Nuclear Medicine Residency

Residency Program Director: Sandra Huicochea-Castellanos, M.D.

Associate Program Director: Matthew Agee, M.D.

ACGME: 2003511052 – NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (CORNELL CAMPUS)

Our Vision 

Nuclear Medicine must transform itself and embrace its community—a transformation that must occur for precision medicine to align with molecular imaging and for each to reach its true potential. This process acknowledges not only the study of the aggregate population's needs but also the molecular signatures that make imaging and therapy personalized. As such, the Nuclear Medicine Residency is the training site for Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics (MI&T), an updated descriptor of increasingly sub-cellular interrogations developed over the last five decades.

Located in Manhattan's Upper East Side, part of the Weill Cornell Medicine Department of Radiology, we serve an incredibly diverse patient population and treat a wide spectrum of diseases. Many of our imaging agents are investigational but will become FDA-approved during the span of your training. Therefore, we are always preparing for the practice of the future. What we do today is but a subset of what the future will require to remain proficient in practice.

Overview

Our current one-, two-, and three-year ACGME-accredited Nuclear Medicine Residency Program (ACGME Number: 2003511052) provides specialized training in diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine. As part of our academic mission,  we proudly train diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine residents. Nuclear medicine and radiology faculty train in the core competencies of image interpretation, radiotherapy procedures, and molecular imaging research. Our in-house radiopharmacy and on-site cyclotron capabilities allow us to provide exposure to new radiopharmaceutical and radioisotope therapies, which is increasingly a part of personalized patient management.

Facilities

Our facilities include an array of SPECT and SPECT/CT cameras to perform our single photon and post-therapeutic studies, 3 PET/MRI and several PET/CT scanners. We also perform a large volume of daily clinical and investigational PET studies on Siemens mCT scanners, which are read by both the Molecular Imaging and Body Imaging services.

We have dedicated therapeutic infusion spaces and a research radiopharmacy to accommodate the increasing volume of approved and investigational therapeutic clinical trials.

The Citigroup Biomedical Imaging Center (CBIC) has a state-of-the-art cyclotron and many hot cells to produce high-quality radiopharmaceuticals with radioisotopes, including Carbon-11, Nitrogen-13, Fluorine 18, Zirconium-87, and Iodine-124. Small animal PET and SPECT cameras  are also available.

Research and the Molecular Imaging Innovations Institute (MI4)

As the Clinical Chief of the Molecular Imaging Innovation Institute (MI3), Dr. Joseph Osborne has positioned MI4 and his faculty (Dr. Ivanidze laboratory) to connect clinical care to database mining, preclinical studies (MI3—Belfer Research Building), and phase 0/1 studies where pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics studies will be performed (MI4—C.V. Starr Pavilion).

As inclusion is a large part of the mission, population health studies and outreach will be part of the work being done. It is distinct from the training program, but all are encouraged to join. Access to precision medicine and molecularly targeted therapies is as important to the service as the development of the technologies.

The MI4 space is connected to the nuclear medicine clinic and clinical radiopharmacy so that these early clinical trials can be performed near the necessary analysis of blood or urine-based correlatives.

Mentoring Cascade

A mentoring cascade is a form of intergenerational learning in which knowledge, values, and practice cascades from generation to generation. We have distinct mentoring teams composed of faculty members, residents, and medical students who interact and work together closely.

Schedule & Responsibilities

General Schedule

Residents participate in dynamic, one-to-two-week rotations that provide comprehensive, hands-on training across the full spectrum of nuclear medicine. Rotations include General Nuclear Medicine, PET, Nuclear Cardiology, Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine, Radiopharmacy, Neuroradiology, Body Imaging and Chest Imaging.

The curriculum is rigorous and multidisciplinary, encompassing didactic sessions such as Interesting Case Conferences, Journal Club, Chapter Reviews, and Peer Learning Sessions. To ensure comprehensive professional development, the program also integrates periodic lectures on Professionalism and Patient Safety.

Educational enrichment extends beyond the department through webinars offered by the Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and collaborative learning opportunities with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which provides advanced instruction in physics and specialized topics. During their training, the resident will be exposed to cardiac viability imaging and myocardial sarcoidosis imaging.

Residents are strongly encouraged to engage in research activities, fostering scholarly inquiry, and contributing to the advancement of nuclear medicine.

Call Responsibilities

The call responsibilities change subtly every year. At present, there are no weekend call responsibilities. Residents have evening calls from 5-7 pm approximately 7-10 days each month.  

Electives and Vacation

The trainees have 20 days of vacation and an additional 7 sick days. In general, the trainees spend 2-4 weeks per year on electives, but these decisions are made based on seniority prior to training and with consideration of the other residents scheduled in the clinic.