Molecular Imaging and Theranostics Residency Training Program
Program Summary
The Molecular Imaging and Theranostics Program at Schulich Medicine has one of the largest number of nuclear medicine specialists on faculty in relation to the number of trainees. It has a long history of success in training Canadian and International residents and fellows and maintains a very high success rate at the Royal College Examinations.
The physical resources of the program are excellent, with state-of-the-art equipment of varying manufacturers being present. Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University has Canada's first PET-MR scanner, located only steps away from the PET-CT scanner in the Molecular Imaging and Theranostics department at St. Joseph's Hospital. Access to this cutting-edge technology gives residents unique opportunities for research and collaboration between Nuclear Medicine and Radiology. Having access to this technology also allows residents the chance to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of hardware, thus providing them with the ability to make rational decisions in the future regarding equipment choices in their own nuclear medicine departments.
The teaching staff of the department includes Molecular Imaging and Theranostics physicians with a diverse mixture of backgrounds in internal medicine, radiology and nuclear medicine, a radiopharmacist, a chemist and a large number of physicists. The staff are committed to teaching and the residents receive excellent training in the basic sciences, including bi-annual in-house courses in physics and radiopharmacology. The large number and variety of procedures performed in each hospital allow the residents broad exposure to nuclear medicine imaging.
Research Component
The residency program includes comprehensive training in nuclear medicine physics, comprised of a course and rounds. The physics course is full-year (1.0 academic credits), and includes lectures on radiation interaction, imaging principles and instrumentation, dosimetry, and safety/licencing. Physics rounds focus on image quality, artifacts, and case-studies taken from our clinics. The course and rounds are offered every second year, and residents have the opportunity to take both several times. Nuclear Medicine residents are also invited to take Radiology Physics -- an intensive one-week course, surveying MRI, ultrasound, and x-ray physics, including safety aspects of each.
Our residents have access to a rich collection of research opportunities, supervised by faculty both within our department and outside our department. Recent examples of projects supervised by our department faculty include: improving quantitative accuracy of PET/MRI, and characterizing dosimetry for Lu-177 radionuclide therapy. Residents can also partner with faculty outside of the nuclear medicine department. Those opportunities includes working in other imaging modalities such as X-ray CT or Ultrasound, or external radiation therapy.
