Pallavi Utukuri Appointed Radiology Residency Program Director
Pallavi Utukuri, MD, has been appointed program director for the Diagnostic Radiology Residency at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian. She will oversee the department’s ACGME diagnostic residency training program, which provides diagnostic radiology training for 33 diagnostic and interventional radiology residents. She will begin her new position on July 1, 2025.
Utukuri brings extensive education experience to her new role. She currently serves as director of medical student education for the department and chief of radiology at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital. She is also the chief editor for the Alliance of Medical Student Educators in Radiology (AMSER) Case of the Month, a national peer-reviewed online journal published by the Association of Academic Radiology.
“Dr. Utukuri is a distinguished educator whose work over the years has already meaningfully enhanced how we teach radiology at Columbia,” said Ajay Gupta, MD, MS, James Picker Professor of Radiology and chair of the Department of Radiology. “As residency program director, she will bring the same creativity and dedication that have defined her impact on medical student education. Her leadership will be instrumental in advancing the training of future radiologists who will graduate from our world-class training program. We are delighted to welcome her to this important role.”
A neuroradiologist who joined Columbia Radiology in 2010, Utukuri has been recognized at Columbia for her innovations and efforts to incorporate medical imaging into all levels of the medical school curriculum at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S). Her popular Virtual Autopsy Program, launched in 2016, allows first-year medical students to analyze computed tomography (CT) scans of cadavers prior to dissection in Gross Anatomy. In 2020, she successfully launched a hybrid flipped classroom module for the medical school’s radiology rotation, which has been repeatedly recognized as the most high-yield rotation at VP&S.
In 2022, Utukuri became the first member of the Department of Radiology to be inducted into the Virginia Apgar Academy of Medical Educators, honoring her excellence as an educator at VP&S.
“I’m excited to bring new innovations to residency training in a way that hasn’t been done before at Columbia,” said Utukuri, who will take on this role at a time when the healthcare field is being transformed by artificial intelligence tools, many of which are being implemented around imaging. “My focus has been and will continue to be on educating a generation of physicians who are accustomed to very different learning models, and I hope to make an impact on their learning.”
Utukuri received her medical degree from Rutgers University/New Jersey Medical School and completed a diagnostic radiology residency at Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey. She completed fellowship training in neuroradiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian.