University of Arkansas names new radiology chair
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine has named Sanjaya Viswamitra, MD, as its new radiology chair.
A professor and chief of emergency radiology for the Little Rock-based organization, Viswamitra has served as interim chair since August. He first joined UAMS as an assistant professor in 2001 and later ascended to associate in 2012 and full professor in 2020.
Viswamitra succeeds Arabinda Choudhary, MD, MBA, who had led the department since 2019 until leaving last year to take on the same position at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York.
“Dr. Viswamitra has done a great job leading our radiology programs for the past eight months, following more than 23 years of previous service in the department,” Steven A. Webber, MD, dean of the College of Medicine and UAMS executive vice chancellor, said in a statement April 15. “Widely recognized for his expertise in cardiac imaging and his longtime work in body and musculoskeletal MRI and nuclear medicine, Dr. Viswamitra has been instrumental in building our clinical and educational endeavors in emergency radiology.”
Viswamitra also previously served as inaugural division chief of body and musculoskeletal MRI from 2002 to 2007. He studied medicine in India and completed his fellowship in nuclear medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Viswamitra later continued his training with a residency in diagnostic radiology at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center and Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York.
The radiologist is active with organizations such as the RSNA and American Roentgen Ray Society. He served as secretary and later president of the Indian Association of Cardiac Imaging and continues as executive chair of the organization. Viswamitra also has served as an executive committee member of the Asian Society of Cardiovascular Imaging, and he has authored over 60 articles, book chapters and other publications.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.