Fellowships
Our fellowship is designed to produce knowledgeable, well-rounded abdominal radiologists who will excel in meeting the demands of a busy clinical practice and can read high-level cross-sectional examinations with ease. We accept only four fellows a year for this competitive fellowship. Fellows rotate monthly through clinical services at the main hospital campus and Hillsborough Hospital. The fellowship is housed in the Department of Radiology at UNC Women’s and Children’s Hospital, with an additional teleradiology caseload, creating a diverse caseload of trauma, oncologic imaging, transplant, gastrointestinal and genitourinary disorders.
This one-year fellowship provides 24 weeks in body MRI, 12 weeks in body CT, 8 weeks in ultrasound, 4 weeks in GI/GU, and 4 weeks of elective time within the UNC Department of Radiology. The fellows actively participate in image interpretation and image-guided procedures. Fellows attend and are actively mentored in the participation in multidisciplinary conferences. There is a dedicated lecture series for fellows and ample research opportunities (and global health opportunities) for interested candidates.
- Body MRI (5 blocks)
- Body CT (3 blocks)
- Ultrasound (2 blocks)
- Float/Elective (3 blocks)
Electives include thoracic imaging, neuroradiology, musculoskeletal imaging, nuclear medicine, PET/CT, pediatrics, interventional radiology, cardiovascular imaging, breast imaging, GI/GU, and research elective.
The UNC body fellowship now offers an optional Cardiovascular imaging module. As an alternative to the elective period, the fellow will spend two days per month in cardiovascular MR/CT. At the end of the fellowship year, it is expected that the fellow will have completed the case requirements for Cardiovascular Computed tomography as outlined in the ACR practice guidelines.
There is also an option for Women’s Imaging (combined abdominal and breast) and Cardiopulmonary-Abdominal (combined chest and abdominal) fellowships. Note that these are available depending on the availability of the respective section and would include time equally split between the two divisions (6 months/6 months).
Alternative curriculums are available to suit the needs and interests of individual fellows.
MR
We have 11 clinical MR systems: There are three 1.5 T Avanto magnets equipped with cardiac software, a 1.5T Sonata, a 1.5T Symphony, a 3.0T Trio system and a 3.0T Skyra. Our 3T and 7T MR/PET units are housed in our research building. We have a high volume abdominal and pelvic MR service, bolstered by a large liver and renal transplant service and a robust MR/TRUS fusion biopsy program.
CT
We have two 16 slice, one dual source, three 64 slice and two 128 slice spiral CT units and 3 combination PET/CT scanners (one a 40 slice). This is a high volume service with a wide diversity of cases from our emergency department, cancer center, inpatient and outpatient settings. CT is a robust service with approximately 50-75 CTs performed daily.
US
There are 13 ultrasound machines, including Siemens S3000, Ge LogiqE9, and Philips IU 22, with state-of-the-art software, including pulse inversion harmonics, contrast-enhanced ultrasound experiences, elastography, and 3D. In addition to image interpretation, ultrasound-guided procedures are performed on this service. We perform approximately 150-200 guided thyroid and lymph node biopsies yearly.
GI/GU
There are 6 digital fluoroscopy rooms in our main hospital. On this rotation, fellows perform and supervise inpatient and outpatient genitourinary and gastrointestinal fluoroscopic procedures and interpret abdominal plain films.
In addition to daily resident lectures, we host weekly (40 weeks) dedicated 2-hour fellows workshops covering dedicated hands-on education on disease-focused topics.
To learn more about our faculty, click here.
In addition to clinical facilities, there are ongoing research projects and opportunities at UNC’s Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC). BRIC was formed in 2005 to support image-based biomedical research across the UNC System and is a statewide resource serving researchers across the state of North Carolina in a central facility that handles the acquisition, processing, analysis, storage, and retrieval of images. The center is located one block south of the UNC Hospital building and houses both human and animal imaging equipment, including a 7T whole-body MRI, multinuclear capable 3T MRI, PET/MRI, Cyclotron, and a full complement of small animal imaging modalities. Multiple clinical trials and research studies are performed on these systems.