Reinventing radiology: RSNA's president speaks on the specialty's evolving role in patient care
Umar Mahmood, MD, PhD, president of the Radiological Society of North America, offered his perspective on how radiology is set to evolve in the coming years, highlighting the specialty’s growing role in patient care.
Mahmood, a Harvard professor of radiology who also serves as chief of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, among other titles, at Massachusetts General Hospital, opened his talk by discussing the specialty’s “oneness,” noting the common goals those in radiology-related fields have with healthcare as a whole.
“All of us in this room share a common humanity. We have common hopes and dreams. We share an interest in radiology and compassion for our patients,” he said. “However, there’s a duality to our existence. We are individuals with a rich tapestry of characteristics that are unique to each of us—each colleague, each patient, each life is different.”
He went on to note how this relates to RSNA’s theme this year—Imaging the Individual. Mahmood, who has conducted extensive research on molecular imaging, spoke on the many advances that have been made in precision medicine and how radiology has played a critical role in developing tailored therapies for complex diseases.
“It’s about giving the right drug at the right dose at the right time for the right patient,” Mahmood said, offering examples of how imaging lays the groundwork for precision treatment. “We have become increasingly integral to the care pathway.”
Mahmood believes the emergence of theranostics, which combines diagnostic imaging capabilities with therapeutic techniques, is vital to expanding radiology’s capacity in patient care. This, Mahmood says, moves radiology beyond diagnoses alone, positioning the specialty to help transform medicine in ways that benefit individuals who do not fit into traditional patient boxes.
“We can already image dozens of abnormalities in cancer. This will soon expand to hundreds of specific targets,” he noted. “Imaging is integral to the current and future treatment scenarios that directly involve these abnormalities, further advancing an individual precision oncology approach.”
In the coming years, Mahmood advises that data collection will be pivotal for optimizing treatment strategies. This, combined with artificial intelligence to parse the information in a way that it can be used to identify patterns, will make creating targeted therapies routine practice. He says this will provide a roadmap for how molecular imaging can be harnessed to tailor treatments unique to individual patients.
“Because imaging enables a cure, our knowledge guides patients to their best outcomes. We can help guide treatment in real time as an essential part of a care team,” he said. "We continually reinvent our field. Radiology today is a different specialty than it was 10 years ago. And because of our hard work together, it’s going to be a different specialty 10 years from now.”
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.