Mark Kelly
First-Year Radiology Resident

My name is Mark Kelly. I graduated from Wayne State Medical School in 2009. Simply put, I chose to do my radiology residency at Henry Ford Hospital for multiple reasons. The most important was that during your internship you have three months of radiology where you are expected to perform as if you were in your R1 year. This means that you dictate cases and review them with attendings, attend noon and afternoon lectures and any visiting professors that month. As overwhelming as the thought of dictating CT and plain film reports within 1 month of graduating medical school is, it is very rewarding. At Henry Ford you are never without guidance. My first month of internship, I was placed on Neuro CT where I sat with a radiology resident for 2-3 hours, and then was given my own workstation and told to start picking up cases. Throughout the first week, the staff and senior residents showed exceptional understanding that the art of dictating and staffing out cases was entirely new to me. I can say that dictating is something that you have to jump in feet first and just do, and with more and more practice it will become easier. Having three months of radiology under my belt at the start of R1, I feel that I have an advantage over residents from other programs. The staff is great to read out with, as they take the time to teach and make sure that the finer points of the case are clear to you. The second main reason I chose Henry Ford Hospital for my residency is that the pathology we see can only be reproduced at a handful of hospitals. Henry Ford Hospital is a major transplant center for lungs, kidneys and livers. This allows the imaging to be read at Henry Ford and not just read about in books.

Intern year as a whole can be broken down into radiology months, floor (medicine months), one month of ER, and electives. The medicine department at Henry Ford is very organized and the senior residents that you will work with understand that you are fresh out of medical school. Call on the floor months, Monday through Thursday, is short call where you stay until 9:30-10pm and do admissions during the day. You are expected to come into work the next day following a short call. Overnight call is reserved for Friday and Saturday. Sunday call is 6am-6pm. The best analogy for starting floors is the start of your third year of medical school when you started your first floor rotation ever. It's a new situation and you're nervous about making mistakes, but soon after the first week you start to feel pretty comfortable about your role and your duties for the month. If you have any questions about Intern year for the radiology program at Henry Ford Hospital, please feel free to email me at markk@rad.hfh.edu.

 

Mikhail Nekhline
Third-Year Radiology Resident

My name is Mikhail. I am a third year resident now. I was born and grew up in Russia where I went to medical school and was certified in surgery. I immigrated to the United States in 1999 and attended medical school for a second time here in the U.S. I discovered the field of radiology very early in my second foray through a medical school.

I made a strategic decision to apply for residency at large programs only. I chose to apply to most of the large programs in the Midwest. My Oregon Health Sciences University radiology program director specifically recommended I apply to Henry Ford Hospital, as a well known, and highly regarded program. So I did.

The trip to Detroit for my interview was amazingly pleasant and straightforward, and the hotel provided by the program was great. The interview here was also pleasant and straightforward. I felt people's sincere interest in listening to my story and felt very welcomed by everyone, from Linda (our program coordinator) to the residents giving the tour. I got a good vibe and subconsciously felt that I would be coming here.

The greatest asset here is the people - both the staff and patients. The staff is incredibly dedicated to teaching and very open to help when we struggle. The amount of conferences here is huge - in addition to the mandatory daily noon conferences and two weekly didactic conferences at 4:00, we can attend weekly neuroradiology conferences, body/chest conferences, daily MSK conferences, and numerous interdisciplinary meetings with neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and oncologists.

The breadth of pathology presented to us is incredible - Henry Ford Hospital serves more than a million patients. And, I can't remember a situation when a patient refused to allow a resident to participate in their care.

This easy-going environment is present throughout the entire hospital. Rotating here as interns we got to personally know the majority of staff and other residents, which makes communication between the services very easy. By no means though does this easy-going environment mean that we work less or "cut corners". Actually, it works quite the contrary - since we personally know the clinicians, it puts an extra layer of responsibility on us to be more thorough and helpful since we are putting their trust in us on the line.

Most of the residents here do research and go to nationwide conferences. There is no lack of staff willing to help you with research. In fact, I just went to two conferences during the last year, San Diego and Boston, and just got my 2010 RSNA project accepted.

Finally, when I talk to people from other programs, I get the feeling we are among the happiest and most well educated residents. I think that the department makes it a priority.

One last advise - apply early. This is quite a popular place, and if you apply late you may not be able to get an interview because the interview slots are limited and allocated quite early.

 

Rishi Agrawal
Fourth-Year Radiology Resident

I am a fourth year radiology resident. I was born and grew up in San Antonio, moved to Austin for college and Houston for medical school (UT Houston). When I was looking at programs for residency, I wanted a large program that not only had an outstanding radiology program but also strong subspecialties in surgery and medicine. I knew that smaller hospitals without robust specialty services could not offer the same volume and variety of pathology that you get at a large center. There is certainly no lack of cases or pathology at Henry Ford.

Also, one of the great aspects of our program is how much collaboration we have with these subspecialties. We have weekly interdisciplinary conferences with other departments including ENT, orthopaedics, neurosurgery, oncology, and ophthalmology. We have multiple weekly tumor board conferences where the radiology resident shows the case and discusses the findings. This kind of collaboration gives me an idea at what kinds of things these services are interested in clinically and helps make me a better radiologist.

All of our spots are categorical which is great because during the transitional year, we learn about how the hospital works and get exposure to clinical medicine. But, we are still considered radiology residents, and we get to have a few months of radiology right away.

Henry Ford Hospital is a great place to work. The environment of the hospital is one of an academic center with attendings, fellows, residents, and medical students. I have enjoyed working and training here and would recommend any medical student interested in radiology to apply for an interview to see for themselves.

 

John Blase
Former Chief Radiology Resident 2007-2008 and current staff radiologist

I am currently a staff radiologist in the emergency imaging department at Henry Ford Hospital. Being a native of the Detroit area, and a graduate of the School of Medicine at Wayne State University, I am familiar with all the residencies in the Detroit area. Henry Ford Hospital was at the top of my rank list because I felt that this residency provided the best opportunity for learning the skills required to be an effective radiologist. After starting my residency I was pleasantly surprised that my initial impression was just the tip of the iceberg.

The volume of diagnostic exams at HFH is high, providing ample learning experience. There are numerous fellowship trained radiologists in each subspecialty to learn from, and conferences are well attended and well organized. We have very high pass rates for all the board examinations, and all the people I have seen graduate from this program have come back to say that they were well prepared for the oral board exam.

Staff members are very supportive of resident education. There are daily case conferences at 11:30, weekly subspecialty conferences, and dedicated lectures on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I have learned a tremendous amount from these conferences and lectures, and the experience cannot be duplicated by reading a text.

The Detroit metro area has been my home for most of my life, and I love it here. Fun doesn’t slap you in the face in Detroit like it might in some other big cities, but once you get to know the town you find that it has something to offer just about anyone.