Q&A roundtable with 2017 ACR gold medalists

Three candidates have been selected for the American College of Radiology's (ACR) highest honor as 2017 Gold Medalists, reviewed by the board of chancellors for their service and commitment to the college or radiology.

• Bruce J. Hillman, MD, of Wake Forest, North Carolina, professor of radiology and medical imaging and health evaluation sciences and former chair of radiology, University of Virginia, and founding and current editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR).
• John A. Patti, MD, of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, senior lecturer in radiology at Harvard Medical School and thoracic radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, and past chair of the board and president of ACR.
• Jeffrey C. Weinreb, MD, of New Haven, Connecticut, professor of radiology and biomedical imaging and vice chair for strategic planning and innovation at Yale-New Haven Hospital/Yale School of Medicine, and past board of chancellors member and vice-president of ACR

Radiology Business spoke with all three 2017 Gold Medalists to get their thoughts as key innovators. 

Radiology Business: What does it mean for you to be honored with the college's highest honors?

Bruce J. Hillman: "This is hard to answer, but let me try my best. The truth is that all of the really good jobs I’ve had in radiology, it'll be 40 years in another couple of years, about the time I intend to retire. All of the good jobs I’ve had [were] really been given to me by the ACR, and so I already feel I’ve been honored adequately in that regard. Back in the late '80s, early '90s, [ACR] brought me on to do work to show that self referral was a problem in medical imaging. In the late '90s, they asked me to be the principal investigator of their application during a large clinical trial network, which we eventually called the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN), and they asked me to found and edit their journal, so they’ve been really good to me all along. I’ve been on the board of chancellors for 19 years now. I just left the board, and it’s been a great honor to be associated all along."

John A. Patti: "It’s very humbling to be included among the many dedicated radiologists who have given their best to develop and perpetuate a specialty that has become indispensable to the healthcare of the world population. I’ve been privileged to participate as a leader in that ongoing process, and so I feel that the true reward and honor lies in the satisfaction I’ve derived from that participation."

Jeffrey C. Weinbreb: "I am surprised and humbled. All of the volunteers that contribute so much time and effort to the ACR are doing it because they are committed to improve the quality and safety of care for our patients, and it’s always nice to receive some type of recognition and positive reinforcement. I am especially excited to join an illustrious group of previous recipients of the Gold Medal, along with my good friends Bruce Hillman, John Patti and one of our key partners at the ACR, Pam Wilcox, who is receiving the ACR Distinguished Achievement Award."

What was one of your greatest achievements in Radiology?

Bruce J. Hillman: "My greatest accomplishment this year has been continuing to improve and expand on the success of the Journal of American College of Radiology."

John A. Patti: "I would have to say that my greatest achievements in radiology have occurred over several years and involve my role as the leader of an ACR economics and government relations team that has worked tirelessly to educate legislators, regulators and payers about the central and vitally important place of radiology in the provision of high quality healthcare to the U.S. population."

Jeffrey C. Weinbreb: "Since 2011, I have been co-chair of the PI-RADS (Prostate Imaging and Reporting Data System) Steering Committee. This has been an international effort to standardize the acquisition, interpretation and reporting of prostate MRI exams. Although we finished the most recent version last year, it was published in a major peer reviewed journal in early 2016. Very quickly, it has been adopted for use around the globe by most of the prostate cancer medical community, and it has facilitated both groundbreaking research and improved patient care. The positive response has been overwhelming."

What do you see for the future of radiology? 

Bruce J. Hillman: "There’s a real problem trying to extrapolate what people generally do, which is a linear fashion; they take a trend and say, well, if this trend continues for the next 10 years, here’s where we’ll be. But these trends never continue in a linear fashion, so I guess what I would have to say is that these are very rapidly changing times and all the more so with the election. Short-term predictions are going to be hard enough, let alone trying to determine what’s going to happen many years in. If one just looks at sort of the forces working currently, it’s a real muddle and I would guess that things that radiologists are going to have to watch for and adapt to is whatever is likely to replace, and I do think they will replace Obamacare, so we’re going to have to be nimble and responding to whatever the current events are coming out of the federal government, and that we’re going to have to learn to live with deep machine learning and more practices to provide something of extra value beyond that."

John A. Patti: "I think the future of radiology is as bright as it has ever been, provided that radiologists recognize and implement the necessary changes to their practice paradigm. The radiologists who will achieve success in the future will be those who can properly balance the volume of studies and procedures with the time necessary to participate actively as core members of a broader healthcare team."

Jeffrey C. Weinbreb: "As we move to more patient-centric, personalized and affordable care, the role of radiology and radiologists will continue to expand. We will have to continue to innovate and learn new skill sets, and we will also have to change some of our care pathway paradigms. But, this is what radiologists do and what radiology has always done. It will not be without many bumps in the road, but the future of radiology is bright and limitless."

Individuals were also selected for the Honorary fellowship for their significant contributions to the science or practice of radiology but are not eligible for ACR Fellowship:

• Berend J. Slotman, MD, PhD, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, professor and chair of radiation oncology, VU University Medical Center Amsterdam 
• Jacob Sosna, MD, of Jerusalem, Israel, chair, division of imaging, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, and president of the Israel Radiological Association

In addition, Pamela A. Wilcox, RN, MBA, of Ridge, Maryland, will receive the Distinguished Achievement Award for notable service to the college and the profession. Wilcox served as ACR executive vice president of quality and safety, retiring in 2015 after 28 years of service.

Honors will be bestowed during ACR 2017—the Crossroads of Radiology, which will be held at Washington, D.C., in May 2015.