Curriculum

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Nourhan Halawa and Quyen Nguyen are instructed by Jennifer Myers in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

70%

time spent in a clinical setting

time spent in labs

25%

time spent in classroom

Student experiences

The MRI Program is designed to provide a thorough foundation in MRI safety, physics, patient care, and procedures. Courses take place in a specific sequence, progressively building on your expertise as you advance throughout the program. Academic coursework is coordinated with clinical rotations to optimize student learning.

Classroom learning

The classroom portion of the program is spent learning the foundational knowledge and skills needed as an MRI technologist. You will be learning from some of today’s best magnetic resonance practitioners.

Lab experience

You will have the opportunity to transfer your knowledge to practice through lab experiences. You’ll gain hands-on experience and build confidence using magnetic resonance imaging equipment and lab simulations for a wide variety of MR examinations.

Rotations

Students will start working closely with experienced MRI technologists during patient exams by week six of the program! You’ll rotate through a large variety of clinical rotations, including outpatient and inpatient settings. You’ll clock 900 clinical hours and develop the skills necessary to become a competent, entry level MRI technologist.

Teaching faculty

Meet the faculty

Eric Ehman, M.D.
Medical Director

Dr. Ehman is a native of Rochester, MN. He attended Northwestern University in the Chicago, IL area before returning to Rochester to attend Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. He then completed his internship at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, CA, and his radiology residency at the University of California, San Francisco, followed by fellowships in gastrointestinal/genitourinary imaging at Mayo Clinic and nuclear medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA before joining the Department of Radiology at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Ehman’s research and education interests lie at the intersection of abdominal imaging and nuclear medicine, with specific interests in liver and prostate imaging and PET/CT and PET/MRI.

Jacqueline Burnes, RT(R)(M)(MR), M.Ed
Program Director

Jacqueline Burnes received a certificate from the Mayo Clinic Radiography Program and an A.S. degree in radiography from Rochester Community and Technical College in 2011. While working as a radiologic technologist and clinical instructor, Ms. Burnes later earned a B.A. in health care administration from Concordia University – St. Paul in 2016. In May 2019, Ms. Burnes graduated from Colorado State University with a Master of Education (M.Ed.) in adult education and training specialization. Ms. Burnes has experience in a variety of radiology fields including general x-ray, mammography, and magnetic resonance imaging. Throughout her career, Ms. Burnes has worked with students in the clinical, lab, and classroom environments. In the classroom, she has instructed on a variety of topics including procedures, patient care, and professional development.

Jennifer Myers, RT(R)(MR), MRSO
Clinical Coordinator

Jennifer Myers received her A.A.S. degree in radiologic technology from Northwest Technical College in East Grand Forks, MN, in 1998, and her B.S. in applied health from the University of Minnesota, Crookston in 2016. During her career in radiology, Mrs. Myers has worked in diagnostic radiology, dosimetry, and magnetic resonance imaging. She has been a clinical instructor for several colleges as well as an adjunct instructor for radiography and medical assistant programs.

Andrew Fagan, Ph.D., DABR
Faculty

Dr. Andrew Fagan has worked as a medical imaging physicist for more than 25 years and has specialized in MRI since 2000. He studied physics at the University of Dublin Trinity College, Ireland (B.Sc., M.Sc.), and earned a Ph.D. in MR physics at the University of Aberdeen, UK. Dr. Fagan completed his residency in medical physics at St. James’s Hospital Dublin in 1997 and subsequently worked in academic and clinical roles in universities and hospitals in Ireland, UK, and the USA. He has extensive practical experience in MRI across field strengths from 1.5 Tesla to 7 Tesla. Dr. Fagan has experience teaching MRI physics and technology at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels.

Dr. Fagan was the physics advisor to the MR technologist M.Sc. course “Medical Imaging: MRI” at Trinity College Dublin and served as chief physics examiner for the faculty of Radiology Fellowship Program at the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland. His research interests include the development of clinical imaging techniques at 7 Tesla, radiofrequency coils for ultra-high field MRI systems, quantitative methods in MRI, and evaluation of safety. He has published over 85 peer-reviewed research articles and won significant grant funding for his research. He is board-certified in MRI by the American Board of Medical Physics and is an elected fellow of the IOP and the IPEM.

Dr. MyungHo In, Ph.D.
Faculty

Dr. MyungHo In, an assistant professor in the Department of Radiology, has worked in the field of MRI since 2005. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in biomedical engineering from Kyung-Hee University, South Korea, and a Ph.D. in MR physics from Otto-von-Guericke University, Germany. Subsequently, he served as a lecturer and research associate at Otto-von-Guericke University. In 2015, Dr. In joined Mayo Clinic as a senior engineer in the Department of Neurologic Surgery and later in Radiology. Since 2022, he has been serving as a clinical MR physicist, expanding his expertise into the field of interventional MRI.

Dr. In’s primary research interests lie in the development of advanced imaging technologies. His passion for technical advancement is not solely focused on creating optimal engineering solutions for MR research but also on contributing to clinical practice through the application of these developed methods. A recent accomplishment is the development of DIADEM, a novel distortion-free diffusion imaging technique that is currently being used for clinical diagnosis at Mayo Clinic.

Eric Stinson, Ph.D., M.S.
Faculty

Dr. Stinson has been involved in MRI physics since working with Dr. G. Bruce Pike at the Brain Imaging Centre at the Montreal Neurological Institute in 2007-2008. After completing a master’s degree in medical physics at McGill (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), he relocated to Rochester, MN to pursue a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and physiology at Mayo Clinic where he worked with Dr. Stephen Riederer on improving the depiction of the vessel lumen in contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography through advanced image reconstruction techniques. In 2019, Dr. Stinson moved to the role of collaboration manager for Siemens Healthineers, working on-site at Mayo Clinic in Rochester to foster collaborations related to ultra-high-field MR imaging. He has enjoyed teaching in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Program since returning to Mayo Clinic as a clinical MR medical physicist in 2023. Throughout his career, Dr. Stinson has been involved in many sides of MRI research including RF coil design and construction, diffusion imaging, highly accelerated time-resolved contrast-enhanced MR angiography, perfusion imaging, fat-water separated imaging, and ultra-high-field MR imaging.

Jacinta Browne, Ph.D., M.S., MA Higher Ed
Faculty

Dr. Browne has been involved in imaging physics for over 20 years and has been exclusively working and carrying out research in MRI for the last number of years. After completing a Master’s degree in medical physics at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), Dr. Browne moved to Glasgow, Scotland to pursue a Ph.D in Clinical Physics and Engineering in the University of Glasgow. She remained in Glasgow for a few more years, working as a senior Medical Physicist for the UK’s Medical Device Agency. In 2004, Dr. Browne returned to Dublin Ireland to take up a faculty position in the Technical University of Dublin (TU Dublin) where she lectured to clinical scientists, physicists, and engineers in the area of advanced medical imaging. She led her own research program and group, mentoring Ph.D and M.Sc. candidates and Postdoctoral fellows. She was also faculty on the Fellowship of the Faculty of Radiologists program, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland for 10 years. She was promoted to the rank of Professor of Medical Physics in 2016 and in 2017 completed a MA in Higher Education. Then in 2018, Dr. Browne accepted an exciting opportunity to work in the Mayo Clinic, which brought her to Rochester, MN.

Dr. Browne has a deep passion for teaching and her teaching philosophy and practice is centered around the three main educational pillars of (i) student-centered learning, (ii) research informed lecturing and (iii) quality enhanced programs through annual quality assurance monitoring.

Facilities

Students are assigned to clinicals in the Mayo Clinic MRI Department, located in Rochester, Minnesota. Our campus includes an extensive outpatient complex, Mayo Clinic Hospital — Rochester, and substantial research and education facilities. Mayo Clinic is among the largest, most advanced medical centers in the world.

Course schedule

Hours

The majority of the classroom instruction is scheduled Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Students will be required to attend non-regular laboratory sessions. Non-regular hours are defined as evening and weekend hours. Students will be given equitable amount of notice to coordinate with their schedules.

The clinical rotation schedule will primarily vary between the hours of 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Students may be assigned to a limited number of evening rotations at the Mayo Clinic MRI Department, located in Rochester, Minnesota. Students will be given equitable amount of notice to coordinate with their schedules.

View the 2024-2025 academic calendar.

Course sequences

Summer semester I

Number	Course	Credits
MRI 3230	Introduction to Clinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging	2
MRI 3270	MRI Safety	3
MRI 3201	MRI Physics I	2

Fall semester II

Number	Course	Credits
MRI 3360	Fundamentals of Imaging Sciences in Health Care	1
MRI 3315	Medical Informatics	1
MRI 4202	MRI Physics II	2
MRI 3301	MRI Procedures I	4
MRI 3501	Clinical Practicum I	5

Spring semester III

Number	Course	Credits
MRI 4302	Advanced Imaging Procedures	1
MRI 4450	MRI Procedures II	4
MRI 4570	MRI Registry Review	2
MRI 4502	Clinical Practicum II	8

Total credits: 35

Grading and evaluation

Students should be aware that failure to meet or maintain the academic or clinical standards listed may necessitate remedial work of subject matter, as well as possible evaluation for probation or dismissal. All such instances are handled according to the due process policies of the program and Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences. A formal written warning is most often the first step in the process.

Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences uses these evaluative tools:

Self-assessment exercises
Electronic formative and summative assessments
Individual and team-based assignments/projects
Demonstration of skills
Faculty reviews
Technologist evaluations

All courses taught by Mayo faculty are graded according to the methods developed by the MRI Program:

A – 93 to 100 percent
B – 85 to 92.99 percent
C – 78 to 84.99 percent
D – 75 to 77.99 percent
F – below 75 percent

Grade points of A = 4.0, B = 3.0, C = 2.0, D = 1.0 and F = 0 for each credit hour earned are assigned on the Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences transcript.

Degree requirements

By the end of the program, all students who were seeking degree completion from an affiliated academic institution must have completed all of the graduation requirements of the affiliated academic institution. Failure to complete the requirements of the student’s degree granting institution may disallow the student from receiving a certificate of completion from Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences. Students who obtained an associate or bachelor’s degree from an ARRT-recognized mechanism prior to beginning the program are also eligible for graduation.

Didactic requirements

In order to meet the didactic requirements for graduation, students must complete all courses listed in the program curriculum with a grade of C or above.

Clinical requirements

In order to meet the clinical requirements for graduation, students must complete all clinical competencies identified in the Clinical Competency Policy and required by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT).

Graduation and certification

After successfully completing the program, you will receive a certificate of completion from Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences. Students seeking a degree from one of the program’s affiliated academic institutions also receive a degree from their respective college university upon program completion.

Graduates are eligible to take the magnetic resonance imaging certification examination administered by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) after they have successfully completed the Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences MRI Program and earned an associate, baccalaureate, master’s, or doctoral degree. The degree does not need to be in radiologic science and can be earned before entering or while completing this MRI program. Degrees must be granted by an institution accredited by a mechanism recognized by the ARRT. The degree must be completed prior to a candidate taking the examination.

This certification provides graduates with nationally recognized credentials for practicing magnetic resonance imaging and fulfills employment credentialing requirements in Minnesota. In addition to ARRT certification requirements, individual states may have additional licensure requirements.

To learn more about ARRT Certification and Registration and individual state licensing requirements, visit the ARRT website.

Contingency plan

If extenuating catastrophic circumstances (such as a mass casualty event, pandemic, or a natural disaster) impact Mayo Clinic operations, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science operations, or student access to clinical environments at Mayo Clinic sites, the MRI Program may utilize the program contingency plan. For more information, review a copy of Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences MRI Program's Contingency Plan.