SIR rebrands to accent innovative patient care

The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) has launched a new brand for the society and its research organization—SIR Foundation—in an effort to demonstrate its commitment to patient-driven care while highlighting the power and potential of interventional radiology.

The logo's new tagline, “The vision to heal,” reflects “the innovative, patient-driven care that board-certified interventional radiologists deliver," resulting in less risk, less pain and shorter recovery time than traditional surgery, according to the announcement.

The new logos for SIR and SIR Foundation will be on display at the society’s Annual Scientific Meeting in Atlanta, February 28-March 5, and integrated into all of the society’s communications over the coming months. They maintain elements of the original society’s logo, but add a contempory look and a reference to SIR’s catheter-based origins. The rebranding will entail redesign of the organization’s website as well.

“Our new brand helps us to better communicate the valuable and unique role that interventional radiology has in delivering comprehensive clinical care,” said SIR Executive Director Susan E. Sedory Holzer, in a statement. “By listening to our members, this new framework also reflects the passion and dedication members have for the specialty and, more importantly, high-quality care.”

In an interview with RadiologyBusiness.com, SIR President James B. Spies, M.D. professor and chair of the Department of Radiology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., said “there were a number of motivations behind looking at our brand and trying to refresh it, and it’s mostly a matter of restating and reminding people what modern interventional radiology is.”

He pointed out that over the last several years interventional radiologists have “redefined our specialty.” For example, it was less than three years ago that interventional radiology achieved specialty status when the American Board of Medical Specialties approved the application from the American Board of Radiology for a new dual primary certificate in interventional radiology and diagnostic radiology. 

“So, there are a lot of changes in the structure of how we are being trained,” Spies said “It all recognizes the complexity of practice, the integration we have to have in the care of patients and the clinical services we have to provide. We really have emerged as a different kind of beast compared to a standard diagnostic radiologist.”

Spies said that another motivation for revisiting SIR’s brand is that “we realize this is a competitive environment."

“Interventional radiologists are very innovative and we’ve literally created dozens of new techniques, procedures, methods and devices that allow us to better manage patients with minimally invasive techniques," Spies said. "Other specialties have viewed what we’ve done, and I think they would like to declare their capabilities in those areas. We want to refresh people’s memories about the skills we bring to the table and the things we’ve done to contribute to the advancement of medicine, making the argument that we are the innovators with the confidence to really take these clinical problems and solve them using these minimally invasive techniques.”

Spies also said it was important to understand that young people who are pursuing a career in medicine are increasingly looking to interventional radiology. “There is so much excitement among young people now about entering this field,” he said. “So we think it’s really important for them to have a clear statement about what the field is, who we are, and what we do.”