Interventional Radiology Integrated Residency

Introduction

2023-2024 IR Chief Residents Alex Banathy, MD (right) and Marc Kryger, MD (left)

In September 2012, the American Board of Medical Specialties approved a request from the American Board of Radiology granting them the primary certification in interventional radiology. A new training pathway was developed in the form of a dedicated IR Residency.

Training residents in interventional radiology at the University of Virginia has been in effect since 2002 through a pioneering Vascular and Interventional Radiology (VIR) track. Now with ACGME accreditation, the VIR track has been phased out and replaced with the new 6-year interventional radiology (integrated) residency program. This 72-month program includes a Fundamental Clinical Skills (FCS) year at UVA Health, making the program categorical.  The FCS year includes inpatient and outpatient surgical experience as well as management of patients in the intensive care units.

The IR Integrated Residency offers a broad and more in-depth experience in the clinical diagnosis and care of patients with diseases commonly treated by an interventional radiologist. Furthermore, the residency allows the trainees an opportunity to become more familiar with and participate in research to further the field of vascular and interventional radiology.

The IR residency at UVA was established in 2000 when we took our first medical student in the match, Dr. Warren Swee, for what was then known as the VIR pathway.  His six-year program gave him all the tools to practice IR at the highest level in a wide variety of practice settings.

We grew to matching two medical students a year in 2009.  Since the IR residency came in to existence in 2015, little has changed in our educational mission—to give residents all the tools they need to provide the widest possible array of minimally invasive procedures delivered in the safest possible way. We are constantly searching for ways to provide residents with the latest procedures, the most exacting consultation skills, and expert diagnostic imaging knowledge.

Our IR faculty are committed to educational excellence, hoping we provide residents a carefully balanced program of structured learning, self-study, and hands-on experience with graduated responsibility.

Our close collaboration with the diagnostic radiology faculty allow us to provide an outstanding diagnostic program, tailored to the needs of up-and-coming IRs.  We are very fortunate to have the strong support of the surgery department in providing our residents an internship, and intensive care and vascular surgery rotations that form the foundation of our 6 year IR program.

We have been very privileged to be able to train our residents in outstanding facilities.  In 2019 we moved into a new space next to the operating room with state-of-the-art equipment that includes 8 procedure rooms with CT available in two angiography suites and cone-beam CT available in 5 more suites.  We also have access to IVUS, ICE, and CE-US for all the latest in intra-procedural diagnostic imaging.

Our technologists and nurses are the backbone of our procedure quality. Their clinical expertise, their interest in continuous learning and their commitment to teaching are second to none.

The greatest pleasure for me, and the secret to whatever success we have had in training residents, has been our close-knit group of hardworking, compassionate, analytic, and creative residents.  Their support to fellow residents, and their commitment to the radiology residency and to UVA are always on display.  Together they are role models for an effective team: championing how to make resident education at UVA better, supporting the educational mission of other residents/specialties, and taking advantage of opportunities to collaborate on IR research.

If you are sincere about a career in IR, I hope you will apply.

Sincerely,

 

John Fritz Angle, MD
Director, Division of Interventional Radiology