center (for a high level of pathology). Additionally,  rotations in mammography at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center (UofL) is included in our program.

Further training in radiology is achieved through a four week course at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, D.C. This type of integrated training allows our residents to remain at the parent institution for the majority of their residency, in addition to receiving outside exposure in different training environments.

An extensive teaching file located in the department allows the residents access to a vast archive of images regarding all aspects of Radiology. We also keep a file of radiology laser discs within the department produced by the American College of Radiology and access to the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) informational web-based lecture series.