Take a look at some of the testimonials from residents of our Diagnostic Residency Program at INTEGRIS Health.
I think the biggest strength of the program is early experience reading on our own WITHOUT an in-house attending. Secondarily, the availability of moonlighting for that same reason. Every job interview I had, they asked me about if I had experience reading on my own because people coming out of high profile academic institutions are often slow when starting private practice because they haven't read on their own. Everyone was glad to hear I had extensive experience functioning on my own.
Another strength of the program is that we read a lot of spine. I had practices specifically ask me if I felt comfortable with spine because so many people don't want to read it. Who knew?
Advice for current residents: the INTEGRIS Health residency is very comfortable and I didn't realize how good we had it until I got to fellowship and saw how hard the residents here are required to work. The INTEGRIS Health program is self-driven, there's no hand-holding and you have to teach yourself. Read volume and read the things you aren't good at, it's the only way to learn. Also, learn how to take cases and explain what you're seeing. The academic approach to cases is very different than how we took them in residency, not necessarily better but definitely more detailed.
Going into my IR fellowship, I was very well prepared. My fellowship director even told me that I had the best technical skill of any fellow he had ever had! Of course, I owe all that to the training I received at INTEGRIS Health. I would strongly encourage any residents pursuing IR to get involved with SIR-RFS early and get as much IR experience as possible. That really helped me, and with IR only becoming more competitive, those guys must do all they can to improve their chances of landing a fellowship spot. Also, make sure those guys really spend adequate time doing some NeuroIR because stroke intervention is a very valuable skill set to start developing. I was very proud that Andy will be the next fellow at GW. I know he will do a great job.
As for my new job, I'm having to rely back on my residency training since I'm required to do both diagnostic and interventional radiology. That's been harder, simply because I've NOT been doing any diagnostic for well over a year. Nevertheless, it's coming back to me. The exposure I received during residency to the more advanced body and MSK has been great in order to help me contribute in those areas.
