Resident program director of the month

Name: Neil Hansen, MD

Medical school attended: UNMC College of Medicine

Location of your residency/fellowship training: Diagnostic radiology residency and abdominal imaging fellowship, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

What residency/fellowship program at UNMC are you serving as program director for?

Diagnostic radiology

Number of trainees: 24

How long have you been the program director?

Four years

What made you chose to become the program director?

I am passionate about medical education and helping form great clinical radiologists. The residents are my favorite part of the job.

What challenges do you foresee in graduate medical education in the future?

We are going to need more physicians in most medical specialties. Training is expensive. Many programs nationwide are having difficulty paying to expand their programs. Where will the money to train physicians come from?

What are the strengths of your training program?

We have outstanding people throughout the department. Our administrative staff, our technologists, our trainees and our faculty radiologists are all great people. Everyone is committed to outstanding clinical care of our patients.

List some accomplishments that you are proud of:

Our residents have a 100% boards pass rate many years running. It’s a hard exam; some years over 15% of applicants fail nationally. I am proud that we’ve provided both UNMC and the state of Nebraska really great clinical radiologists at the end of their training.

Tell us three things about you that others may not know:

• I lead my son’s scout troop. Highlight was earning badges for fire starting, and then also learning first aid for burns.
• We got a dog during COVID times; she is much harder to train than my residents.
• Hurt my neck last year and had to have a cervical fusion at UNMC. Made me proud to work here given the excellent care I received.