File #: 200-35-12-054

Sponsor:New York Medical College

Overview

The Nuclear Medicine Residency is a three-year training program that utilizes didactic lectures, laboratory exercises, progressive clinical patient care responsibilities and participation in multidisciplinary seminars and research programs to train physicians to be competent in all aspects of the Nuclear Medicine specialty. 

Three resident physicians are accepted in the program every two years.  Candidates' prerequisite training should be one year in internal medicine, radiology, or pathology, as required by the American Board of Nuclear Medicine.  Candidates with a non-radiologic background receive supplementary teaching in radiation protection and physics early in their training to prepare them for working in a nuclear medicine laboratory environment.  The caseload for the Nuclear Medicine section is in excess of 5,000 in vivo imaging procedures per year.  The Nuclear Medicine Service is a section of the Department of Radiology.  The Nuclear Medicine staff consists of two members, both Board Certified in Nuclear Medicine.  One with a joint certification in radiation oncology.  A full-time Physicist and Ph.D. Radiopharmacist are members of the staff of the Nuclear Medicine Service.  They are also supported by a second Ph.D. health physicist, who is a member of the Diagnostic Radiology Staff.

The program includes a comprehensive basic science and clinical lecture series encompassing all related aspects of physics, statistics, radiobiology, radiopharmacy, and computer technology.  The program provides didactic exposure to all in vivo and in vitro diagnostic and therapeutic techniques that a nuclear medicine physician would be expected to perform and interpret.  The faculty consists of lecturers from both St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers and from other institutions throughout the greater New York area.  The Residents have access to advanced educational aids and facilities.  Resident physicians participate in daily interaction with the Department of Cardiology for both exercise and pharmacological stressing, interviewing patients for various nuclear medicine procedures, daily scan interpretation sessions, weekly thyroid conferences, lectures and journal clubs.

In conjunction with the didactic lectures and clinical exposure, all participants rotate through the various activities of the Nuclear Medicine Service.  Although each individual is expected to spend a required minimum time in every section, it is recognized that certain persons, due to their needs or interest, will require more time in certain areas.  Therefore, the training program will remain somewhat flexible to suit the needs of individual resident physicians.

Each resident will have to spend at least two months in technical rotation on the various imaging systems.

Each resident spends one month per year rotating in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology for specific training in Body X-ray CT imaging.  This training is important for preparation of PET/CT studies.  The residents also rotate for four months per year on PET/CT imaging applications at the St. Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The program currently has an agreement with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center whereby candidates spend one month of training each year at MSKCC's Nuclear Medicine Service.  This rotation provides residents with more exposure to dedicated PET systems, monoclonal antibody imaging, pediatric population and radioimmunotherapy.

Resident physicians are required to participate in departmental research.  The current areas of interest include PET/CT applications in oncology, nuclear cardiology, urology and endocrinology.

The current imaging equipment in the department includes four gamma cameras: three dual head ADAC systems (2 Forte and 1 Cardio) and a single head gamma camera “Argus”.  The department has a local network with five review stations in addition to a review station with each gamma camera. 

The department also has learning and teaching facilities for education and research needs.

Chairman & Program Director:
Hussein M. Abdel-Dayem, M.D.