Teaching & Medical Education

BWH Radiology Residents conference

Resident Learning

Daily Resident Conference

Resident conferences are held twice a day Monday-Friday at 7:45-8:15am and 12:15-1:15pm. Morning conferences are generally case-based and include R3 board reviews. Afternoon conferences are a mix of interactive didactic conferences, with lectures often incorporating case conferences, multiple choice questions and other interactive activities.

In addition to world-class clinical radiology teaching from our attending experts, our conference curriculum also includes a robust physics curriculum and non-interpretive skills curriculum, including teaching on research, artificial intelligence/machine learning, business/finance, education/teaching, quality improvement, wellness and more. Unique highlights include our participation as a piloting institution for the APDR Healthcare Disparities Curriculum and our own piloted “Mini-MBA for radiology residents”, a one-of-a-kind curriculum developed by a team of current residents and supported by leaders in our department.

Section-specific small group teaching conferences are also held daily on most clinical services. Resident education is a priority in our department. As such, conference time is protected educational time for all residents and attendance is expected, except when residents are on night shifts or participating in direct patient care/procedural rotations that may be compromised by the resident’s absence.

Radiology Grand Rounds

Radiology Grand Rounds are held every Tuesday from 12-2pm and bring invited experts in the field of radiology to speak to the department. This conference is jointly held with the entire radiology staff at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Mass General Hospital and is considered part of the resident conference schedule. The second hour of conference from 1-2pm is usually a case conference, where the Grand Rounds speaker shows unknown cases to the residents.

Resident Teaching

An important goal of our residency training program is the development of skilled physician educators. An effective radiologist is one who can communicate clearly to other clinicians and who can impart knowledge succinctly to others as an expert consultant.

There are many opportunities for residents to become skilled clinician educators, some of which are built into the resident curriculum and others which are optional for residents who have a particular passion for medical education.

As described above, Medical Education sessions are incorporated into our non-interpretive skills resident conference curriculum. There are also several peer-teaching and near-peer teaching sessions that the residents participate in throughout the year within the radiology department and in collaboration with other specialties:

  • Autopsy conference (residents present relevant radiology images of a recently deceased patient in partnership with the autopsy pathology resident)
  • “Med” conference (residents provide drop-in radiology consultations on current inpatients for 2 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays for internal medicine teams)
  • Difficult case conference (residents present challenging or missed cases to other radiology residents in a safe environment for learning with faculty support and guidance)
  • Rad/path conference (residents present interesting radiology/pathologic correlation cases in partnership with a pathology resident)
  • Senior teaching conference (All graduating residents present on a topic of their choosing to their radiology peers)
  • Harvard Medical School (HMS) Radiology clerkship (residents teach several of the clerkship teaching sessions each month)

In addition to the above HMS clerkship teaching, residents can volunteer to serve as mentors for the medical students on clerkship, helping them select cases and prepare for their assigned case presentations. Finally, radiology has been embedded into the HMS MS1 anatomy curriculum and radiology residents can volunteer to teach help these sessions.

For those with a deeper interest and passion for medical education, we have a resident-run “Radiology Education Committee” (REC), formed in 2021. This group, which is open to all residents, is dedicated to continuing to improve our program’s educational strategies and developing innovation in radiology education.

Our “Clinician Educator track” is available as a 4th year elective to those seeking additional training in medical education. This elective is geared towards residents with a passion for medical education that seek formal training and experience in the field. The elective is built upon 7 major themes: 1) learning theory, 2) hands-on teaching, 3) curriculum design, 4) evaluation & feedback, 5) mentorship, 6) educational leadership and 7) research. 

We are also lucky to have access to and frequently collaborate with the Brigham Education Institute (BEI). The BEI aims to facilitate the design and implementation of educational offerings, undertake relevant research and provide access to resources and professional development opportunities for educators across Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Finally, we honor our superb and dedicated resident, fellow and faculty educators annually with teaching awards, given out at the end-of-the-year graduation celebration.