Radiology Clerkships & Electives for Medical Students

This 12-month clerkship is an integrated program of study designed to teach and initiate medical students into the world of radiology and its menu of radiologic tests available and their efficacious use. The longitudinal multidisciplinary curriculum will emphasize the basics of chest, skeletal, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary system imaging; and introduces angiography, nuclear medicine, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, ultrasound, neuroradiology, special angiographic and other interventional procedures.

The PCE Longitudinal Clerkship is only open to Harvard Medical School (HMS) students and is required of all the students before graduating. Approximately 50 medical students each year will have scheduled time in six disciplines to ensure fundamentals of each discipline are acquired. This prolonged time also allows the students time to access different modalities of medicine. The program incorporates mentoring, feedback, assessment and primary care experiences.

A formal grade and letter of evaluation is submitted to HMS at the end of the clerkship. The grade is based on the student’s year-long performance.

The Advanced Clerkship is open to HMS as well as non-HMS students who want to pursue an area of radiology in more detail. It is an elective course that runs in four-week blocks from September through June. The course is tailored to students’ needs, and accommodates up to seven students per month. Students can pursue a research project, structuring the month as a research elective, or can take a clinical elective. A student who is interested in general clinical radiology may elect to do one week each of computed tomography (CT), ultrasound (US), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and angiography. A student who is interested in neuroradiology may elect an entire month in neuroradiology, observing and participating in neuro CT, neuro, MRI, and angiography. The student attends daily department conferences; otherwise this is a clinical elective, not a classroom experience. The student works daily in the section as part of the resident team, interacting with patients, their families and referring physicians continually.

An official grade and letter of evaluation is submitted to HMS, which forwards this to the parent medical school. The grade is based on daily performance and a mini-seminar case presentation in PowerPoint format.

The Primary Care Radiology Clerkship is an elective open to HMS as well as non-HMS students, accommodating up to eight students. It runs in four-week blocks from September through June. It is for senior students who have completed their core clerkships and would like to better integrate diagnostic imaging in their daily clinical management. It is therefore ideal for students anticipating a career in primary care medicine, emergency medicine, family practice or general surgery.

The course is patient-based covering the radiologic work-up and assessment of common primary care issues in an ambulatory setting. These include: the complications of tobacco and alcohol abuse, AIDS, diabetes, breast cancer, prostate cancer and common pediatric issues. Epidemiology, health care maintenance and outcomes are included.

Pediatrics is covered with a full week spent in the radiology department at Boston Children's Hospital. A week is also spent in the radiology department at Mount Auburn Hospital, a community hospital in Cambridge, to ensure exposure to a broad range of issues.

A formal grade and letter of evaluation is submitted to HMS at the end of the clerkship. The grade is based on daily performance and a mini-seminar case presentation in PowerPoint format.