The University of Florida's four-year Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program in Jacksonville is designed to provide residents with direct clinical involvement with graduated levels of responsibility. Hands-on experience is a major feature of the program. Residents initially interpret radiographic studies, which are subsequently reviewed by a faculty attending. Additionally, during most interventional procedures, residents are primary operators under the direct supervision of the attending radiologist.

The broad curriculum and educational experience is supervised by the Radiology Educational Committee, which is composed of several attending physicians and the chief residents. This Educational Committee oversees all aspects of the program, including resident responsibility guidelines, the resident's annual rotation schedule and the noon lecture series.

The first six months of residency consist of exposure to the following primary radiology areas: pediatrics, body ultrasound, body CT/MR, GI/fluoroscopy, neuro CT/MR and thoracic/cardiac imaging. Every effort is made to pair first-year residents with more senior residents who can provide educational and clinical support. First-year residents have limited dictation responsibilities during the first week of these rotations to allow them to dedicate themselves to learning each field's basic interpretative principles. We have also instituted an emergency radiology core teaching module that each first-year radiology resident completes prior to assuming call responsibilities.

All residents participate in a mentoring program which provides them a faculty member who can offer guidance during the training process and act as a resource for individual needs. Periodic reviews provide a forum to encourage educational progress and professional development.

Conferences and Teaching Facilities

Our education curriculum is formalized into a two-year rotating lecture series to ensure ample presentation of learning material. Our conferences include the following:

• Daily noon lectures comprised of interactive case presentations and didactic presentations, as well as other topics such as quality assurance and research design.
• Weekly multidisciplinary conferences which include the core imaging categories including abdominal, breast, cardiothoracic, GI/fluoroscopy, vascular/interventional, musculoskeltal, neuroradiology, nuclear medicine and pediatrics.
• Radiology grand rounds conference: a monthly conference presented by the residents.

Research

Our department is committed to fostering research among our faculty and residents to inspire active learning and to forge radiology's future. We have a full-time research coordinator in the department to facilitate development and organize research activities.

The University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville offers Dean's Fund Research Awards, which are available in support of research projects. There is also an annual Research Day for residents to present their research projects. Beyond our campus, we strive to have residents involved in regional, national and international meetings. Funding is provided to residents who present at these scientific meetings.