Program Directors Statement

The Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program is a four-year training program that requires an internship year as a prerequisite to residency training. The program meets all requirements of the American Board of Radiology in Diagnostic Radiology and of the ACGME.

The Program
The program provides the resident with a strong foundation to meet his or her goals, whether in clinical practice, academic teaching or in research. Teaching is the core mission of the department. The clinical rotations, core curriculum, and research project provide each resident with the fundamentals necessary to pursue a clinical and/or academic career. Elective rotations provide additional opportunity to develop your expertise. The residency program director and residency committee seek to identify your individual areas of interest and talents and help you achieve your professional goals. Virtually all graduates enter outstanding radiology fellowship training programs on completion of the residency.

Clinical training is provided primarily at the University Hospital on the beautiful suburban campus of the State University of New York in Stony Brook with some rotations at the nearby Northport Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Other nearby resources of the University, such as the School of Medicine, the outstanding computer and engineering programs, informatics, and medical imaging laboratories provide additional support for your clinical and research activities. For example, the Carol Baldwin Breast Center provides cutting edge care services such as computer assisted detection mammography, digital whole breast mammography, breast MR, and stereotactic core biopsy and it is also investigating experimental techniques. Two of the current research areas include dynamic contrast enhancement methods for detection of breast carcinoma and the use of dynamic infrared imaging for breast cancer detection. Within Stony Brook University's Incubator Park, the department created a leading developer and vendor of virtual colonoscopy systems. The department has the nation's first Siemens Interventional CT site, a new research 3 Tesla high field MR suite, many new high-end ultrasound units, digital radiography throughout the department, several new multislice CT scanners, fusion CT/PET scanning, and new PACS and RIS information systems. Another area of intensive research is in neuroimaging and image processing. Some of the current research areas in the Department of Radiology include:

1. MR Spectroscopy and MR atrophy measurements in multiple sclerosis
2. MRI drug studies in multiple sclerosis and stroke (clinical research)
3. MR Spectroscopy in autism
4. MRI Flow imaging in hydrocephalus and shunt management, flow studies in arachnoid and spinal cysts
5. Functional MRI for neurophysiological mapping of cognitive functions

In addition to teaching residents, the department trains medical students and radiology fellows. Our residents develop into effective teachers and clinicians and, if they so desire, into academicians.

Generally, the two daily formal didactic lectures or case presentation conferences are supplemented by a large number of additional interdepartmental conferences, journal club meetings, visiting Grand Rounds speakers, etc. Our own medical physics department teaches an outstanding physics course. Residence attendance at conferences is a priority and protected. Department-wide web-based radiology teaching files, an excellent library with journals, texts and electronic teaching media, and intradepartmental information technology and audiovisual presentation support teams are other valuable resources. Additionally each resident spends four weeks at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Radiology-Pathologic Correlation Course and the department sends each resident to two additional national meetings or courses during their residency.

Initially, the new residents receive several weeks of introductory lectures and short orientation rotations to ease the transition into their new career. Then residents begin complete rotations through Chest Radiology, Gastrointestinal/Genitourinary Radiology, Body Imaging (with separate rotations for Ultrasound and CT/MRI), Neuroradiology, Interventional Radiology, Musculoskeletal Radiology, Emergency Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Pediatric Radiology, and Breast Imaging. Rotations through the nearby Northport VA Medical Center provide experience with chronic illnesses, which are uncommon in the acute care university hospitals. The Northport VA has an outstanding faculty, each of whom practices a broad spectrum of radiology rather that focus on a narrow subspecialty. A copy of the Curriculum, Goals and Objectives for each rotation is available on this website.

The department prides itself on a friendly collegial atmosphere in which all members collaborate and are supportive of each other. You, the radiology resident, are an integral part of the team on each rotation. Section Chiefs, who are recognized leaders, and additional faculty supervised each rotation. (Faculty biographical sketches are included on this website.) You will gradually assume additional responsibilities under supervision and with continuous backup support available. The program is sufficiently large (20 radiology residents) to permit separate junior and senior resident call schedules. This lessons the burden of call and allows maximal learning and high quality patient care. After the initial training and a period of shadowing more experienced residents, the junior resident assumes on-call responsibility for the interpretation of plain radiographs and for the performance of traditional gastrointestinal and genitourinary. Senior residents primarily cover CT, ultrasound, MR and interventional radiology (with an attending present.) Attending radiologists remain in-house to provide immediate review until 8 p.m. and additional attending radiologists are on-call around the clock for each of the following areas: general radiology, body imaging, interventional radiology, neuroradiology, and nuclear medicine. Residents are provided regular and frequent feedback on their progress and the residents also evaluate the attending faculty in an ongoing quality improvement process.

Stony Brook University Hospital is the Level One Trauma Center for Suffolk County, has the only renal transplant service on Long Island, has the county Burn Center, extensive cardiovascular surgical services, and is the tertiary care center for Pediatrics and Neonatology. Additional centers of excellence are under construction. Such programs provide a wealth of clinical experience.

 Equipment
The University Hospital Radiology Department performs over 230,000 procedures each year and has the following equipment:

• 5 Nuclear Medicine Gamma cameras 
• 4 New Multislice CT Scanners (4 slice, 16 slice, 2 64 slice)
• 1 New Siemens CT/Angio-Interventional Unit
• 2 MRI units (two new 1.5 T and one 3.0 T Research Unit)
• 8 Ultrasound scanners (high-end units)
• 4 New radiograph / fluoroscopy rooms
• 6 Additional Radiographic rooms  
• 3 Digital Mammography rooms
• 3 Dedicated breast ultrasound units
• 1 Stereotactic Breast Imaging Unit
• 1 Computer Assisted Detection Mammography Unit
• 1 Computer Assisted Detection (CAD) Chest Unit
• 3 Special Procedure Interventional suites (in addition to CT/Angio unit listed above)
• New department wide digital Radiology Information System and New department wide digital Picture Archiving System
• State-of-the-art large Department Multimedia Digital Conference room
• 2 additional department conference rooms
• Enterprise wide teleconference equipment
• Department Radiology Library
• School of Medicine library near the radiology department

Stony Brook Imaging Center

• 64 Slice CT
• 2 GE 1.5 MRI
• Bone Denistory
• Diagnostic Radiograhic Room
• 40 Slice PET/CT

In summary, the Stony Brook program provides a supportive and exciting atmosphere in which you can fulfill your professional goals and potential.

John A. Ferretti , MD

William H. Moore , MD
 Director of Residency Training  

Ms. Linda Erickson
Program Coordinator of Residency Training