Neuroradiology Fellowship

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University: A historic partnership of pediatric excellence

In 1956, the Board of Trustees for both Emory University and Egleston Hospital signed an agreement to make Egleston a first-rate teaching hospital

Children’s is one of the largest freestanding healthcare systems in the country. Emory is one of the nation’s leading research universities. Together, the two share a passion for pediatric innovation and advancements. In 1956, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Egleston Hospital and Emory University first established a pediatric teaching relationship. This relationship has developed to facilitate leading-edge pediatric research, training and innovation.

Children’s and Emory University School of Medicine partner together on pediatric residency and fellowship training programs as well as the management and execution of clinical trials. Discoveries in Emory’s research laboratories are translated into lifesaving treatments at Children’s. Emory and Children’s share a unique employment agreement; more than 400 physicians hold titles at both independent institutions.

At Children’s our fellows work independently under the supervision of the pediatric neuroradiology faculty. As this is an advanced fellowship, once our fellows are acclimatized to our workflow, they are allowed the autonomy to manage the clinical service to further develop their clinical, leadership, and teaching skills.

We emphasize constructing concise and accurate imaging reports that provide the most helpful information to our clinical partners.

We teach targeted protocoling that keeps in mind sedation and contrast administration indications, appropriateness of rapid and high-resolution MR imaging, and best imaging modality for safe and accurate diagnosis.

Our team of technologists, physicists, medical imaging nurses, anesthesiologists, sedation doctors, and child life experts are valuable partners in providing safe neuroimaging examinations of the highest diagnostic quality and are valuable resources for our fellows.

The pediatric neuroradiology fellowship includes training in all aspects of clinical pediatric neuroradiology, including:

• Brain, spine, head and neck neuroimaging (CT and MRI)
• Neuro CTA and MRA
• Fetal MRI
• Advanced imaging, including DSC, DCE and ASL perfusion, fMRI, DTI and fiber tracking, MR spectroscopy, and vessel wall imaging
• 3D post-processing
• Neuro PET and SPECT
• Neurosonography

The fellowship can be tailored to provide greater exposure to areas of subspecialized interest. Areas of focused clinical and research interest include:

• Neurovascular disease and pediatric stroke
• Brain tumors
• Epilepsy
• Neuroinflammatory diseases
• Head and neck imaging
• Hydrocephalus
• CSF leak
• fMRI
• Development of advanced techniques in CT and MRI
• Innovative techniques in radiology education
• Artificial intelligence
• Structured radiology reporting
• Quality improvement

Fellows receive one half-day of academic time per week. An academic stipend is available to all fellows.

Each fellow completes as least one academic project during the course of their fellowship training and is expected to submit their work to scientific society meetings such as the American Society of Pediatric Neuroradiology (ASPNR), American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) and Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) among others. Developing effective speaking and presentation skills is emphasized, with opportunities available throughout the fellowship.

There are a variety of conferences that fellows are encouraged to participate in and are invaluable learning experiences.

Clinical conferences:

• Weekly: Neuro-oncology, vascular anomalies, epilepsy
• Monthly: Neuro-ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, sickle cell, child abuse, neonatology
• Quarterly: Neuro-vascular, neuro-immunology, neuro-contentious, neuro-genetic

Academic conferences:

• Daily: Teaching session
• Weekly: Adult neuroradiology fellow lectures
• Monthly: Peer-learning conference
• Quarterly: Research meeting, Journal club
• Variable: Pediatric neuroradiology invited lectures (in person or virtual)

Children’s is committed to excellence and innovation in pediatric and neuroradiology research. Our neuroradiology department conducts a wide spectrum of clinical and translational research in collaboration with colleagues at Emory, Georgia Tech and Georgia State University and as part of several large multi-institutional collaborative efforts. The pediatric neuroradiology division is supported by full-time medical physicists with MR expertise, data scientists, and research assistants. We are uniquely positioned to advance research nationally and internationally by leveraging Atlanta’s elite academic and research institutions, including:

• Emory University
• The Center for Systems Imaging at Emory has dedicated research MRI systems, including a 7T magnet, and PET systems, including a PET/MRI available for more research opportunities.
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Georgia State University
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention