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Educational Experience - Diagnostic Radiology Residency

The educational program is well organized and provides a framework for study throughout the resident's training period.

The aim of our radiology program is to educate residents in a high-quality department so they will become competent graduates capable of seamlessly entering a radiology practice or fellowship. We create a learning environment that gives residents increasing levels of responsibility leading towards independence while still providing appropriate supervision to ensure the highest quality of care for patients in the New Orleans area, the Gulf South, and throughout the country. Our patient population continues to diversify as Ochsner expands. We aim to maintain a professional working environment that is also very collegial, the type of environment that residents will want to join or emulate in their careers. We train residents to become successful consultants to referring clinicians to facilitate efficient healthcare delivery through timely communication and effective problem solving so they will become valuable members of healthcare systems in the future.

  • Didactic Resident Lectures/Case Conferences are held Monday – Friday from 12:15 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
  • Interventional Radiology Lecture Series & Journal Club is held bi-weekly on Monday from 7:15 am – 8:00 am.
  • Liver Transplant Conference is held on Tuesday from 7:15 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.
  • Neurosciences Conference is held on Wednesday from 7:15 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.
  • Neurovascular Case Conference is held on the first Thursday of the month from 7:15 am – 8:00 am.
  • TeleRad Physics lectures are held every Friday from 7:00 am – 8:00 am.
  • In addition, there are multidisciplinary conferences in the areas of Breast, GI, Rheumatology, Colorectal Surgery, Pediatrics, Pulmonary, Endocrinology, Neurosurgery, Neurology, ENT, and others. Residents take part and often present imaging at these conferences.
  • Graduate Medical Education offers a lecture series with a focus on topics applicable to residents from all departments once a month at noon.
  • The MSK Interest Group meets monthly at 7 – 8 am.

In addition to the core lectures, the Radiology Department has in-person visiting lectureships from leaders in academics throughout the country at least quarterly. Virtual visiting professor lectures are also common throughout the year. There is also a more formal Seymour Ochsner Lectureship annually at a New Orleans Hotel where former residents are invited to return and reunite with current staff and residents.

All residents are mentored by the Program Director or Associate Program Director for the R-1 year. Beginning the second year, residents are able to choose a new mentor from the attending staff. This mentor relationship gives the resident a close advisor for guidance and feedback while moving through the program and seeking future training or employment. The resident and mentor meet formally 2 times per year, and a summary is submitted to the program director for review.

All residents are required to take the annual Diagnostic Radiology In-Training Exam as an objective method to assess each trainee's fund of knowledge. The program’s collective performance is evaluated to determine deficient areas that become topics for the next year’s curriculum. The Clinical Competency Committee meets two times a year to review each resident’s progress, and residents are provided feedback by the Program Director. Overall strengths and weaknesses are addressed and remedial action, if needed, is recommended. All faculty participate in the evaluation of each resident's performance. We use 360-degree evaluations in which residents are also evaluated by peers, nurses, patients and self-evaluation. Residents also submit anonymous evaluations for each faculty member and of the program in order to provide meaningful feedback that serves to maximize the educational efforts by the staff. All of the resident’s evaluations and scores are reviewed during the mentor evaluation.