Course Overview

The course focuses on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), a highly prevalent yet often disregarded public health issue. Despite radiologists' pivotal role in identifying non-accidental trauma in children, our training often overlooks the nuances of detecting abuse in adults, where significant underreporting persists due to societal stigma and interdependency dynamics. 

Learning Objectives

1. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a highly prevalent public health issue with multiple adverse health effects. Radiologists are well suited to assessing a patient’s likelihood of IPV. 

2. Recognition of common IPV injury mechanisms and resulting target and defensive injury patterns on imaging and understanding of differences between patients who have experienced IPV and those who have not with respect to use of imaging will aid radiologists in accurate IPV diagnosis. 

3. Awareness of differences in injury patterns resulting from IPV-related and accidental trauma can aid radiologists in detecting a mismatch between the provided clinical history and imaging findings to support suspicion of IPV. Radiologists should consider all available current and prior imaging in assessing the likelihood of IPV; this process may be aided by machine learning methods.