Current Activities

Like many aspects of modern life, instruction methods in radiology are steadily converting to the digital world. In the UCSF/Henry Goldberg Center for Advanced Imaging Education, that includes the web-based online Radiology 100 - Introduction to Clinical Imaging syllabus, which serves as the basic resource for student learning. Accessible through the UCSF radiology website, it is a general resource and illustrated reference for a large number of common clinical problems that benefit from imaging. It is not a textbook, but rather, a concise web-based resource that highlights the indications for imaging and the basic radiographic features of common clinical problems in a short, readable form with 300 appropriate images.

The syllabus is just one example of how the Center, under the direction of Richard Breiman, MD, Marcia McCowin, MD, and program representative, Phil Reser, coordinates elective courses with the School of Medicine’s integrated curriculum to teach radiology to UCSF and visiting medical students. Another is the online posting of research projects available to medical students and updates to this Center’s informational website.

The use of the UCSF web-based PACS system to integrate active case material into instruction, paired with the student radiology night call program, in which students take call with UCSF radiology residents and share experiences with their colleagues, also reflects the use of technology in teaching and is a highlight of the Center program. Through this experience, students can appreciate how vital radiology input is for patient care and how complex imaging interpretation can be.

High-tech and Hands-on

The Center offers an array of elective courses to students, many of them demonstrations that deliver real-life experience. Monthly, Dr. Richard Breiman presents a virtual colonography and 3-D workshop demonstration. Students at the Veterans Medical Center (VAMC) can observe CT colonography in Dr. Judy Yee’s lab and several students do research projects with her. Dr. Breiman hosts a GI fluoroscopy course at Moffitt/Long Hospital, and members of the ultrasound staff bring their equipment to the Center for a sonography workshop. Other demonstrations feature students as volunteer patients for various procedures.

A new program teaching students how to prepare PowerPoint presentations was organized by Phil Reser with the assistance of Keri Reavie and Clair Kuykendall of the Library Education Services. The class helps prepare the students to make their own PowerPoint presentations at the end of each diagnostic radiology elective.

Skilled, Dedicated Instructors

More than technology however, it is people that make the Center a success. Within the Radiology Department, full-time faculty members from the VAMC, San Francisco General Hospital and Moffitt/Long Hospital give generously of their time to teach. Radiology fellows in all sections contribute to our case review sessions.

The Center also is supported by a talented and dedicated group of radiologists who practice outside the UCSF system. These physicians, some retired or semi-retired, others still in active practice, donate their time and energy to teach. They include Doctors Stanley Reich, Dulcy Wolverton, Charles Rennell, Fredrick Margolin, Douglas Sheft, Jonathan Posin, John Bennett, and Richard Gross.

Now that fourth year medical students are taking night call, radiology residents have also become teachers. This teaching commitment by our faculty and residents is greater than it has ever been and is a continuing model for the university.