Fellowship Program
(MR and Cardiac Imaging)
Welcome from the Program Director.
Dr. Sanjaya Vishwamitra
I would like to welcome prospective candidates to the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Department of Radiology, Advanced “MRI and Cardiac Imaging” fellowship training program. Our program is one of the few in the nation to offer advanced Imaging encompassing Neuroradiology, Cardiac, Musculoskeletal and Body imaging. The thrust of the fellowship is to combine an excellence in education with direct clinical experience and correlation. This is achieved by review and reporting of a wealth of case material with frequent and structured interactions with clinical colleagues. This process is supported by a PACS system that has stored all cases for more than 10 years and fully integrated paperless electronic health record allowing for easy retrieval of cases and clinical information.
Infrastructure:
SSSIHMS,Whitefield has a state-of-the-art Siemens 1.5 tesla 48-channel Aera scanner and a GE Discovery HD750 (dual energy) 128-slice CT Scanner. SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram has a Siemens 1.5 tesla 32-channel Avanto scanner and a GE Discovery HD750 (dual energy) 128-slice CT Scanner. Both sites have all standard imaging options required for Clinical Imaging including advanced cardiac and neuro and MSK related software and hardware for CT and MRI.
A fully integrated DXC RIS – FUJIFILM PACS with Dragon Voice Recognition allows fellows to review all cases on High-end 3-monitor configuration workstations. All scans are available online for comparison with priors. The Siemens Syngo VIA and GE AWS portals provide high-end Image post-processing capabilities. A Siemens Artis Zee Biplane cathlab with DR/FPD technology is available for diagnostic and interventional Neuroangiography-related procedures
Apart from access to a host of international journals, the department has access to online resources like StatDX. (http://www.statdx.com)
Caseload and Workflow:
The strength of our program stems from our breadth of case material and exposure to a wide spectrum of pathologies. We are a tertiary care center in cardiac and Neuro Sciences and secondary care centre in other specialties.
Neuroradiology cases encompass both acute and chronic abnormalities in the CNS. We perform about 100+ Neuro MRIs and 100+ CTs per week. Fellows will be trained in all modalities including advanced imaging such as DTI. Fellows will also have the opportunity to perform US and CT guided diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Review and teaching by faculty who are fellowship trained in MRI and neuro imaging having greater than 7 years of experience.
Cardiac radiology: Caseload of about 20 Cardiac MRIs and 30 Cardiac CTs per week, the cardiac Imaging program has one of the largest volumes in the country with a wide spectrum of pathologies. Fellows will also learn when and how to use and interpret dual energy systems and innovative MR and CT perfusion imaging. Fellows will have an opportunity to learn how to perform and interpret cardiac imaging and correlate these with cardiac catheterization and echo imaging. They will be taught by experts with radiology and cardiology with greater than 10 years of experience encouraging fellows to learn the best of imaging with ‘clinical correlation’. Cases include adult and pediatric cardiac imaging.
Musculoskeletal: Adult and pediatric MSK patients with a variety of degenerative and post traumatic and congenital orthopedic abnormalities. Around 50 MSK MRIs are done in both hospitals per week and include spine, joints and non joint diseases. The interesting cases are discussed bimonthly in MSK meets. It is mandatory for fellows to spend some time with the orthopedic surgeon and observe surgery for cases that they have been involved in reporting. Taught by experts with greater than 15 years of experience. The fellows are expected to perform correlative ultrasound on all extremity and joint MSK cases enabling them to become proficient in MSK ultrasound.
Body MRI: Mainly prostate and GU and GYN cases. The fellows are actively involved in the protocolling and interpretation of cases.
Advanced imaging techniques include MR spectroscopy, DTI, Perfusion Imaging and GSI (dual energy CT) imaging, emergent magnet related technology under basic scientists.
Soft skills: The fellows will hone their communication skills and presentations by preparing and presenting at a number of national and international conferences. They will be given the opportunity to be a speaker at the local SSSIHMS hosted CME conferences (2 per year).
Review sessions: Daily. Fellows actively participate in our daily reviews with faculty having subspeciality expertise supplemented by neuro, orthopedic and cardiology weekly / bi weekly meetings. In addition to case reviews, fellows make their own academic schedule to include journal article reviews and presentations on a variety of topics three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Research: This is limited only by your time and interest. The electronic availability of images and concomitant health records for more than 10 years has made it possible for staff and fellows to actively pursue research, presentations and publications. These include papers at national (IRIA, IACI) and international conferences RSNA / KCR / ECR / ARRS. In the past, our fellows have participated in these conferences and presented papers.
Responsibilities: Fellows will be involved in teaching the DNB residents and students of B.Sc(Medical Imaging Technology) students. Fellows will be expected to learn how to scan on their own and protocol cases. In essence, they assume responsibility for the MRI at one site to foster independent thought. They will have to spend time reporting ultrasound and some body CT cases. They will be on house call for general radiology, and will need to come in to the hospital on occasions.
Duration and Postings:
Two positions are available per year. The duration of fellowship is 12-18 months. The fellows are rotated through both the hospitals (SSSIHMS Whitefield (Karnataka) and SSSIHMS, Prasanthi Gram(Andhra Pradesh) for 3 months at a time. The rotation at SSSIHMS-PG exposes them to independently perform Cardiac, Body and MSK Imaging since it has tertiary care specialties in Cardiac, Uro and Ortho specialties. Those who complete 18 months are encouraged to avail an external posting in MSK imaging in UK.
NOTE: This is an in-house fellowship program and is not recognized by MCI or any University.
Stipend:
In keeping with the philosophy of the founder, there is no fee for this educational program. Candidates will be paid a stipend equivalent to that of a Sr. Resident.
We look forward to meeting you and discussing our program with you further.
Dr. Sanjaya Viswamitra, M.D,
Sr. Consultant and HOD, Dept. of Radiology