The Diagnostic Radiology
The Diagnostic Radiology Residency provides excellent career paths to prospective radiologists through comprehensive, hands-on training. As Delaware's largest not-for-profit primary and tertiary care health system, Christiana Care offers the training advantage of a diverse patient population, and a large geographic referral base.

Services are offered in two hospital settings -- Christiana Hospital, a 780-bed tertiary care and regional referral center and the state's only Level-1 trauma center; and Wilmington Hospital, a 291-bed , full-service community hospital. Christiana Care also provides mammography services, accredited by the ACR and FDA. The Christiana Care Breast Center is a comprehensive center for the diagnosis and management of breast disease.

A comprehensive vascular program is being developed to provide a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic options for patients with cardiovascular disease. This service will be provided through the joint efforts of the Vascular Surgery, Radiology, and Cardiology departments. Our ultrasound section has been awarded full ICAVL accreditation for vascular studies. Within the department, our imaging facilities are state-of-the-art and opportunities abound for residents to build extensive technical and diagnostic skills. Our radiology faculty members are all certified by the American Board of Radiology and committed to resident education. The Diagnostic Radiology Residency has been awarded full, unconditional accreditation by the ACGME for five years, the maximum time period.

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Five-Year Residency
The five-year Diagnostic Radiology Residency includes an initial transitional clinical year, followed by four years of diagnostic radiology, all within the same program. Another option exists to enter radiology training at the PGY-2 level. The clinical year can be tailored to the interests of the individual resident, but will include basic medical and surgical rotations and two months in radiology. Subsequent years follow the sample
Schedule of Rotations.

A highlight of the residency program is a fourth-year (PGY 4), six-week rotation at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), in Washington, D.C., with access to an international array of cases. Rotations at the nearby Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children also provides unique supplemental training.

Radiology training is based primarily at Christiana Hospital, a 780-bed facility located a few miles south of Wilmington, Delaware. Department staff performs over 300,000 examinations annually. An advanced ultrasound department provides endovaginal, endorectal, transcranial and power- and color-doppler imaging capabilities.

Seven high-resolution, spiral CT scanners are currently in use, all with multislice capability. Our Vascular/Interventional Radiology Division performs more than 6,500 studies per year in the Center for Heart & Vascular Health.

Magnetic resonance imaging capabilities include a 1.5 Tesla GE Signa, a 1.5 Tesla Siemens Symphony, a 1.5 Tesla Phillips and two 1.5 Tesla Siemans Advantas, all with magnetic resonance angiography and FSE capability, as well as spectroscopy.

The department is in a transition to all digital imaging with four digital fluoroscopic suites, a digital chest radiography suite, all digital ultrasound and teleradiology. Our Picture Archiving Communications System (PACS) is linked to the new Helen F. Graham Cancer Center.

Faculty
The program offers a particularly favorable faculty/resident ratio. The radiology staff includes 20 full-time and nine part-time radiologists. Of these, four have fellowship training in angiography/interventional radiology, one in CT/US, three in MRI/CT, three in cross-sectional body imaging and eight in neuroradiology. Pediatric radiology services are covered by the pediatric-fellowship-trained staff of the Alfred.I. duPont Hospital for Children. We currently have three staff members who are or have recently been reviewers for major radiological journals: Radiology and The American Journal of Radiology. Faculty members are active in clinical research both within the department and in conjunction with other disciplines.

The independent Department of Nuclear Medicine provides an integrated component of resident education. One full- and two part-time board-certified physicians train radiology residents in the art of nuclear interpretation and therapy.

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This article is reposted with thanks to the Christiana Care health System.