Abdominal Radiology Fellowship

The Abdominal Radiology Fellowship is a one-year comprehensive, structured, ACGME-approved fellowship comprising of clinical, teaching, and research activity in all aspects of abdominal imaging using all available modalities. 

There is extensive participation in abdominal MRI (MRI 5.75 blocks) in addition to CT (1.75 blocks), US (1.25 blocks), and 3 flexible blocks of elective time, which may include any specialty by arrangement (e.g., MSK, mammography, PET-CT, vascular or obstetrics/gynecology, neuro, cardiac).

The patient population and clinical experience represent both a comprehensive outpatient setting and inpatient tertiary referral center with a high volume of oncology, surgery, gastroenterology, genitourinary, transplantation, and Level I trauma/emergency referrals. 

Fellows will learn to perform and interpret 3D CT angiography, virtual colonoscopy, MRI of the prostate, and other cutting-edge diagnostic studies. Body biopsy experience occurs on the US block and throughout the year.  Fellows participate in gastrointestinal and genitourinary examinations including video fluoroscopy and oropharyngeal motility studies.

Resources: The MRI experience includes cutting-edge, dedicated liver, pancreas, prostate, adrenal, renal, rectal, and gynecologic imaging in addition to the opportunity to observe MRI-guided interventions such as focal laser ablation of prostate cancer and MR-guided in-bore and MR-ultrasound fusion prostate biopsies. The section conducts approximately 894 MRI of prostate examinations a year.

The CT experience is highlighted by CT colonography and photon counting CT. The section performs about 60 CT colonography (“virtual colonoscopy”) exams a year.

The ultrasound experience, including abdominal, pelvic, thyroid and vascular ultrasound, is highlighted by the complex transplant examinations and tutorials in ultrasound-guided biopsy.

Fellows are exposed to clinicians with subspecialty expertise in prostate cancer, HIPEC, gynecology-oncology, transplant, inflammatory bowel disease, esophageal disease, neuroendocrine tumor, pelvic floor dysfunction and endocrine disease through multidisciplinary conferences and case discussions.

Fellows oversee the reading room to teach residents and medical students, present at least one noon resident lecture during the year and one or more journal club conferences.

In addition to attending some of the abdominal resident noon conferences, fellows receive two dedicated didactic lectures a month in addition to monthly interesting case conferences, biopsy follow up conferences and quality assurance conferences with MRI, CT and ultrasound staff.

Facilities:

Fellows only work at one site, the Southside (Hyde Park) campus as do the residents, however exams are performed at all our off-site campuses. Multimodality state of the art equipment is distributed throughout the Hyde Park inpatient and outpatient campus and outpatient facilities in downtown River East, suburban Orland Park and Crown Point, Indiana. There are 17 MRI scanners, including six 1.5T and ten 3T magnets with software and hardware for fast imaging sequences and deep learning algorithms, and one 9.4 T research MR scanner dedicated to specimen and small animal imaging.

State of the art CT equipment includes fifteen scanners, including thirteen 256 slice scanners and two 64 slice scanners, all with iterative does reduction software. 

Ultrasound equipment includes seventeen high-end units including procedural guidance, 3-D, elastography, and image fusion software. The ultrasound section performs routine abdominal and thyroid examinations, color and spectral Doppler vascular, transplant studies and percutaneous biopsies.

Research: Fellows are encouraged to participate in research. ACGME requires that some broadly defined “scholarly activity” be performed. Collaboration with in-house and GE physicists, artificial intelligence scientists and interdepartmental scientists and clinicians within the one-campus University allow ample opportunity to participate in research projects. Twenty half-days for scholarly activity, and more for additional research if requested, is granted.

Recent research topics include prostate MR with whole-mount correlation, MR-guided HIFU of prostate cancer, dual energy CT and CT colonography.  Initiatives in continuous quality improvement including design review and evaluation of integrated PACS tools for accurate and efficient cancer patient lesion tracking and reporting.

Application Process: 

We will fill two Abdominal Radiology Fellowship positions starting academic year 2027. Applications for the 2027-2028 academic year (July 1, 2027 – June 30, 2028) will be accepted starting November 1, 2025.

Please note that, in accordance with SCARD recommendations, no formal interviews will be conducted before January 12, 2026, and interviews will be completed by March 31, 2026.  All interviews will be conducted by Zoom. Formal offers commence January 26, 2026.  Applicants have until January 28th to accept or decline any offer made before January 28th. For any offer made on or after January 28th the candidate has a 1-day grace period to accept or decline the offer.

Note that international candidates (i.e., applicants from programs that are neither ACGME or RCPSC programs) are excluded from these embargo guidelines. If positions are unfilled by March 31, 2026, the interview process will continue until the positions are filled.

Applicants must have a valid medical license in Illinois, must have completed a residency in diagnostic radiology, and must be board-certified or board-eligible in diagnostic radiology.  International medical graduates must have completed a residency in diagnostic radiology in their country of origin and have a valid, current radiology board certification from their country of origin. These candidates must be eligible to obtain a license to practice medicine in Illinois and must have a valid Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates certification requiring clearance of U.S. Medical Licensing Examination steps 1, 2 and 3. All applications must be complete (including all letters of recommendation, addressed to Dr. Grace Lee) to be considered. 

The full guidelines can be found at: Policies (scardweb.org)

Please scan and email your completed application including required materials and letters of recommendation to Adrian Gutierrez at 
adrian.gutierrez@bsd.uchicago.edu.  

Click here for the Abdominal Radiology application.

Links to Faculty Profiles:

Paul Chang, MD
Professor of Radiology
Vice Chair Informatics

Abraham Dachman, MD
Professor of Radiology

Brian Funaki, MD
Professor of Radiology
Section Chief, Interventional Radiology

Ahmed Hamimi, MD
Assistant Professor of Radiology

Carla B. Harmath, MD
Professor of Radiology
Section Chief, Abdominal Radiology

Bora Kalaycioglu ,MD 
Assistant Professor of Radiology

Grace Lee, MD.
Assistant Professor of Radiology
Director of Fellowship Program

Aytekin Oto, MD, MBA
Professor of Radiology
Professor of Surgery
Director, Body MR

Irai Santana de Oliveira, MD.
Assistant Professor of Radiology