Nuclear Medicine Residency
Thank you for your interest in the Nuclear Medicine Residency program.
Our program trains board certified diagnostic radiologists trained in the United States or abroad who seek specialty training and US medical school graduates who seek Nuclear Medicine as a career.
The Division of Nuclear Medicine in the Department of Radiology at the University of Washington was established in 1962 by Dr. Wil Nelp. The division has had a successful postdoctoral training program since its inception. Its many graduates are now holding faculty positions in major academic centers and large private practices.
The current one-, two- or three-year residency program is designed in compliance with, and is approved by, the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). This program provides a balanced and in-depth experience in all aspects of the basic sciences and clinical practice of nuclear medicine imaging and therapy. The program is approved for six (6) full time residents. Candidates must have completed at least one year of internship in the United States. Alternatively, they may be eligible for board certification in another specialty.
One year of Nuclear Medicine training is available to US-trained diagnostic radiologists who wish to pursue special competence in Nuclear Radiology from the American Board of Radiology (ABR) or receive American Board of Nuclear Medicine (ABNM) Certification. International Medical Graduates holding diagnostic radiology certification in their home country can also apply for one or more years of Nuclear Medicine training.
The Nuclear Medicine Division faculty bring extensive expertise in the clinical practice and basic science aspects of nuclear medicine. They are dedicated to teaching trainees to become strong nuclear medicine practitioners. Trainees learn how to integrate nuclear medicine diagnostic scans and therapies in the overall management of patients. Trainees are also provided many opportunities to become effective educators and independent scientific investigators.
The concept of integrative imaging is emphasized by our faculty. Trainees learn to identify imaging findings, characterize them, and to perform correlative imaging with other studies. This information is then integrated with signs and symptoms, type and timing of treatments, and trends in biomarkers in order to deliver an accurate, comprehensive and actionable clinical scan interpretation tailored to a patient’s condition. This approach is taught across the wide range of disease entities that nuclear medicine helps manage (cancer, neurological, pulmonary, cardiac, endocrine, bone, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and hematologic disorders). In addition, trainees learn how to select the most appropriate imaging study to answer the clinical management question specific to each patient. Our program also teaches how to identify unmet clinical needs central to the development of new imaging strategies and the basis for research projects.
A close collaboration between basic science faculty and clinical faculty of nuclear medicine is at the heart of the division’s success. A comprehensive lecture and conference schedule complements the one-on-one clinical education that our trainees receive.