Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Fellowship Program

Nuclear Medicine Fellowship

The Nuclear Medicine Division of the Department of Radiology provides a 1-year ACGME-accredited fellowship in nuclear radiology. The fellowship experience places emphasis on advanced techniques in nuclear oncology, nuclear cardiology, and molecular imaging. The program may be tailored to the candidate’s goals, for example, to enhance clinical skill in PET/CT or to prepare for an academic career in a university setting. Candidates must be board certified or board eligible in either radiology or nuclear medicine.

Close association with the Department of Radiation Oncology and the Greenebaum Cancer Center enhances the program experience in nuclear oncology. The integrated University/Veterans Affairs nuclear medicine program has advanced attenuation-correcting SPECT cameras, as well as coincidence positron, dedicated PET, and PET/CT imaging devices. The fellowship includes training in therapy using 131I as well as 90Y- and 131I-radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies. The faculty of the Division of Nuclear Medicine hold multiple NIH- and DOD-funded grants related to developing diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. These grants are supported by laboratory services and an animal imaging complex dedicated to radiopharmaceutical research.

The fellowship program provides an outstanding experience in nuclear cardiology. Several faculty are board certified in both cardiology and nuclear medicine and hold dual appointments in these fields. The clinical facilities house 2 cardiac stress labs, multiple dual-head attenuation-correcting SPECT cameras and employ specially trained stress technicians. The program provides a broad exposure to all pharmacologic and stress protocols, imaging agents, and cardiac PET studies. There is active participation in multicenter trials of myocardial perfusion and cardiac receptor imaging agents.

In addition to full-time clinical faculty and a PhD physicist who specializes in PET and image processing, the division maintains collegial relationships with PhD-level research pharmacists, radiopharmacists, and research technologists. In addition to its ACGME-approved Nuclear Medicine Residency Program, the division also participates in training radiology residents, cardiology fellows, medical students, and technologists. The facilities are spacious (10,000 sf), modern, technologically advanced, and filmless, supported by a dedicated nuclear medicine PACS that integrates with the general department PACS. Approximately 10,000 studies are performed yearly, with emphasis in oncology, cardiology, trauma, transplant, orthopedics, and renal imaging.

For additional information about fellowships in Nuclear Medicine, contact: Vasken Dilsizian, MD, section director, at: vdilsizian@umm.edu.

This page was last updated on: January 9, 2008.