Neuroradiology Curriculum

EUH Neuroradiology. The rotation consists primarily of CT and MRI examinations performed on complex inpatients. Fellows also gain experience with fluoroscopic-guided lumbar punctures, myelograms and CT-guided epidural blood patches.

Brain Health Center. This rotation is embedded in the Neurology Clinic at the Brain Health Center outpatient clinic.  Outpatient MRI examinations, including a high volume of examinations for primary and metastatic brain tumors, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, cerebrovascular disease, neurodegenerative conditions, pituitary disorders, vascular malformations/aneurysms, and degenerative, inflammatory, and neoplastic diseases of the spine. State-of-the-art advanced MR imaging techniques are incorporated routinely into the daily workflow including DSC MR perfusion, DTI, MR spectroscopy, fMRI, SWI, time-resolved MRA, and MR myelography/cisternography.

Head and Neck Imaging.  This innovative service is embedded within the ENT clinic at Emory University Hospital Midtown and supports otolaryngology, ophthalmology, oral surgery, radiation oncology, and medical oncology services for a high volume and variety of CT, MRI, and PET-CT examinations. The head and neck radiology service draws from imaging studies performed at Emory University Hospital, the Winship Cancer Institute (WCI), and Emory University Hospital Midtown, as well as Emory affiliated outpatient imaging centers.   Fellows gain valuable consultation experience, participating in a daily multidisciplinary clinic, where head and neck radiology, head and neck surgery, radiation and medical oncology meet daily in a “tumor board” style format to discuss 4-5 new H&N cancer patients visiting clinic that day.  Fellows gain invaluable experience with clinical context and patient management. They also become comfortable independently performing biopsies in the head and neck with CT and ultrasound guidance.

Children's at Egleston Pediatric Neuroradiology. This rotation is based at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston and Scottish Rite Hospital. There are a wide variety of CT and MRI examinations performed for pediatric brain, spine, and head and neck imaging. Advanced MRI imaging techniques are also incorporated into the daily workflow.

Grady Neuroradiology. The Grady Hospital rotation incorporates an extremely high number of cases of head and spine trauma, acute stroke imaging including CTA/CTP, neuroimaging of HIV, as well as CT and MRI of a variety of conditions including cerebrovascular disease, degenerative disease of the spine, and head and neck cancer. Fellows gain experience in fluoroscopic-guided lumbar puncture, CT myelography, and CT-guided biopsies.

EUH Neuroangiography. The rotation consists of participation in diagnostic neuroangiography. The service has an extremely high volume of cases for subarachnoid hemorrhage and performs endovascular treatment of cerebral aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, and acute stroke.

Float rotation: This fellow covers for the fellow who takes the evening call (5-10pm in house and then beeper call) to allow a post call academic day. This results in approximately one academic day every 2 weeks. 

The fellows gain experience and skills necessary to become an expert in the multiple subspecialties of neuroradiology by presenting clinical cases for our numerous interdisciplinary conferences. 

The fellows prepare cases with faculty guidance at the following conferences:

1. Neuroradiology- Neurosurgery conference (monthly)
2. Head and Neck Multidisciplinary conference and tumor board (daily)
3. Adult brain tumor board (weekly)
4. Pediatric neuro-oncology (weekly)
5. Thyroid tumor board (monthly)
6. Neuro-ophthalmology conference (monthly)

The fellows are encouraged to attend the following conferences while on rotations:

1. Neuro-immunology Conference (biweekly)
2. Peds ENT (Monthly)
3. Peds sickle cell (monthly)
4. Epilepsy Conference (weekly)
5. Vascular Anomalies (weekly)
6. Complex Spine Case Orthopedic Conference (monthly)
7. Interdisciplinary Stroke Conference
8. Grady neuro-oncology tumor board 
9. Pediatric Neurology/Neuroradiology Conference
10. Pediatric Neuro-ophthalmology Conference (monthly)
11. Grady Marcus Stroke Neurovascular conference (weekly)

There are a number of dedicated and recurring educational conferences and opportunities that are provided to the neuroradiology fellows:

• Fellows’ Didactic Conference: This is a didactic fellow-oriented conference series aimed at covering the wide breadth of neuroradiology and head and neck topics. It is presented by a neuroradiology faculty member every Thursday at 7 a.m. Content-related lectures are grouped throughout the year to facilitate learning in the sub- specialties of Head and neck, pediatric neuroradiology, spine and functional neuroimaging.  Collaborating colleagues often augment these lectures with clinical presentations, providing clinical context to commonly encountered neuroimaging examinations.
  
  
• Fellows’ Case Conference: This is a case based conference aimed at giving the fellows practical experience taking a variety of cases real time with faculty feedback. It is attended by all of the available neuroradiology division, fellows, residents and other trainees from 8-9am every Thursday. It is a great time for fellows to gain feedback from faculty and also learn different faculty approaches to cases, next steps in management and communication of findings. 
  
  
• Fellow’s Morbidity and Mortality Conference: Eight M&M neuroradiology conferences per year allow a robust discussion of missed cases in order to highlight blind spots, cultivate a culture of learning from mistakes and to teach fellows the broad categories of perceptual and interpretive errors. 
  
  
• Neuroradiology – Neurosurgery conference: Monthly teaching conference aimed at showing the most interesting neurosurgical cases with joint presentations from Neuroradiology fellows and neurosurgery residents. This conference teaches our fellows to work closely with their neurosurgery colleagues to prepare cases, learn the critical imaging answers/ findings that will most affect management and hear faculty perspective on imaging interpretation and best practices for surgical approach/ management. 
  
  
• Fellowship Journal Club: Four evening journal clubs to discuss and critically critique current literature across a variety of topics chosen by the fellows and an assigned mentor. This experience is designed to help fellows sharpen their critical thinking and analytical approach to the literature and practical application. 

In addition to clinical research, complete animal laboratory facilities are available. Trainees are encouraged to participate in projects of their own or those of the faculty. Research facilities include 3.0-T research MRI scanners, animal research MRI, and micro PET-CT scanners. Emory National Primate Research Center is one of only 8 national primate research labs in US. Ultra-high field MR. Our Center for Systems Imaging has several research scanners and a microPET. The Georgia Tech/Emory BME Consortium is ranked second in the nation!

Fellows have approximately two academic days a month. We want to support fellows across a broad range of interests and experience in research. Therefore, we present fellows with a variety of ways to choose a project ranging from brainstorming with faculty during read-outs to an organized software platform which lists all active research projects in our division. 100% of our fellows attend and present at national meetings, including but not limited to RSNA, ASNR, AUR, ASHNR, ASFNR, ASSR, ASPNR, GRS and SENRS. We often have a large group of Emory faculty, residents, fellows and alumni to gather at these events and it is a great chance to connect and re-connect!