Nuclear Medicine Fellowship

Thank you for your interest in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nuclear Medicine Fellowship. All relevant NRMP match dates apply (more info).

All fellowship interviews will be virtual. Please reach out to the fellowship team if you have any questions. We look forward to receiving your application. 

Please send all documents (including application, CV, personal statement, transcripts, USMLE Board Scores, three recommendation letters) to:

Jodi Solem
Nuclear Medicine Fellowship Program
Department of Radiology & Radiological Sciences
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
1161 21st Ave. South
Medical Center North
Suite CCC-1118
Nashville, TN 37232-2675
Email: radfellows@vumc.org

We do accept applications with J1 visas. Unfortunately we do not accept H1B visas at this time.

The Office of Graduate Medical Education keeps a current posting of house officers’ salaries and benefits. Their webpage also has other resources for house officers.

Nuclear Medicine fellows are expected to attend and participate in the following conferences:

1. Physics and Instrumentation lecture series, annually
2. VAMC Nuclear Medicine Case Review Conference, weekly
3. Nuclear Cardiology Conference, monthly
4. Diagnostic Radiology Noon Conference, daily
5. Cardiac Cath Correlation Conference, Monthly
6. Nuclear Medicine QA Conference, monthly
7. Radiology Grand Rounds, monthly
8. VUIIS conferences, weekly
9. Dean’s Lecture Series, monthly
10. PET/CT Conference, weekly
11. Interesting Case Conference, monthly

Nuclear Medicine fellows are on-call for nuclear medicine on a pager, one week at a time 24 hours/day, every three to six weeks. Call is taken one week at a time, from Monday through Sunday, and is shared with the attending staff. Holidays are alternated as fairly as possible. A Monday holiday is covered by the same MD covering that weekend.

1. The NMPIT on call will physically be available to provide coverage to interpret VUH/VCH general nuclear medicine scans, cardiac scans, and PET/CT scans daily between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. Monday through Friday, and 24 hours on weekends and holidays. After 5 p.m. Nuclear Cardiology coverage can and should be arranged with the cardiology fellow on the service in a collegial manner.
2. Each on-call study interpreted by a NMPIT must be reviewed with an attending physician at the time of the study, especially brain flow studies, pediatric cases, and ED cases.
3. The Nuclear Medicine faculty on call is always available to assist with problems and interpretations.

       Ben Park, MD

  Munazzah Ross, MD

Clinical research projects are available in Nuclear Medicine and PET/CT.  Participation in basic research can be accomplished in collaboration with faculty from the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Sciences.

Examples of peer-reviewed articles published by trainees under the mentorship of Nuclear Medicine Faculty are provided below. You can review a comprehensive list of our department's publications here. 

Nuclear Medicine Residents

1. Shah C, Miller TW, Wyatt SK, et al. Imaging biomarkers predict response to anti-HER2 (ErbB2) therapy in preclinical models of breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2009;15:4712-4721.
2. Miller TW, Forbes JT, Shah C, et al. Inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin is required for optimal antitumor effect of HER2 inhibitors against HER2-overexpressing cancer cells. Clin Cancer Res. 2009;15:7266-7276.
3. Shah C, Patton JA, Sandler MP. How much CT is needed in nuclear medicine. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2008;35:1759-1760.
4. Manning HC, Merchant NB, Foutch AC, Virostko J, Shah C, et al. Molecular imaging of therapeutic response to epidermal growth factor receptor blockade in colorectal cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2008;14:7413-7422.
5. Malkerneker D, Brenner R, Martin WH, Sampson UKA, Feurer I, Kronenberg MW, Delbeke D. CT-based attenuation correction versus prone imaging to decrease equivocal interpretations of rest/stress 99mTc-tetrafosmin SPECT MPI. J Nucl Cardiol 2007, 14:314-323.

Radiology Residents/Fellows

1. Deppen SA, Blume J; Bobbey AJ, Shah C; Graham MM, Lee P, Walker RC. 68Ga-DOTATATE compared to 111In-DTPA-Octreotide for pulmonary and gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: A systematic review and meta-analysis.. J Nucl Med 2016;57: Jan 14 online. 
2. Ayres KL, Spottswood S, Delbeke D, Price, R, Hodges P, Wang L, Martin WH. Dose Reduction in Pediatric Bone Scintigraphy: Validation of the 2010 North American Consensus Guidelines. J Nucl Med 2015;56 (9): 1391-1394.
3. Ayres K, Mayer I, Delbeke D, Manning C. 18F-FES, a novel isotope for breast cancer PET/CT imaging: Early pharmacodynamics experience in patients on ARN810. Vanderbilt Research Forum, April 2014.
4. Rhodes MM, Delbeke D, Whitlock JA, Martin WH, Kuttesch JF, Frangoul HA, Shankar S. Utility of FDG-PET/CT in follow-up of children treated for Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 2006;28:300-306.

Cardiology Fellows 

1. Agrawal V, Hosey C, Smith GT, Shah C. Detrimental effects of nitroglycerin use during regadenoson vasodilator stress testing: A cautionary tale. J Nucl Cardiol. 2018;25:1718-1723.

Surgery Residents/Fellows

1. Anderson CA, Rice MH, Pinson CW, Chapman WC, Ravi RS, Delbeke D. FDG PET imaging in the evaluation of gallbladder carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma. J. Gastrointest Surg 2004;8 (1):90-97.
2. Wudel LJ, Delbeke D, Morris D, Rice MH, Washington MK, Pinson CW, Chapman WC. The role of FDG-PET imaging in the evaluation of hepatocellular carcinoma. Amer Surg 2003;69:117-126.

Research Fellows 

1. Cerci JJ, Linardi CC, Pracchia LF, Junior JS, Trindade E, Delbeke D, Cerci RJ, Carr R, Meneghetti JC, Buccheri V. 3. 2-[18F]-fluoro-2-desoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography initial staging impacts on survival in Hodgkin lymphoma. World J Radiol. 2013 Dec 28;5(12):484-90.
2. Cerci MS, Cerci JJ, Cerci RJ, Pereira Neto CC, Trindade E, Delbeke D, da Cunha CL, Vitola JV. Myocardial perfusion imaging is a strong predictor of death in women. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2011 Aug;4(8):314-320.
3. Cerci JJ; Trindade E; Buccheri V; Fanti S; Coutinho AMN; Zanoni L; Linardi CCG; Celli M; Delbeke D; Pracchia LF; Pitela FA; Soares J; Zinzani PL; Meneghetti JC. Consistency of FDG-PET accuracy and cost-effectiveness in initial staging of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma across juridictions. Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia 2011;11 (4): 314-320.
4. Cerci JJ, Pracchia LF,  Linardi CC, Pitella FA, Delbeke D, Izaki M, Trindade E, Soares J Jr, Buccheri V, Meneghetti JC. 18F-FDG PET After 2 Cycles of ABVD Predicts Event-Free Survival in Early and Advanced Hodgkin Lymphoma. J Nucl Med 2010;51(9):1337-1343.
5. Cerci JJ, Trindade E, Pracchia LF, Pitella FA, Linardi CC, Soares J Jr, Delbeke D, Topfer LA, Buccheri V, Meneghetti JC. Cost effectiveness of positron emission tomography in Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients in unconfirmed complete response or partial remission after first line therapy. J Clin Oncol 2010;28 (8):1415-21.

Medical Students

1. Spratt DE, Diaz R, McElmurray J, Duggan D, Lu B, Delbeke D. Impact of FDG PET/CT on delineation of gross tumor volume (GTV) for radiation planning in non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Clin Nucl Med 2010;35 (4):237-243.