CT training of nuclear medicine residents in the United States, 2013-2014

In 2011, the ACGME Nuclear Medicine (NM) Residency Review Committee revised the NM program requirements, which increased CT training for NM residents. This article examines the effect of this revision.

Requests were e-mailed to all NM program directors asking that their residents be given the opportunity to complete an online survey regarding their CT training. Subsequently, an identical online survey regarding CT training was e-mailed directly to all members of the NM Residents Organization of the American College of NM asking that they complete the survey regarding their CT training if they had not already done so.

Resident responses, compared with those from a similar 2011 survey, indicate a perception that CT training and CT expertise gained in ACGME-accredited NM programs have improved. However, some NM residents are not provided with the opportunity to develop critical skills in interpreting and dictating CT scans during their time on dedicated CT services. The survey indicates that experience gained during NM residency in head and neck/neuroradiology, emergency, and musculoskeletal CT is marginal at best. A slight majority felt that CT training should be further increased.

Compared with a 2011 survey of NM residents and the 2011 implementation of expanded CT training requirements, a follow-up survey seems to indicate improvement in CT training for most NM residents. Nevertheless, an opportunity clearly remains to further improve the breadth and depth of CT skills during NM residency. However, whether such an improvement will result in a reversal of multiyear downward trends in the number of NM residents and training programs in the United States is not clear.