Diagnostic radiology residency

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The Corewell Health – Grand Rapids/Michigan State University Diagnostic Radiology Residency offers a robust training experience with a case volume to trainee ratio among the top in the nation. This includes cases in rare diseases and post-transplant studies.

We are fully accredited by the ACGME and have received ESIR (Early Specialization in Interventional Radiology) designation. The program is four years long, plus an integrated Transitional Year. We accept three residents each year.

From the Program Director

Welcome to the Corewell Health – Grand Rapids/Michigan State University Diagnostic Radiology Residency program. I’m happy you decided to visit our website and learn more about our program.

This residency program is unique in many ways.

First, we are affiliated with Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, a large medical school. However, our program is not part of a hierarchical academic department. It is through this relationship that we can offer the very best of a busy community-based clinical program and the academic opportunities of a university. Our residents are the primary focus of our educational efforts and our faculty have full freedom to educate without many of the requirements of other institutions. The incredibly favorable faculty to resident and examination to resident ratios combined with the absence of fellows insure optimal practical experience and caseloads in diagnostic and interventional rotations. Our residents have board pass rates well above the national average and go on to obtain fellowships at prestigious institutions all over the United States.

Second, our radiology residents work with two different private practice radiology groups; Advanced Radiology Services and Mercy Health Saint Mary's board-certified radiologists (Kent Radiology). This exposes them to two of the most common radiology practice types in the United States today.

Advanced Radiology Services is made up of 157 board certified radiologists and they are the largest group of subspecialized radiologists in the state of Michigan, with more than 20 interventional radiologists, more than 17 musculoskeletal radiologists, more than 25 neuroradiologists, and more than nine pediatric radiologists with ongoing subspecialty recruitment. Radiologists from Advanced Radiology Services work at Spectrum Health West Michigan, which is made up of 14 hospitals and 150 ambulatory sites. Spectrum Health performs over 1.2 million radiology studies per year!

Residents also work with Mercy Health Saint Mary's board-certified radiologists (Kent Radiology) in a more typical private practice setting. Mercy Health Saint Mary’s is a non-profit 300-bed acute care teaching hospital. Mercy Health Saint Mary’s is the West Michigan Renal Transplant Center and provides residents with exposure to a variety of renal failure-related radiological studies. They also opened the region’s first diagnostic Breast Center in 1983, which is the site where residents complete most of their mammography rotations. The Lacks Cancer Center at Mercy Health Saint Mary’s is a comprehensive, dedicated cancer hospital.

Lastly, in addition to the stellar clinical training, our residents select a non-interpretive track at the end of their R1 year to supplement their clinical education. Those tracks include research, clinical educator, artificial intelligence/informatics, quality improvement, advocacy, leadership, and business/entrepreneurship. The non-interpretive track consists of one on one faculty mentorship and a capstone project to be presented in the R4 year.

We are dedicated to helping you become one of the best radiologists in the world and are looking forward to meeting you when you come visit us in beautiful Grand Rapids, MI!

Andrew Woodrow, MD
Program Director, Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program

Overview

The Corewell Health – Grand Rapids/Michigan State University Diagnostic Radiology Residency offers a robust training experience with a case volume being among the top in the nation, including cases in rare diseases and post-transplant studies.

Mission statement

Educate residents to excel as patient-centered, critically-thinking radiologists who work to improve the health of their community.

Program aims

  1. Increasing the consistency and quality of the didactic lectures and curriculum
  2. Increasing the residents' review of current literature through a focused program of journal review with the program director
  3. Increasing the number of cases each resident sees during their residency
  4. Improving communication and accountability between the residency program and the faculty who are employed by a large private practice group

Training Locations

Residents train at Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals and at Mercy Health Saint Mary’s. Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals, located in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, include Blodgett Hospital, Butterworth Hospital, Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center, Helen DeVos Children's Hospital and Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion.

Butterworth Hospital is a 679-bed non-profit acute care teaching hospital. It serves as a Level I Trauma Center that provides radiology residents with the majority of their emergency radiology exposure as well as the High-Risk OB Referral Center for West Michigan. It houses the West Michigan Regional Burn Center. In addition to cardiac transplantation, Spectrum Health has also been recently approved for lung transplants. On average, 350,000 studies are performed per year.

Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital houses the pediatric radiology department and is the only free-standing children’s hospital in West Michigan with a Level 1 pediatric trauma center. The Spectrum Health Cancer Center at Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion received the American College of Radiology’s Breast Imaging Center of Excellence Award and is where residents complete rotations in PET.

Corewell Health Blodgett Hospital (part of Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals) is a 410-bed non-profit acute care teaching hospital with an active medical staff of 240 physicians in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. It houses an Arthritis Institute, which focuses on reconstructive surgery. Residents complete most of their fluoroscopy here, where there is a substantial bariatric surgery population. The Blodgett Hospital Diagnostic Radiology department performs an excess of 35,000 diagnostic exams per year, including CT and MRI scanning, nuclear medicine with Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) camera, angiography, and ultrasound.

Mercy Health Saint Mary’s is a non-profit 300-bed acute care teaching hospital, has more than 200 attending physicians on the active staff. Mercy Health Saint Mary's board-certified radiologists provide resident training in interventional radiology/angiography, CT and MRI scanning, nuclear medicine, mammography, ultrasound and general radiology. Mercy Health Saint Mary’s is the West Michigan Renal Transplant Center and provides residents with exposure to a variety of renal failure-related radiological studies. They also opened the region’s first diagnostic Breast Center in 1983, which is the site where residents complete most of their mammography rotations. The Lacks Cancer Center at Mercy Health Saint Mary’s is a comprehensive, dedicated cancer hospital.

Radiology residents are exposed to state-of-the-art equipment, including:

Spectrum Health

  • MR: 22 units
    • 16 - 1.5T MRI
    • 6 - 3T MRI, including a 3T surgical suite in the OR
  • CT: 25 units
  • PET/CT: 1 unit
  • SPECT/CT: 3 units
  • Fluoroscopy: 14 rooms
  • Angiointerventional suites: 10
  • Gamma cameras: 12 units
  • Ultrasound: 40 units 
  • Digital radiography: 20 units 
  • Digital portable radiography: 20 units

Mercy Health Saint Mary’s

  • 1 - 1.5-T MRI unit
  • 1 - 1.5-T Mobile MRI unit that services one to two days a week
  • 1 - 3-T MRI unit
  • Multi-slice CT: 4 units (3 128-slice and 1 64-slice)
  • PET/CT: 1 unit
  • SPECT/CT gamma cameras: 2 units
  • Fluoroscopy: 3 rooms
  • Angiography suites, bi-plane included: 2
  • Regular gamma camera: 1 unit
  • Ultrasound: 5 units
  • Total radiography units (CR): 4 units
  • C-arms: 6 units and O-arm: 1 unit
  • Portable CR machines: 5 units
  • Digital Tomosynthesis mammography: 2 units

Education

Our diagnostic radiology residency program has a long-standing testimony to our commitment to academic excellence and achievement from our current residents and our graduates. We are fully accredited by the ACGME and have received ESIR (Early Specialization in Interventional Radiology) designation. Robust training experience with a case volume being among the top in the state, including cases in rare diseases and post-transplant studies.

Graduates have completed fellowships at some of the best institutions in the country, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Johns Hopkins, Mallinkrodt, Mayo Clinic, and Stanford University.

Conferences

Conferences are held throughout the academic year, with an average of eight hours of conferences per week. The core curriculum includes: physics, didactic subspecialty lectures and interactive case conferences. The core curriculum for each section covers all aspects of diagnostic and interventional radiology, repeated twice over the resident’s four years. Daily didactic lectures and/or interactive conferences are provided. Dedicated physics lectures are provided by department physicists and offers the necessary foundation to understand the underlying imaging science for each diagnostic modality and prepare residents for the physics, regulatory and quality questions they will encounter for their certifying exam and in practice. Our medical physics faculty also teaches a curriculum which incorporates NRC requirements so that all residents qualify for authorized user status (see the American Board of Radiology’s website for details regarding NRC authorized user status). There are many opportunities to attend lectures and visiting professor series. In addition to clinical radiology and physics lectures, dedicated lectures or course series are provided in: the radiology report, business concepts, quality and patient safety and ethics as they pertain to the practice of radiology. A resident-run book club is held weekly to provide introduction to the fundamentals of diagnostic radiology to freshman residents. Visiting professors are provided one to two times per month, on average, who are nationally and internationally recognized in their area of expertise. Their lectures are typically followed by three to four hours of case conference.

Additionally, residents are encouraged to attend and participate in a variety of divisional, departmental and interdepartmental conferences in conjunction with their clinical counterparts, including various specialty tumor boards. Senior residents have the potential to present at these conferences further preparing them for the rigors of fellowship. Journal Club is held monthly with faculty member facilitator to discuss interesting articles on a topic of the residents’ interest. Residents also have a resident run interdisciplinary conference where they teach other clinical residents the pathophysiology relating to their patients, normal/abnormal anatomy, and what are the appropriate imaging tests.

Meetings and courses

All diagnostic radiology residents attend the 4-week radiologic pathology course at the American Institute for Radiologic Pathology (AIRP) in Silver Spring, MD during their PGY-4 year in which registration and up to $3,000 in expenses are paid for by the program.

Additional funds are provided during the resident’s third year to specifically be used for a radiology review course for the ABR Core Exam.

Rotations

  • AIRP
  • Body CT/MR
  • Cardiac
  • Chest
  • Emergency radiology/night float
  • Elective (e.g. senior mini-fellowships)
  • GI/Fluoroscopy
  • MRI
  • Musculoskeletal
  • Neuroradiology
  • Interventional
  • Pediatrics
  • Mammography
  • Nuclear medicine
  • Ultrasound

A dedicated didactic-based curriculum to prepare PGY2 residents for night float runs for six months prior to the resident beginning night float.

Teaching opportunities

In keeping with the tradition of physician as teacher, residents have many opportunities to teach their colleagues, medical students and patients. The radiology residents teach Michigan State University and other visiting medical students the pertinent radiographic and CT findings (normal and abnormal) anatomy during their first year. In addition, the residents participate in resident-run interdisciplinary conferences in which they teach the clinical residents their patient’s pathological imaging findings.

Research

During residency at Spectrum Health, there are ample research opportunities. Our close affiliation with the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine allows us to take advantages of the many resources. Our high volume lends itself for abundant opportunities for case reports and/or case series studies. Alternately, those who are more academically orientated may join with one of our faculty, many of which have nationally published articles. Residents are provided with two weeks elective time per year during their third and fourth years. The scholarly activity support team provides resources to residents and faculty in all areas of research and scholarly activity.

Residents present their research at major national meetings including RSNA, ARRS, ASNR, and AUR. Residents are also encouraged to present their work at subspecialty meetings. Our program provides financial support for residents to attend any meeting at which the resident is the primary presenter of an oral presentation or educational exhibit.

The scholarly activity support team provides support to Spectrum Health residents and faculty in all areas of research and scholarly activity (e.g., quality, educational, surveys). To access more details, including templates (e.g., study protocol, poster), help request forms and other contact information, visit the Scholarly Activity Support website.

Application requirements

Our program accepts applications through the Electronic Residency Application Service. This service is provided to medical students during their senior year by their medical school. We begin accepting applications on September 15 each year and our deadline for completed applications is December 1. See our eligibility requirements.

Application requirements:

  • Three letters of recommendation, preferably at least one from a radiologist
  • Personal statement
  • Medical school transcript
  • Dean’s letter
  • USMLE Step 1 Score Required (even if you are an osteopathic medical student)
  • USMLE Step 2 CK Score Preferred

Our program received continued accreditation on January 23, 2020 from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Our next self-study date is scheduled for November 1, 2024. For more information on our program, contact the program coordinator.

All visiting medical student applications must be submitted through the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities program (formerly known as VSAS). For more information on visiting medical student opportunities, please visit our Visiting Learner page.

Salary and benefits

Spectrum Health provides a comprehensive and very competitive benefits package for our residents, staff and their families. In addition, our program provides educational monies to support your ongoing education. Download our salary and benefits document to learn more.

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Program Director

Associate Program Director

Core Faculty

Class of 2027

Talha Ghazi, MD
Talha Ghazi, MD

Michigan State University

Sonia Samant, MD
Sonia Samant, MD

George Washington University

J. Alex Sanford, DO
J. Alex Sanford, DO

Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine

Talha Ghazi, MD
Talha Ghazi, MD

Michigan State University

Sonia Samant, MD
Sonia Samant, MD

George Washington University

J. Alex Sanford, DO
J. Alex Sanford, DO

Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine

Class of 2026

Lindsey Kiiskila, MD
Lindsey Kiiskila, MD

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Richard Pearson, MD
Richard Pearson, MD

Louisiana State University

Jared Wagner, MD
Jared Wagner, MD

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Lindsey Kiiskila, MD
Lindsey Kiiskila, MD

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Richard Pearson, MD
Richard Pearson, MD

Louisiana State University

Jared Wagner, MD
Jared Wagner, MD

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Class of 2025

Ashutosh Agrawal, MD
Ashutosh Agrawal, MD

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L Foster School of Medicine

Antigone Mitchell, MD
Antigone Mitchell, MD

Tufts University School of Medicine

Alexander Munteanu, DO
Alexander Munteanu, DO

Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences College of Osteopathic Medicine

Ashutosh Agrawal, MD
Ashutosh Agrawal, MD

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L Foster School of Medicine

Antigone Mitchell, MD
Antigone Mitchell, MD

Tufts University School of Medicine

Alexander Munteanu, DO
Alexander Munteanu, DO

Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences College of Osteopathic Medicine

Class of 2024

Shakil Chowdhury, MD
Shakil Chowdhury, MD

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Ryan Musolf, DO
Ryan Musolf, DO

Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine

James Newton, MD
James Newton, MD

University of Louisville School of Medicine

Shakil Chowdhury, MD
Shakil Chowdhury, MD

Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Ryan Musolf, DO
Ryan Musolf, DO

Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine

James Newton, MD
James Newton, MD

University of Louisville School of Medicine

Many of our alumni have moved on to subspecialty fellowship training, see where they've gone!

Diagnostic radiology residency bios

2022 Pediatric Oncology Residents

Ready to Apply?

Review the “Application Requirements” tab on the program page to learn more about the application process.