[Intl_DxMedPhys] [EXTERNAL] Diagnostic Resident Physics Curriculum Ideas

[High, Maynard]

At Westchester Medical Center (with a 40 year record of 100% resident ABR pass rate with above average physics scores) our physics teaching program is much the same as Stevens current program, for much the same reason.

*         46 one-hour noon conference lectures for all residents based on covering Bushberg from front to back, repeated every year.

*         We have good luck with 1st years attendance over 90% because they are eager and do not have call conflicts. We hope to get all residents to attend at least 2x during the first 3 years.

*         Extensive hard-copy handouts are given for each lecture so residents need not take too many notes. These handouts are basically a condensation of Bushberg with the Bushberg illustrations reproduced in the notes ( I purchased permission to copy)

*         The lectures are on line for those who cannot attend and on Teams for those who may be in another building.

*         There is also one-on- one mentoring in Nuclear Medicine

*         Of course there is pushback to reduce the number of hours, but I have argued strongly against reduction and have won - so far

*         Our philosophy is for the lectures to ground the residents in the physics of all the modalities, not just teach to pass the boards.

*         We also give a 3rd year's board review prep for 2 hours per day for about 35 days just before the exam. (which is probably why they do so well on the physics questions in the board exam.

This method seems to work well with a proven track record.  Would I like to tailor different lectures to the different year residents? Yes I would, but with a physics staff of only 2, we could not handle the work of preparing and updating so many different lectures.

Maynard High
Westchester Medical Center / NYMedicalCollege
maynard.high at wmchealth.org<mailto:maynard.high at wmchealth.org>
914-493-1410



From: Intl_dxmedphys_wd_osu_list <intl_dxmedphys_wd_osu_list-bounces+maynard.high=wmchealth.org at lists.osu.edu> On Behalf Of Steven Shea via Intl_dxmedphys_wd_osu_list
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2025 2:52 PM
To: intl_dxmedphys_wd_osu_list at lists.osu.edu
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [Intl_DxMedPhys] Diagnostic Resident Physics Curriculum Ideas

Dear list, I am reaching out to ask for examples/suggestions for how you/your program is teaching diagnostic physics to Radiology residents. We are about to undergo a major change at our institution for physics teaching. Previously,  we have
Dear list,

I am reaching out to ask for examples/suggestions for how you/your program is teaching diagnostic physics to Radiology residents. We are about to undergo a major change at our institution for physics teaching. Previously,  we have had 1.5 hour physics lectures roughly once per week and we covered the entire AAPM curriculum<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.aapm.org/education/ERG/DIARAD/__;!!KGKeukY!z8uXyekquwm4BAonS3FkIjfzHGiWDON3FSsrNiy9Ymd8Db_fZL5FDilUrF-q6DcoE4WyAFGY7j_rThzp1-I1pd4WbhyBQGUS_7DinpmnewCHbP0t$> each year. The idea was to expose the residents multiple times to physics conferences (as concepts were abstract and not as emphasized in their clinical work) and also to ensure all residents saw the lectures at least twice before their third year board exams. (Residents would sometimes miss lectures due to call schedule or rotations away from campus.) The new proposal from our program director would significantly reduce the physics lectures (maybe once per month in the normal conference schedule) and we are looking into other options/alternatives. Part of the justification was that several other local programs were not devoting this amount of time to physics lectures. While we are still in discussions on what we will do, I am sure we will need to cut down our total amount of lectures per year. So, I was hoping some of you would share your current practices/curriculum for Diagnostic Radiology residents. I have some specific questions that would be helpful for our team:
- Do you run the curriculum over multiple years? If so, how do you deal with residents missing class periods due to call?
- Do you teach all topics to all residents? Or do you split to specific groups? Eg: x-ray & fluoro to first years, CT to second years, MRI & NucMed to third years ...
- Do you bunch or compress the lectures (i.e. a week-long boot camp or similar) or do you spread the lectures throughout the year?
- Are the physics lectures/curriculum separate from the traditional clinical lectures across body, MSK, neuro, etc...? Or do you weave within?
- Do you do traditional lectures or have you moved to different modes of interaction? (We have done hands-on labs but typically can only run these once or twice per year for a particular modality, often have to limit the number of students, and have to do some on the weekends.)

I would appreciate any other thoughts you might have. We are trying to avoid only doing board prep as we all think (a) physics is an important but often overlooked part of learning for the Radiology residents and (b) many residents only receive dedicated physics education during their residency.

Best, Steve

Steven Shea, PhD
Associate Professor, MR Scientist
Department of Radiology & Medical Imaging. Loyola Medicine


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