Hours: Following morning conference (8.30 am) until 5 pm. Faculty covers the service over lunchtime.
Site: POD#2. Also called Stat Box.
Protocoling: Protocol all studies on Trunk protocol list before 10 am] POD#2 and again at 3 pm. Also protocol any add-on Trunk studies that occur during the day. Early in the year, faculty will go through all of the protocols with you, until you feel comfortable. As the year progresses, please ask faculty if you have any questions as there are many protocols and faculty may differ in their preference regarding which protocol to use for non-standard requests.
What to read: Focus on cross-sectional studies. Read plain films between CT/MR studies, focus on chest and abdomen plain films first, then other studies (MSK) as needed.
Contrast orders: Should be signed by faculty during regular working hours. If you are getting paged for contrast orders, please let the faculty know.
Study checks: You will be called to check HRCT studies that are being performed under anesthesia so that adequate coverage was obtained and that adequate expiration was obtained. This is to prevent having to re-sedate the patient. You will also be called to check trauma patients. Please check with faculty if you have any concerns.
Technologists will also call you to check trauma CTs while the patient is on the table, again to check for coverage and to assess if additional delayed images are needed (for example if there is a concern for a collecting system injury in the kidney).
PICC insertions are performed to make sure the tip is in the correct landing zone in the SVC or IVC and not in the right atrium. If you check a PICC study, you will be assigned that study by the technologist to read, or you should assign the study to yourself. Only faculty and fellows are allowed check PICC studies. If you check a PICC right before you leave, please ask your faculty or the evening faculty to take control of that study; otherwise, it may be assigned to you after you have left for the day.
Technologists will ask you to check skeletal surveys in cases of suspected non-accidental trauma. Look for possible fractures, and if you see a fracture or are suspicious for fracture that has not been described before, get two dedicated views centered on the area of concern. For example, if you see a possible metaphyseal corner fracture in the proximal tibia, you should ask for an AP and lateral of the knee, not of the tibia and fibula