The Geisinger Health System comprises 3 hospitals, 600 physicians and 38 outpatient primary care practice sites in central Pennsylvania. This draws on a patient population of 2.5 million within a 250 mile radius. The Geisinger Health System is the largest academic rural health care system in the country.

The MRI fellowship was established in 2005 and our first fellow started July 2006. There is one fellowship position available per year and it is a 12 month fellowship.

More than 13,000 MRI examinations are performed yearly.

The fellowship is located at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. This is a 437-bed tertiary care teaching hospital with more than 200 physicians on staff and more than 200 residents and fellows. We are a Level 1 Trauma Center. There is a renal and liver transplant program. On campus are the Janet Weis Children’s Hospital and Women’s Pavilion, the Weis Center for Research and the Hood Center for Health Research. Construction is underway for a nine-story addition to the main hospital which will provide space for the radiology department to expand. Called the Hospital for Advanced Medicine, this will open in 2010. In addition, one mile from the main campus is an ambulatory outpatient surgery center which also houses sports medicine and an MRI scanner.

Geisinger Medical Center’s Radiology Department is comprised of 28 staff radiologists, 16 residents in diagnostic radiology and over 100 technologists and support staff, including information technology personnel. There are 12 additional radiologists located at our other sites. This is a high volume practice with an exceedingly high percentage of pathology spanning from antenatal to the elderly. There is great opportunity to add advanced knowledge to the fundamentals obtained in residency.

There are excellent working relationships with clinical partners in cardiology, orthopedics, neurology and neurosurgery. Daily joint read-out sessions occur in cardiac MRI with radiologists and cardiologists in a dedicated cardiac MRI reading room with post-processing work station. Monthly interdepartmental conferences occur with orthopedics and neurosciences. Research opportunities abound.

Equipment is the following:

• 4 GE 1.5 Tesla magnets
• • one with cardio-vascular package
  • one with breast coil and biopsy capability
• 1 GE 0.7 Tesla open magnet
• Planning is underway for a 3 Tesla magnet.

Facilities include an MRI reading room as well as a dedicated cardiac MRI reading room with reconstruction and post-processing work stations.

Our department has PACS and is totally digital; filmless and paperless. There is voice recognition dictation. There is electronic medical record for outpatients and inpatients.

In addition to the standard benefits for fellows, 5 CME days are funded by the department for the fellow to attend RSNA.

We are a growing organization. Our faculty love to teach and mentor. We strive to provide the best radiology services possible. It is an exciting and invigorating environment in which to work. This fellowship will give you a firm foundation for your future career in radiology.