Faculty Development

The Radiology Learning Center is the center for faculty development in teaching. Faculty who teach radiology courses are evaluated by the students. Student evaluations are reviewed by both faculty and the Learning Center Director. When students indicate areas needing improvement, the director will consult with the faculty to develop new approaches, a useful method for developing the teaching skills of new junior faculty and fellows. New lectures on the physics of imaging and imaging in women's health also have been developed through the direction of the Radiology Learning Center.

The Rewards of Teaching

This year, several newer members of the radiology faculty taught in the RLC. Here are some of their thoughts about the rewards of teaching.

Greg Simpson, PhD, Dynamic Neuroimaging Laboratory
“In my lectures I introduce the latest cutting-edge methods for functional brain imaging. I provide examples of the power of these applications to study the brain mechanisms underlying higher order cognitive processes such as attention and memory. I greatly enjoy the students’ enthusiasm and their interest in these powerful tools for exploring the mind in health and disease. It is inspiring to interact with them. They help remind me of the value in clinical applications. I hope that the lecture opens their eyes to what this field offers now and in the future.”

Ben Franc, MD, Nuclear Medicine
“One of my goals is to demonstrate the way nuclear medicine and the anatomical imaging modalities of radiology complement each other. At one point, I juxtapose Monet’s ‘Sunrise’ (representing the ‘fuzzy’ nuclear medicine image) with a photograph of a sailboat at sunrise (representing anatomical imaging) to demonstrate that important and unique information can come from images that may not necessarily be sharp and crisp. Teaching gives me the opportunity to see students, who may start with an unclear understanding of nuclear medicine, recognize it as a tool that can be used every day in clinical medicine.”

Bonnie Joe, MD, Abdominal Imaging
“My teaching style is to present the cases from a clinical standpoint and encourage the students to review the imaging findings with a clinical question in mind. My goal is to leave the students with enough understanding of abdominal radiology that they will be able to order the appropriate imaging study and understand both its capabilities and limitations. The sessions are a lot of fun. If everyone’s still smiling at the end—and no one’s sleeping—I feel that I’ve done my job.”

The Radiology Learning Center is also a resource for house staff and faculty from other departments in the medical center. For example, the large number of teaching cases are available to house staff at UCSF for use in teaching sessions and clinical conferences. In addition, the second-year course syllabus and CD-ROM for "Introduction to Clinical Imaging" are used by the School of Nursing as part of their nurse practitioner curriculum. The Radiology Learning Center is also working with the San Francisco Exploratorium to create displays for their exhibit on imaging the human body.

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Orit A. Glenn, M.D., and titled "Personal Reflections of a Neuroradiology Fellow": "One of my new responsibilities that I enjoy most as a fellow is teaching the medical students. On Wednesday afternoons, one of the neuroradiology fellows is assigned to show cases to medical students. I am very happy when it is my turn. I still remember my earliest exposure to radiology as a medical student; I realize that although my interactions with the students are limited in time, what I say and do can strongly influence their perception of radiology. I try to create a noncompetitive environment where group participation and simple fun are encouraged, relying on the skills I developed during my years of tutoring. I hope that my enthusiasm may in part help to attract a promising student to a career in radiology. Perhaps years from now someone will tell me that I helped kindle their interest in radiology." See entire article.