Abdominal Imaging Fellowship

Sites: Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) & UBC Hospital (UBCH)

Overview

The University of British Columbia (UBC) Abdominal Imaging Fellowship Program has five fully-funded positions available each academic year (starting July 1st to June 30th). This fellowship is predominantly located at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), which houses 1000+ beds and is the largest teaching hospital affiliated with UBC. This comprehensive abdominal fellowship offers substantial clinical exposure to multiple imaging modalities and imaged guided procedures and provides encouragement and support for research with protected time for scholarly activities. The Department of Radiology at VGH has 14 ultrasound rooms, 5 Dual Energy CT scanners, and 2 1.5T MRIs, and a recently installed 3T MRI. The MRI magnets are equipped with the most up to date software including deep learning reconstruction (Deep Resolve) and capabilities for hepatic fat and iron quantification and MR Elastography.

The Abdominal Fellows will have rotation through imaging modalities such as ultrasound, fluoroscopy, CT, and MRI.  Procedures include US and CT-guided biopsies and drainages and MRI-US fusion prostate biopsies.  The MRI-US prostate fusion biopsy program consists of a dedicated 3D prostate fusion system with many outside referrals from the province for fusion biopsy.  Exposure to CT Colonography is based at the UBC Hospital site. There is a large volume and wide variety of clinical cases, as VGH is a regional tertiary and quaternary center for hepatic and renal transplantation, pancreaticobiliary surgery, complex urological surgery, and a level 1 trauma center. US volume usually consists of  over 90 cases a day with 7-10 US-guided procedures each day that include: biopsies of the liver, kidneys, prostate, other abdominal masses, thyroid nodules/neck masses/nodes;  drainages of pleural effusions, ascites, abdominal collections, including transvaginal approaches. CT and MRI volumes are also high, with 25-30 Abdominal and Pelvic CT cases per day and over 120 Abdominal and Pelvic MRI cases a week.

The Abdominal Fellows receive dedicated formal teaching twice a week from the abdominal radiologists, usually in a didactic lecture or case-based format (interesting weekly cases). The fellows attend and actively participate in multiple multi-disciplinary meetings throughout the week.  These include Liver Tumour, Pancreas, GI, Gynecology, Prostate and Radiology-pathology rounds. The Abdominal Fellows also have exposure to Rectal Ca Rounds and Renal Carcinoma Rounds. A cohesive team of 6 abdominal radiologists works closely with the fellows to provide extensive exposure and teaching in abdominal imaging and procedures. Upon completion, fellows will be well-trained in high-level abdominal diagnostic imaging and gain proficiency in image-guided procedural skills, which will prepare them for academic or community practice.

Application Information

Please see the Step-by-Step Application Guide to fill out the application.
Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
All documents should be in PDF format only.

Please ensure your Referees email the letters of reference directly to ubcrad.fellowship@ubc.ca before the application deadline.