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U.S. News 2012 Ranking Case Volume Score
====================================================== ============ =====
Adult Adult Adult Adult Peds Peds Peds # Radiology
Neuro Ortho IM Cancer Neuro Ortho Cancer Studies
per Resident
1. MGH 3 3 4 7 1 1 1 15225 5
2. Mayo 2 2 6 4 16 18 47 19231 7
2. Johns Hopkins 1 5 3 3 3 11 9 9800 7
2. Cleveland Clinic 6 4 7 9 7 26 21 56250 7
5. Columbia 4 16 8 19 11 15 17 - 13
5. Duke 8 6 5 11 36 34 28 11042 13
5. UPMC 10 7 9 29 13 23 19 26667 13
8. Penn 14 13 14 15 2 2 2 10938 14
8. Brigham 17 20 22 5 1 1 1 12500 14
8. Univ of Washington 16 17 20 6 10 17 8 - 14
8. MIR 13 9 19 16 5 10 18 11875 14
12. UCLA 7 19 2 10 23 18 26 5208 16
13. UT-Houston 22 30 23 1 4 16 4 - 17
13. UCSF 5 21 12 8 22 - 23 9615 17
13. Northwestern 12 17 29 21 9 14 13 - 17
14. Rush 15 8 17 40 9 14 13 15000 18
15. Michigan 27 25 11 13 27 13 31 11364 20
16. Stanford 20 15 44 12 34 37 19 - 23
17. NYU 11 10 15 25 - - - - 25
18. Univ of Iowa 21 12 - 28 46 24 43 - 27
18. Case Western 47 23 23 36 19 12 22 19444 27
20. Emory 18 - 27 37 24 8 12 - 31
20. Cedars-Sinai 24 22 40 32 - - - 27500 31
20. Univ of Chicago 29 43 34 14 31 46 37 9375 31
23. Ohio State 45 36 - 20 32 20 16 - 33
23. BID 41 - 17 33 1 1 1 9091 33
25. Thomas Jefferson 48 14 47 31 - - - 15625 35
26. Indiana 33 48 25 - 28 31 28 16667 36
27. Vanderbilt 37 47 - 26 39 29 41 - 37
27. USC 25 24 30 48 - - - 9091 37
29. Univ of Minnesota 36 34 - 23 - - 24 9091 38
30. Yale 39 - 10 24 - - - 9975 39
31. Univ of Maryland - 28 47 22 - - - 10833 41
31. Univ of Alabama 32 - 36 - 11 39 39 14844 41
33. Univ of Wisconsin - - 31 29 45 - 48 19094 44
33. Univ of Florida 28 - - 35 47 - - - 44
35. Univ of Colorado 50 - - 34 20 9 10 5556 45
35. UCSD - 48 - 47 37 4 25 - 45
37. UT-Southwestern 31 - - - 21 3 14 15385 47
38. Beaumont - 33 26 - - - - 11900 48
38. Mount Sinai 22 - - 41 - - - 6875 48
40. Loyola 39 - - - 9 14 13 - 49
40. Univ of Virginia 35 - - 48 - - - - 49
42. UC-Davis - 46 - 39 - - - 11250 50
43. Henry Ford 38 - - - - - - 30556 55
44. Wake Forest - - - 42 - - - 10000 58
44. Univ of Rochester 48 - - - 48 49 - 9583 58
46. MCW - - - - 33 29 33 13125 61
46. UIC - - - - 9 14 13 5625 61
46. Univ of Utah - - - - 6 32 38 10417 61
49. Univ of Cincinnati - - - - 8 5 5 6875 62
49. Univ of Louisville - - - - 38 39 45 - 62
50. UNC - - - - - 44 - 12500 64
51. OHSU - - - - 43 - 35 7542 65
Taken from Auntminnie.com
Introduction:
Other posts got me interested in trying to come up with a more objective ranking for Radiology departments, something more than "this one guy at this one conference came up with this list based on his opinion." I entered into this project not knowing what to expect but at least using some of my experience and U.S. News' already exhaustive survey of hospital clinical departments, and with a little sweat and time, published case volume.
As a PGY4 Radiology resident I realize that Radiology residency is divided between at least 4 months of Neuroradiology (where you cover the Neurology and Neurosurgery services, including screening diagnosis, pre-op planning, post-op complications, and long term followup). This is similarly done with Chest (which from my experience leans towards Cancer and Adult IM departments in that order), Body (more Adult IM/Surgery than Cancer), MSK (obviously leaning towards the strength of the Orthopaedic department), etc.
The ACR is gearing everyone towards subspecialization with the expectation that each of us find a clinical department of expertise and cover that one department, but moreso the future seems to be that we actually are employed by these departments. This is already happening and what the ACR is prepping us for (with the new boards, the second round of which is a subspecialized focused exam). Already, for instance, a large Ortho group hires a full time MSK Radiologist as part of their group. This reality didn't really sink in when I was a medical student, I was still stuck in "Medical School" rankings mode which has absolutely nothing to do with residency. Diagnostic Radiology is completely, 100% dependent on the strength of the departments and the complexities of the hospital-wide services that actually order each and every study. If there is not a strong Neurosurgery department, for instance, you will not be seeing as many interesting cases or as relative of a high volume during residency and will be forced to instead "go to the books."
Methods:
Already published 2012 U.S. News Hospital rankings were reviewed that account for primary Radiology volume. This includes the departments of Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Adult/Geriatric Internal Medicine, Cancer, and Pediatric Neurology/Neurosurgery, Pediatric Orthopedics, and Pediatric Cancer. The Pediatric services' U.S. News rankings were averaged and Pediatrics was given one score. I took the suggestion to weight these services and I did so with the following factors: Neurology/Neurosurgery (15), Orthopedics (15), Adult/Geriatric Internal Medicine (10), Cancer (15), and Pediatrics (10). Weighting them moderately differently made little difference in final score.
Published annual Radiology case volume for each hospital was then reviewed and compiled, along with the published residency size of each program. Radiology case volume per capita (resident) was then calculated for each program. Several programs did not publish their case volume and these residencies were given an average case volume. This affected the already established U.S. News rankings only minimally. This average per capita case volume was 12797 studies per resident. I am totally open and willing to add more case volume data as it becomes available or if anyone has any links to share--that would be much appreciated and useful for the community (if this type of list is desired by the community).
IR departments were not included because no information was available. It is up to you to decide on your own the relative strength of the IR departments as its outside the bounds of this compilation.
Several U.S. News department rankings were omitted for obvious reasons, such as:
- Rheumatology (which orders a very low volume of plain bone films and once in a great while, an MRI of questionable clinical/learning experience, I would not judge Radiology residency by how many erosions of the 2nd and 3rd proximal phalanges you will be seeing)
- Cardiology (which does and reads its own imaging)
- Pulmonology (this was a tough one, but 90% of Chest imaging in my experience is from the Cancer and/or Adult IM departments, though I am open to include this if there is a loud outcry)
- Endocrinology (unless you are really big on nuclear thyroid imaging, which is extremely low volume and complexity, this was a no brainer)
- Opthalmology (in 3 years I have read a few MRI/CT's of the orbits, all of which were ordered by Neuro or the ER)
- Nephrology (which orders a relatively very low volume, 90% of which are renal ultrasounds which you can learn to read in a couple weeks)
- Psychiatry (do I really have to explain this one)
- Rehabilitation (same)
- Emergency Medicine (not ranked by U.S. News)
I've made the data and references open source: http://www.mediafire.com/?487ak0vt5hm97pn
Secondary source: http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/rankings
Caveat:
As a disclaimer, some programs that I believe to be strong are not listed above, but I wanted to create this with as little bias as possible. Egos will be bruised, some boosted, but this is the most objective list I believe we can come up with, though the underlying U.S. News rankings are in themselves fairly subjective. In the end, what does it matter? Maybe a little bit, but not much, so don't get your pants in a tizzy. No matter what program you go to, the ACR looks at you equally and your income will be exactly the same.
In the end, the most important thing that matters, however, is how happy you are with the program and the location. I know that sounds cliche but it is very true when you reach this stage in the game because in the end you all work together and are all equally Radiologists.