Division of Musculoskeletal Radiology

We are very proud of the high quality of our clinical work, which is made possible by the availability of state-of-the-art imaging equipment and excellent support staff. Musculoskeletal radiology has a very collegial relationship with orthopaedic surgery, rheumatology, and sports medicine physicians. We work closely together to ensure that our clinical colleagues are satisfied with the quality of our care, which we constantly improve by incorporating new techniques when available.

Our orthopedic and rheumatology clinical services at Keck School of Medicine have a very strong tradition and superb reputation both nationally and internationally. We are proud to be a part of the musculoskeletal team, enjoy the close working relationship with our clinical colleagues. We constantly communicate with our clinical colleagues and give full support to their clinical, research and academic enterprises such as dynamic contrast enhancement and perfusion of soft tissue lesions with MRI, medial collateral ligament research, and advanced imaging for arthroplasty complications. In addition to our expertise in musculoskeletal imaging, we offer a variety of minimally invasive imaging guided procedures, some of which are not offered by anyone else in the area.

The Fellowship Program in Musculoskeletal Radiology is one year in duration and is located at three separate sites, the new Los Angeles General Medical Center, the Keck Hospital of USC, and the Healthcare Consultation Center. The Los Angeles General Medical Center is one of the world’s largest hospitals with a very busy level I trauma unit and a full complement of clinical services. The new hospital has new, state of the art imaging modalities including three 1.5 Tesla MRI scanners, 5 MDCT scanners and a PET-CT unit.The Keck Hospital of USC site has two MDCT (16 slice and 64 slice) and a 1.5 Tesla Symphony MR and two 3 Tesla GE MR systems. The adjacent Healthcare Consultation Center is an outpatient facility where rheumatology and orthopedic patients are seen. A large proportion of MSK imaging is performed at this location, which has a 3.0 Tesla GE MRI, a 3.0 Tesla Toshiba MRI, a 1.5 Tesla Siemens MRI, and a 320 detector Toshiba CT with metal reduction artifact software.The fellowship focuses on all aspects and modalities of musculoskeletal imaging and procedures. This includes conventional radiography, ultrasound, CT, MR, and CT-PET. Image guided procedures such as arthrography, biopsy, and image guided therapeutic injections are routinely performed.

Our staff trains 2 musculoskeletal fellows each year in addition to residents and advanced body imaging fellows. Education is a top priority, and staff provides numerous didactic and case conferences throughout the year. We also have weekly conferences with orthopedics, including an ortho-oncology tumor conference and a sports injury conference. We also participate in spine conference and a rheumatology-radiology conference.

We have a weekly meeting to discuss recent articles and future research ideas. Our attending staff and fellows are involved at local as well as national level scientific meetings regularly. We have several recent publications in radiology journals including Radiographics and Emergency Radiology. Under the guidance of the Division Director, Dr. Eric White, the fellows and faculty are supported and encouraged to participate in research.

Due to our clinical exposure to a great variety of disease processes involving the musculoskeletal system, we are able to compile an extensive teaching file. Our goal is to refine our teaching file by improving the organization and adding references to the teaching file. Our ultimate goal is to have a digitized teaching file that can be accessed on the Web.