By Michael Mozdy
As COVID-19 makes in-person conferences and symposia impossible, this year's Imaging Elevated Planning Committee used their collective experience in Zoom-style meetings to devise a program that would be wide-ranging, engaging, and yet not fatiguing. Indeed, committee co-chairs Matt Alexander, MD, Donna Cross, PhD, and Sherry Wang, MBBS created a memorable and enjoyable event.
An impressive 147 people attended over the course of three days. As one post-symposium survey responder stated, "I enjoyed the breadth of the topics and how presentations were broad and not focused, particularly the plenary speakers. I especially enjoyed Dr. Bluemke's angle toward young investigators."
Day 1: Bluemke and Alexander
Dr. Alexander kicked off the symposium, passing the spotlight to Department Chair, Satoshi Minoshima, MD, PhD, who welcomed the speakers and attendees from across North America. Next up was David Bluemke, MD, PhD, the Editor-in-Chief of the influential journal Radiology, with a presentation entitled "Building your Career: Creativity and Coattails." Highlights of his talk included inspiring and challenging quotes from Arnold Swarzenneger as well as a great Q&A. The day ended with plenary talks from 5 invited emerging investigators from around the country.
Day 2: Wang, HIFU and the Case Competition
Dr. Wang hosted the Zoom webinar on day 2 and behind the scenes, worked with the 14 case competitors prior to the competition, providing tips on structuring and recording their cases. First up on this day, however, was a fascinating dive into MR-guided high-frequency focused ultrasound, commonly called HIFU for short. Faculty HIFU guru, Allison Payne, PhD, moderated this session, with great contributions from Stanford's Pejman Ghanouni, MD, PhD, Utah's Henrik Odeen, PhD, and Blake Zimmerman, and Megan Poorman, PhD, from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. After a HIFU Q&A, MSK section chief, Megan Mills, PhD, took the reins and moderated the Case Competition. Lasting just over an hour, this session featured the work from residents and medical students in our system. Many thanks to faculty judges Drs. Mills, Kaufman, Olpin, Winkler, Salzman, Schroeder, and Morton. The judges awarded the following:
- 1st place: Andreas Christensen, MD, PGY3 - DR Resident
- 2nd place: Abby Cogman, DO, PGY4 - IR/DR Resident
- 3rd place: Chloe Cross, medical student
But that's not all! Attendees of the virtual symposium got a chance to vote for two Viewer's Choice winners, who were Tessie Pham, MD (PGY3 DR resident) and Chloe Cross. Congratulations to all winners and kudos to all who submitted cases. Day 2 finished with a relaxed "Drink & Think Social."
Day 3: Zaharchuk and Cross
Dr. Cross welcomed back attendees to the final day of Imaging Elevated and passed the baton to Stanford's Greg Zaharchuk, MD, PhD, who regaled the audience with a presentation entitled, "How AI will Transform Radiology." After this wide-ranging and provocative look at AI and the ensuing Q&A, we heard the final 5 plenary presentations from our invited emerging investigators. This year's panel of judges, Drs. Alexander, Cross, Wang, DiBella, Baradaran, and Jessica Chan chose the Top Emerging Investigator for 2020: Christopher Pacia, a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, for his presentation, “Feasibility and safety of focused ultrasound-enabled liquid biopsy in the brain of a porcine model.” All of the invited emerging investigators will receive certificates and mugs and Chris Pacia will receive a cash prize and an additional certificate for Top Investigator.
Many thanks to the planning committee, our judges, keynotes, plenary speakers, case competitors, attendees, and staff who helped to make the 2020 Imaging Elevated Symposium so great!
