Breast Imaging Fellowship

General Fellow Schedule: The Fellow will be scheduled in a full-time capacity (8 am – 5 pm) at Advanced Breast Imaging Center, (ABIC), and will be given an average of four academic days per month to work on academic pursuits such as teaching assignments and research projects. 

General Responsibilities: The Fellow will be expected to participate in all aspects of patient care at the ABIC, including interpreting and reporting all types of breast imaging studies, reviewing outside imaging examinations, performing image-guided procedures, following up on pathology results, and discussing results and recommendations with patients and referring providers.

Clinical Experience

Procedure Mix: The Fellow will be exposed to all types of breast imaging and procedural exams, including screening/diagnostic mammography, breast ultrasound, and breast MRI.  Tomosynthesis, ultrasound, and MRI guided biopsies are performed routinely.  Preoperative localization procedures are done with SAVI scout devices.  A robust MRI screening program at the Breast Imaging Center ensures a well-rounded MRI experience.

Multidisciplinary Breast Care Conference: The breast imaging Fellow will become familiar with the multidisciplinary case conference (i.e. “tumor board”).  A list of cases is provided 1-2 days prior to tumor board.  The fellow will be responsible for presenting/discussing the key images and findings for the cases that are discussed each week. 

Teaching Responsibilities

General Responsibilities: The Fellow will be expected to take an active role in educating Radiology residents during their clinical rotations at ABIC (e.g., orienting first-time residents to workstation and workflow, reviewing breast MRIs with residents, inviting residents to observe procedures and interesting cases).

Residents from other services and rotating medical students: The Fellow will serve as the liaison and primary mentor for Family Practice residents and Women’s Health Elective residents and medical students rotating through ABIC. Responsibilities will also include arranging times for the participants to rotate at ABIC and submitting evaluations. 

Radiology resident lectures: The breast imaging Fellow is responsible for presenting 1 lecture during each semester (September-December and January-May).  The dates and topics for these lectures will be determined well in advance of when they occur in order to provide adequate preparation time. 

Radiology medical student rotation lecture: Following the first medical student lecture, the breast imaging Fellow will be responsible for presenting the remainder of the medical student lectures, which occur monthly (September-May). The Fellow chooses either an academic day or a day on which 2 attendings are staffing the breast center to give his/her lecture. The same lecture is presented to a new group of rotation residents each month.  

Research Opportunities

The Fellow, in collaboration with the attending breast radiologists, will select a clinical research project to complete during the Fellowship year, with the goal of presenting a scientific poster and/or publishing the findings.  In addition to this valuable learning experience, the project can double as a Practice Quality Improvement (PQI) project requirement for Maintenance of Certification (MOC) in Radiology. In the event that a PQI project is selected, it should conform to the standards outlined by the American Board of Radiology.

Learn more about research opportunities in the Department of Medical Imaging.