Last year, Florida Hospital's diagnostic radiology residency program graduated its first class, with all four MDs earning a 100 percent first-time Boards pass rate.
"Our goal is to have the residents become confident in the interpretation of a wide range of imaging, and become facile with image-guided procedures," said Laura W. Bancroft, MD, radiology residency program director, chief of musculoskeletal imaging of Florida Hospital Orlando, radiology professor at Florida State University College of Medicine, the Department Chair of Radiology and Professor of University of Central Florida College of Medicine.
Established in 2012, the diagnostic radiology residency program accepts residents who match with the advanced standing program as senior medical students, and first serve a one-year internship year in either medicine, surgery or a transitional program, explained Bancroft.
"The residents are immersed in clinical work, research and teaching of the medical students and co-residents," she said. "The department's research resulted in an impressive 46 peer-reviewed publications and several book chapters in 2016. The residents have presented their scientific work at multiple national meetings, have earned national awards and serve on several national resident boards."
Florida Hospital Radiology Specialists of Florida (RSF), which performs more than 2 million imaging studies per year and a wide breadth of pathologies, is the basis for the radiology education experience. Their large case volumes, high faculty-to-resident ratio, subspecialty training and advanced technology allows Florida Hospital's radiology residents to be trained with 3T MRI, PET-CT, digital mammography and bi-plane angiography equipment. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has accredited the 4-year diagnostic radiology residency program, which also has Early Specialization in Interventional Radiology (ESIR) accreditation.
Florida Hospital's radiology residency program also provides training with Adobe Acrobat encompassing the six ACGME competencies - patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism and systems-based practice.
"Our residents have been very successful, with 100 percent first time Boards pass rate, excellent ACR in-service scores - 99 percentile for our third-year class, 97 percentile for the second-year class and 93 percentile total for the first-year class - and impressive fellowship matches," said Bancroft, pointing out that residents and faculty hold academic rank at the University of Central Florida and some at Florida State University College of Medicine. "Radiology residents have obtained fellowships at Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, Mallinckrodt, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Maryland, University of Michigan and the University of Florida so far."
Bancroft pointed out the program provides complimentary food for residents, educational funding for scientific presentations at national meetings, research opportunities, American Institute for Radiologic Pathology stipends and team-building opportunities at Orlando Magic games.
"They're all bright physicians and it's fantastic to see them maximize their potential as future radiologists," said Bancroft.
