2018: The Year in Radiology Education
The Department of Radiology continued experiencing rapid development throughout 2018, with expanded programs in education.
"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 related to the Department's educational mission:
New Faculty
Eleven distinguished educators joined the faculty in 2018.
"In Pediatric Radiology, we welcomed Sheena Pimpalwar, who came to us from the University of Missouri," Dr. Rofsky said. "In Medical Physics, we brought in Yue Zhang, fresh off his Imaging Physics residency training at the University of Chicago. Prior to that he received postdoctoral training in our Department."
Dr. Rofsky continued, "In Abdominal Imaging, we welcomed Yee Seng Ng, who completed his residency and fellowship training at UT Southwestern, and Dave Roy, who trained with us and then returned from private practice to join our Community Radiology Division. We also brought in Frank Yu from Massachusetts General Hospital to join our Neuroradiology Division, and we welcomed Majid Chalian from the University of Virginia Hospital to our Musculoskeletal Radiology Division."
Dr. Elizabeth Davenport was promoted to the Research faculty after serving as a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Rofsky added. "But by far, the biggest change came in our Vascular and Interventional Radiology Division, with four new faculty members," he said.
"We welcomed Peiman Habibollahi from the University of Pennsylvania, Marcin Kolber from his fellowship training at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Dianbo Zhang from State University of New York in Syracuse, and Christine Chen from her fellowship training at the University of Virginia," Dr. Rofsky said.
Faculty Promotions and Academic Awards
Dr. Rofsky also noted that Dr. Takeshi Yokoo had been promoted to Associate Professor, and Dr. Sanjeeva Kalva had been promoted to full professor.
"Takeshi continues to do an outstanding job as Assistant Program Director for our Clinician-Scientist residency track," Dr. Rofsky said. "His promotion is well deserved."
"As many of you know, although Sanjeeva has moved on to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, he has maintained his affiliation with UT Southwestern, so we'll be seeing him from time to time," Dr. Rofsky said.
He congratulated Dr. Joesph Maldjian for becoming the inaugural holder of the Lee R. and Charlene B. Raymond Distinguished Chair in Brain Research, and Dr. Basak Dogan on being named the first Eugene P. Frenkel, M.D. Scholar in Clinical Medicine.
"Basak competed against faculty in all other clinical departments for that award, so it's very impressive and we're proud of her," Dr. Rofsky said, adding "as we are proud of all our endowed faculty."
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.