2019: The Year in Review
The Department of Radiology continued experiencing rapid development throughout 2019.
"It's a great privilege to build on a legacy of excellence, and to use that as a foundation for reaching new milestones," said Dr. Neil M. Rofsky, Chair of Radiology. "I know we can achieve the goal of becoming a Top-10 radiology department."
In recent presentations to faculty and alumni, Dr. Rofsky highlighted the following accomplishments and honors:
New and Returning Faculty
Fourteen distinguished educators joined or re-joined the faculty in 2019.
"This year, we welcomed three faculty members who completed their fellowship training at UT Southwestern, and we welcomed back a faculty member in a new role," Dr. Rofsky said, "They join 10 new faculty members who really bring a wealth of talent and enthusiasm to the Department."
In Vascular and Interventional Radiology (VIR), "we welcomed back Anil Pillai, who returned to us as the new chief of VIR after serving as section chief at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston," Dr. Rofsky said. "It's good to have him back, and to welcome Jayesh Soni, who worked with Dr. Pillai in Houston. We also brought in Joseph McLaughlin as a faculty member in VIR, fresh off his fellowship training here at UT Southwestern."
Dr. Rofsky continued, "Our Pediatric Radiology Division also got a new permanent chief as Tim Booth was officially named to that position after serving as interim chief since February 2018. This year he brought in Maddy Artunduaga and Elliot Rinzler to the Pediatric Radiology faculty. Maddy just completed her fellowship training at Baylor and Elliot joined us after completing his fellowship training at the University of Cincinnati."
Dr. Aditi Mulgaonkar was promoted to the Research faculty "after serving as a research technician and production radiochemist in our cyclotron program," Dr. Rofsky said. "We also brought in Richard Guo as a Research faculty member. He will be working closely with our MRI team. And Quyen Do joined the faculty after completing her postdoctoral fellowship."
In Neuroradiology, "we brought in Michael Achilleos after he completed his fellowship training with us, so we know he's going to do a great job. And we were fortunate to bring in Lorraine De Blanche in Nuclear Medicine. She had been working at the VA Medical Center in Dallas. And Vishal Kukkar joined our Cardiothoracic Imaging faculty, just after completing his fellowship training at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio."
Because the Community Radiology Division continues to grow, Dr. Rofsky said, "we recruited Arati Khanna and Sheena Prakash from their private practices to help meet the clinical needs of that division. And, after some delays, we finally welcomed Nima Kasraie to our Medical Physics faculty from the University of Missouri in Kansas City."
Faculty Promotions and Academic Awards
Dr. Rofsky also congratulated several faculty members who were promoted in 2019, including Drs. Roderick McColl and Xiankai Sun on becoming full Professors, and Drs. Daniel Costa, Mark Reddick, and Elena Vinogradov becoming Associate Professors.
"These are all well-deserved promotions," Dr. Rofsky said. "Our faculty continue to set the standard for excellence. I especially want to highlight Roddy, who joined our faculty in just after receiving his PhD from the University of Warwick in the U.K. in 1992, and Xiankai, who joined our faculty after starting out as a research instructor at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology in St. Louis."
University and Department Awards
"In other awards, Karuna Raj received the Southwestern Academy of Teachers/Office of Medical Education Fellowship," Dr. Rofsky said. "Craig Morriss was elected to the SWAT Academy, and Jessica Porembka will participate in the Leadership Emerging in Academic Departments program next year."
Special mention was made of Dr. Julie Champine, the second member of the Radiology Faculty to be elected to the UT System's Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., Academy of Health Science Education. Dr. Diane Twickler was inducted to the Academy in 2016.
"The Shine Academy is a most prestigious honor," Dr. Rofsky said. "Only a small number are selected from all six health institutions in the UT System, so to have two Radiology faculty from UT Southwestern is an extraordinary accomplishment."
Additional Department awards were presented to the following:
- Julie Birch, M.D., Outstanding Senior
- Kristen Bishop, M.D., Golden Apple Award, Parkland Health & Hospital System
- Kevin Cederberg, M.D., Golden Apple Award, Children's Health
- Asha Kandathil, M.D., Golden Apple Award, Clement's University Hospital
- Robert Lenkinski, Ph.D., Outstanding Mentor Award
Conferences
Dr. Rofsky noted the "vigorous set" of 17 Grand Rounds lectures that had been offered throughout 2018, featuring a "wide range of topics and diverse presentations." Lecturers from outside UT Southwestern included the following:
- Yoshimi Anzai, M.D., Utah School of Medicine, "Value of Imaging for Patient Care Improvement"
- Peter Choyke, M.D., National Institutes of Health, "Imaging of Immune Cells in the Era of Cancer Immunotherapy"
- Christine Chung, M.D., University of California – San Diego, "Ultrashort TE MRI in the Musculoskeletal System"
- Baowei Fei, University of Texas at Dallas, "Quantitative Molecular Imaging and Image-Guided Intervention for Precision Medicine"
- Kirk Frey, M.D., Ph.D., University of Michigan, "Molecular Imaging of Dementia"
- Debra Gervais, M.D., Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, "Current Status of Renal Tumor Ablation"
- Robert Gillies, Ph.D., Moffitt Cancer Center, "Images are Data: Radiomics, Deep Learning and Habitats of Cancer"
- Jeffrey Jarvik, M.D., University of Washington, "From Explanatory to Pragmatic Clinical Trials: A New Era for Effectiveness Research"
- John Lewin, M.D., Women’s Imaging Center, Denver, "Contrast-Enhanced Mammography"
- Andrej Lyshchik, M.D., Ph.D., Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, "Emerging Clinical Applications of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound"
- Daniel Spielman, Ph.D., Stanford University, "Metabolic Imaging of Malignant Glioma: Hyperpolarized 13C MRI and Other Techniques"
New Roles and Honors in Professional Societies
Dr. Rofsky thanked and congratulated the following faculty members for taking on new roles and receiving honors in professional societies and organizations:
- Suhny Abbara, M.D., Inaugural Editor of Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging, and President, Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography
- Timothy Booth, M.D., and Marco Pinho, M.D., Outstanding Reviewers, American Journal of Neuroradiology
- Cecelia Brewington, M.D., Vice President, American College of Radiology (ACR) Colon Cancer Committee
- Avneesh Chhabra, M.D., Mentor of Students who Received Young Investigator Awards, Radiological Society of North America
- Basak Dogan, M.D., ACR Data Science Institute Breast Imaging Committee
- Ivan Pedrosa, M.D., Ph.D., Treasurer, Society of Computed Body Tomography and Magnetic Resonance (SCBT-MR)
- Diane Twickler, M.D., Daniel Costa, M.D., and Prabhakar Rajiah, M.D., Editor's Recognition Award, Radiology
He gave special recognition to Dr. Julia Fielding for receiving the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award from the American Association for Women Radiologists.
"I was fortunate to have attended the group's annual event in December, when Dr. Fielding was presented honored for lifetime achievement," he said. "It was quite a wonderful moment," Dr. Rofsky said. "It was a landmark achievement for Dr. Fielding, and she was also elected a Fellow of the organization."
Dr. Rofsky also noted six faculty members who had been inducted as Fellows of various societies:
- Cecelia Brewington, M.D., American College of Radiology
- Daniel Costa, M.D., SCBT-MR
- Julia Fielding, M.D., American Association for Women Radiologists
- Gaurav Khatri, M.D., Society of Abdominal Radiology
- Ron Peshock, M.D., American Medical Informatics Association
- Rathan Subramaniam, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
Expanded Programs and Additional Learning Opportunities
UT Southwestern has one of the largest Radiology residency programs in the nation, with three programs that can accommodate up to 75 dedicated trainee positions, Dr. Rofsky said.
"During 2018, we revamped our resident conferences so we could focus on the goal of education," he continued, "and the feedback I've received is that there's satisfaction with the way they've been redesigned. We now have a weekly mega conference for a large group experience supplemented by division- and site-specific conferences to optimize resident schedules while being mindful of travel time and clinical needs. The new system reduces the amount of lecture time per month, but also saves about seven hours of travel time and restores nearly 15 hours when residents had to be off service."
In 2018, the Department also began offering five undergraduate courses, up from three.
Dr. Rofsky holds the Effie and Wofford Cain Distinguished Chair in Diagnostic Imaging and serves as Co-Director of Translational Research for the Advanced Imaging Research Center.