University of Miami names new interventional radiology chair

The University of Miami on Tuesday named world-renowned physician and researcher Stephen Solomon, MD, as its new interventional radiology chair. 

Solomon joins the institution after previously serving as IR chief at the New York-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and professor with Weill Cornell Medical College. An internationally recognized leader in interventional oncology, Solomon hopes to elevate IR as a “true clinical specialty,” expand innovation and deepened integration across clinical care. 

Miami touted the physician’s track record of improving minimally invasive care and helping better define the field of interventional radiology. 

“Dr. Solomon’s experience is critical to advancing the department’s academic goals and supporting our mission-based strategy through innovative, image-guided therapies, multidisciplinary care and excellence across patient care, research and education,” Dipen J. Parekh, MD, CEO of the University of Miami Health System, said in a statement Aug. 25. 

Solomon is replacing Laurence Sands, MD, MBA, who has served as interim IR chair and will continue as head of Miami’s department of surgery. The new chairman was drawn to the institution because of it recognizing IR as an independent department. Solomon believes this distinction signals the specialty’s growing importance in modern medicine, the university noted. He hopes the department can serve as a national model for how IR can thrive as a standalone specialty. 

“As its own department at the Miller School [of Medicine], interventional radiology can represent its unique needs and enable us to deliver exceptional patient care, innovative research and inspiring education,” Solomon said in a statement. 

Solomon attended medical school at Yale and completed his radiology residency at Johns Hopkins. He specializes in vascular and interventional radiology with a focus on radiofrequency tumor ablation, and cancers of the kidney and liver. Solomon also is a prolific inventor of devices in various medical fields and past president of the Society for Interventional Oncology.

In his new role, Solomon plans to strengthen the IR department’s identity as a comprehensive clinical service that supports patients throughout their care journey. He hopes to help position interventional radiology as a central, patient-facing discipline that manages care over time.  

“I want to build the department as a true clinical specialty that sees patients in continuity,” Solomon said in the announcement. “From the time of diagnosis to definitive therapy and then in follow-up.”

“I’m very excited to collaborate with my esteemed colleagues at UHealth, who tirelessly work to advance patient care,” he added later.