Musculoskeletal Imaging Fellowship

Program Director: Timothy Moore, MD

We offer a twelve-month musculoskeletal radiology fellowship. As you probably already know, accredited fellowships are available in some hospitals. We have not decided to apply for accreditation. Many musculoskeletal radiology fellowship directors are opposed to the creation of accredited fellowships since this will involve significant restrictions upon the services that fellows are permitted to perform.

The musculoskeletal section of our department consists of five full-time faculty members, Drs. Craig Walker, Kim Apker, Mary Kay Drake, Melissa Manzer, myself, and one fellow.

Our practice tends to be fairly heavily weighted toward MRI and CT. Although routine trauma studies such as shoulders and knees form the major part of the MR workload, as a tertiary referral center we also get a larger than usual proportion of neoplasms and infections. We perform about one to two special procedures a day, mainly arthrograms and joint aspirations, Bone biopsies are not routinely performed by our section but the musculoskeletal fellow has been involved in these in the past if he or she wishes.

Most mornings we start the day with a resident conference in which a staff member shows unknown cases. There is also a daily departmental resident conference at noon. Each section is responsible for running one of these conferences approximately every two weeks. The format is left to the individual and can be a formal lecture, a series of unknowns, or any other teaching method that the staff prefers. The musculoskeletal fellow presents three of these conferences during the twelve-month fellowship.

Approximately ten times per year, we hold a musculoskeletal radiology journal club. This is sponsored by a pharmaceutical company and is held in a local restaurant. Each of us discusses one article from a designated journal. The faculty and fellow in musculoskeletal radiology are also invited to the monthly rheumatology city-wide dinner meeting. This is an opportunity to meet the local rheumatologists, participate in discussions of their more interesting cases, and enjoy a consistently excellent meal.

We normally have one or two residents in our section; who are assigned to all areas of musculoskeletal imaging and procedures.

The fellow works in all areas of musculoskeletal radiology, although we try to have him or her involved in the majority of MR and CT cases. The fellow also participates in more traditional areas such as plain radiography.

The amount of "unstaffed" reporting that is done by the fellow is variable. At present a fellow may read and report anything but, as a general rule, most MR cases and anything interesting or unusual are read jointly. The fellow is also involved in some resident supervision including a proportion of the "staffing out".

Currently, fellows receive $50,763 per annum but this could change. The department pays medical staff dues and malpractice insurance premiums. Other benefits include University health, life, and dental insurance, conference leave, and some professional expense reimbursements.

The facilities for clinical research are good and it should be possible to get involved in a project during the fellowship year if the fellow so wishes.