Residents and fellows routinely function as the primary investigator role in a wide variety of clinical research projects, ranging from retrospective studies to randomized clinical trials.
Common topics include comparative outcomes after interventional oncology therapies, hemodialysis interventions, complex gastrointestinal interventions, vascular imaging, and transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt creation. Residents and fellows have full access to the Duke Interventional Radiology Translational Research Laboratory for the pursuit of basic and translational science research as well as access to a full-service vivarium for animal research.
Current and past topics include preclinical trials of bariatric embolization in a swine model, analysis of cellular responses to hypoxia and thermal ablation, patterns of pro-angiogenesis responses after tumor embolization, development of novel bypass graft techniques in swine, augmentation of thermal ablation via manipulation of physical properties of tumors in rabbits, development of models of GI hemorrhage in swine, strategies for combating biofilm formation in vitro and in rabbits, and more. There is also ample opportunity to work with the PhD faculty in Radiology and throughout the university, as well as the Department of Biomedical Engineering on device development.
Our trainees have achieved great success in receiving numerous research grants and awards every year from the Society of Interventional Radiology and Radiologic Society of North America, including multiple coveted RSNA Resident Research Grants. On an annual basis, our trainees routinely first-author numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts in journals such as Radiology, Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, and many others. Additionally, our trainees typically present over a dozen abstracts per year at major national scientific meetings such as RSNA and the Society of Interventional Radiology.