At the end of the 2007-2008 school year, UB's radiology residency program in the department of medicine and biomedical sciences will voluntarily close its doors due to accreditation problems.
With officials predicting the tentative reopening date as being at least four to five years away, resident students not qualified for graduation by the closure date will have to continue their training at other U.S. institutes.
There are currently 14 residents enrolled in the radiology program who have already earned their M.D. and are now doctors-in-training for the field of radiology.
Active assistance in placement will be offered to residents through the office of graduate medical education in the school of medicine and biomedical sciences.
"There are often open slots across the entire nation," said David Dunn, vice president of health services.
The closure comes after a thorough examination conducted by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), Kaleida Health, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Buffalo Veterans Administration Medical Center.
UB does not stand alone in the problem though, as it is estimated that one-third of the radiology programs in the United States have accreditation problems.
Dunn said the program's withdrawal resulted from a combination of issues.
"There's a whole series of things coming together at one time. There are strong components of the program that still exist," Dunn said. "The real issue is how do you create the right configuration at several sites where residents can be effectively trained?"
One problem, according to Dunn, is the lack of a university hospital. Primary sites for the program are the VA, Buffalo General Hospital, Woman and Children's Hospital and Roswell Park.
According to Dunn, having several hospitals versus a university hospital was not an issue directly brought up by the accreditation board, but did contribute to complications within the program.
"It's not impossible to do without that (university hospital), but the situation that we had was that we had residents at a large number of different hospitals," Dunn said. "They weren't getting the level of training that was desirable under those circumstances."
The future of the radiology program's restructure is still uncertain. Planning and researching the program and its possibilities is currently in the process.
"I want to determine whether or not we can restructure with the existing resources, and how best to do that," Dunn said. "Most likely it would be the recruitment of a number of radiologists. We have to have a practice site they have to be able to take care of patients that are having radiological procedures performed."
This is not the first time a residency program has been closed, as the otolaryngology program closed in 2002.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
