I am continually impressed at the vibrant and multifaceted undergraduate medical education (UME) program at UNC. Our Radiology faculty advisor team and administrative staff are deeply committed to the School of Medicine students and our success wouldn’t be possible without the excellent leadership of Dr. Sheri Jordan. Her mentorship and support have helped to successfully launch me into my UME role as Associate Director , and I am so excited about what the future holds! Below are just a few of the many UME updates:
RADY rotations*: Our department has adapted to the continually evolving pandemic educational landscape. Clinical rotations have nearly returned to the pre-pandemic normal, with a few RADY rotations remaining hybrid or virtual. The formal didactic curriculum remains virtual for ease, with successful efforts of faculty and residents to be engaging.
Match 2022 Advising: ERAS applications closed on September 29; seven very talented MS4s are Radiology-bound. We hope and expect that we will continue our long-standing Match success stories!
US-SCP: The ultrasound scholarly concentration program (US-SCP) is alive and thriving! We recently wrapped the RADY 121 course, the Foundation Phase MS1 summer curriculum focusing on the advancement of basic ultrasound skills. Students have completed educational modules, attended in-person scanning sessions and selected and uploaded relevant scans for feedback and creation of their US scan portfolios. During the Application and Individualization Phases (MS3 and MS4 years), students are required to attend a 30-minute monthly case conference series, continue to perform point-of-care ultrasound while on clinical rotations and archive scans for their portfolios with feedback. This program culminates in a MS4 ultrasound-related project of student choice (to include a publication or oral presentation submitted to a local, regional or national society). And hot off the presses, medical student co-director Daniel Bacon and group had Creating an Ultrasound Scholarly Concentration Program for Medical Students published 1. Fantastic job to all involved!
We currently have 22 students enrolled in US-SCP and hope to recruit an additional 10 first year medical students at the upcoming Fall Scholarly Concentration Program open house. We are committed to recruit in a method to increase URM student representation and help mentor students to create final projects with a focus on health care disparities in keeping with our departmental commitment to DEI. We are also very fortunate have two fantastic R2 radiology residents Drs. Jack Wood and Marie Vogel, as our resident advisors for the program providing valuable teaching and feedback for the medical students.
TTR Course: Designed to boost medical student readiness to become residents, medical school programs across the nation now have a formal transition to residency (TTR) program. Here at UNC, this consists of 4 weeks of focused career development for internship in March of MS4 year. Radiology participates each year with vitally important lectures (“Lines and Tubes are Where? Oh My!”, “An Intern’s Guide to the Abdomen” and “Transition to Residency NeuroImaging Mandatory Course”). As yet, there is no national radiology TTR curriculum – but we aim to change that! Drs. Muthu Sakthivel, Sheri Jordan and I, along with Dr. Winston Li, have collaborated with a RAD-bound MS4 on an AUR meeting abstract submission, perspective manuscript, and national survey of radiology educators. The goals are to identify manners radiologists can become actively engaged with the establishment or retooling of the TTR radiology curricula at home institutions. We hope to have this finalized and submitted for publication very soon, so be on the lookout!
* Click here for a directory of UNC School of Medicine 2022-2023 RADY courses
Kristen Olinger, MD
Assistant Professor of Radiology
Associate Director
Undergraduate Medical Education
1. Bacon DR, Cowles K, Thapa D, White A, Allen AJ, Doughton J, Dallaghan GB, Jordan SG. Creating an Ultrasound Scholarly Concentration Program for Medical Students. Advances in Medical Education and Practice. 2021; 12:1103-1110.