The goals of our residency program are to introduce and support resident participation in research, as well as to educate residents on the process of scientific inquiry. We aim to support and enhance the quality of resident research projects, as well as their level of satisfaction in research endeavours. Residents in the Diagnostic Radiology residency program at McMaster are required to actively participate in at least one research project during their residency training. Participation is defined as the resident acting as a principle investigator or major participant in the research project. Levels of potential involvement include several activities, including: planning the study design, data collection, analysis and summarizing results. Ideally the resident should be involved at all levels of project development and execution, presentation at a scientific meeting, as well as submission to a peer reviewed journal. It is the program goal that resident participants are among the principle authours of the published article, although this is not necessarily a mandatory requirement.

Activities which qualify as eligible for our program’s research requirement include prospective, retrospective, quality assurance, audit or large cases series projects. In general terms, eligible projects include comprehensive project development: objectives, material and methods, results, discussion and conclusions. Most projects will require Research Ethics Board application and approval. Residents are eligible for research time dedicated to their project. Submission and presentation of the projects to international and national radiological meetings is strongly encouraged. There is funding available for residents to attend and present their projects at national and international radiology meetings. Submission and presentation of the project at McMaster Radiology Research Day is mandatory.