Vancouver General Hospital is a 950-bed, Level 1 trauma centre and is the tertiary referral centre for the entire province of British Columbia.  Of the approximately 50,000 emergency room visits each year, more than 2,500 are trauma related.

Two positions in Trauma / ER Imaging are offered as a 1 year fellowship which begin either July 1st or January 1st of each year. The purpose of this Fellowship is to advance the knowledge, skills, diagnostic and consultative abilities of the Fellow in Trauma/Emergency Radiology. This Fellowship program imaging consists of supervised experience in imaging techniques (including plain radiographs, CT and MRI). The program is designed to develop the Fellow's expertise in developing appropriate strategies for imaging trauma-related problems and to expose the Fellow to a large number of varied cases. The ultimate goal is to provide the Fellow with training and skills sufficient to allow him/her to function as an independent fellowship-trained trauma / emergency radiologist and skilled consultant.

The majority of the training is spent in clinical imaging, side-by-side with the staff radiologist and radiology residents.

Our department has an extremely close working relationship with the Emergency Medicine physicians and the Trauma Surgery team.  The trauma radiology Fellow and staff are directly involved with every major trauma during regular working hours and are expected to recommend, organize and interpret all relevant imaging to help manage the patient expeditiously. In addition, they are required to supervise and interpret cardiac computed tomography referred by the Emergency Department.

The Radiology Department is completely filmless and is equipped with an AGFA PACS system, a Fuji CR imaging system, two GE helical CT scanners with multitrack capacity, one 8 slice and a single slice for biopsies. As well, there is a 16 track Siemens unit, a 64 track Siemens unit, and as a new Definition Dual source/Dual Energy MDCT 64 slice scanner in the Emergency Department which is dedicated to the ER/Trauma radiology working group. Two GE 1.5T MRI scanners are on site. In addition, two bone densitometry units are present within the division of nuclear medicine.

Within the department, there is a strong research program characterizing the role of the Dual Source/Dual Energy MDCT in the ER/Trauma radiology department. There have been studies on imaging of the polytrauma patient, focusing on blunt vascular neck injury, blunt solid organic trauma, and acute thoracic injuries. As well, utilizing the scanner’s ability to scan at different energies has allowed us to characterize kidney stones and uric acid crystalline arthropathies. Furthermore, there is an emphasis on Cardiac imaging, with studies on the utility of Beta-Blockers with the Dual Source MDCT already in place.

Teaching duties include Trauma Radiology rounds which are held each morning (Monday through Friday) to review any major trauma-related cases from the previous night.  Fellows also conduct monthly Trauma Surgery "interesting case" rounds and are involved with Radiology and Emergency Medicine resident teaching.

Protected academic time includes a weekly half-day in which research is encouraged.  As well, funding is available to attend conferences.  Fellows are entitled to four weeks of vacation.  Applicants must have completed, or expect to complete by the beginning of the Fellowship, an accredited residency program in Diagnostic Radiology and be eligible for licensure in British Columbia.

The Department of Radiology is located on the ground floor of Jim Pattison Pavilion South. The Trauma / ER Radiology section has been recently opened within the Emergency Department, offering close interaction with the Emergency physicians and other specialties.

The department has 27 staff radiologists, all of whom have academic appointments with the University of British Columbia and who individually sub-specialize in Body, Musculoskeletal, Thoracic, Neuroradiology, Interventional and Trauma imaging. The atmosphere is very friendly and collegial - a second opinion is never far away when needed.

Just under a quarter of a million examinations per year are performed. There are a total of 5 CT scanners on site which include two multi-track General Electric CT scanners and 3 Siemens scanners, which include a 16-track unit, a 64-track unit, and a new Emergency Department dedicated Dual Source/Dual Energy MDCT 64-track unit.  Two GE 1.5T MRI units are also housed at VGH.  Our department is completely filmless and uses an AGFA PACS solution. There are currently 3 PACS workstations and 2 Siemens Leonardo workstations dedicated for use by Trauma / ER Radiology.