Stefan Ochensberger

The Kirklin Clinic is a ‘day clinic’ for outpatients only. It is linked to the UAB Hospital (University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital) and is one of the largest outpatient clinics in the United States. Approx. 2000 patients are seen here by over 600 doctors every day.

I tried to adapt to the rapid pace of work from the very first day. An average of 100 patients are examined here each day. The clinic has three CT scanners in order to ensure the smooth running of operations. The first examination I witnessed was a preliminary investigation for a kidney donation. At the time, I was not aware that this procedure is carried out very frequently. It was only later that I discovered that the UAB carries out approx. 350 kidney transplants each year, making it the number one in the USA for this procedure. The Kirklin Clinic also has five MRI machines, three X-ray scanners, four conventional X-ray systems, four mammogram machines and two dual detector cameras. During my internship, I was able to observe the X-ray and nuclear medicine machines at work.

Despite the tight time schedules and high number of patients, everyone made an effort to explain the processes and procedures to me. The GE® system interface was not completely unfamiliar to me. I had already gained some experience of GE® during my internship in the Clinical Department for Nuclear Medicine. My responsibilities included collecting the patients from the waiting room, explaining the procedure to them and answering any questions they might have. I should mention that, due to the language, tasks which would otherwise have been very simple, such as explaining the examination procedure and effect of the contrasting agent, were very challenging and difficult for me. During the first few days of my internship, I had to really concentrate to understand the strong southern US accent and had to deduce any gaps in my vocabulary from the context.

The overriding and explicit goal of UAB Medicine and its smaller organisations is to provide patients with the best clinical care and support and provide relevant scientific services.

During my stay, the new PET/MR scanner from GE® was installed and began operation. I had the opportunity to observe the scanner at work and was also able to take part in staff training. This enabled me to meet the engineers and developers from GE and to experience the start-up procedures involved in making this ultra-modern device operational. The Signa® PET/MR scanner is used for diagnostics as well as research.

My internship at the Kirklin Clinic was certainly an enriching experience. I met lots of very nice and interesting people as well as being given the opportunity to expand my horizons and learn how processes can be optimised to work more efficiently while carrying out radiological diagnostics and clinical research at the highest level. UAB Medicine along with its clinics and departments all work and research at the cutting edge. To retain their lead, money is invested each year both to expand the infrastructure and support numerous research projects.