The Roentgen Fund Insider Spring 2021 Newsletter

Message from the Chair of The Roentgen Fund Board of Trustees

Melissa Rosado de Christenson, MD

On behalf of The Roentgen Fund^® Board of Trustees, I am delighted to report that The Roentgen Fund remains in a strong financial position and will continue to enable and empower early career radiology researchers and educators of the future. We thank you, the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) members and contributors, for your generous support. Although 2020 was a challenging year, it was a most rewarding one with respect to the granting of various awards to ARRS Scholars, Figley and Rogers Fellows, and Residents in Radiology Awardees. Their exceptional work will be featured in future editions of the American Journal of Roentgenology and during the 2021 ARRS Virtual Annual Meeting. I found it highly gratifying to have the opportunity to personally interview a number of outstanding young radiologists and learn about their passion towards imaging research, scholarly activity, and the future of the specialty. As one of our Trustees stated, these individuals will “change the world” with the help of seed grants provided by The Roentgen Fund, which is so generously supported by our membership. It is my hope that 2021 will be a banner year of growth for The Roentgen Fund. Thus, I hereby invite you to partner with me in supporting The Roentgen Fund through your 2021 contributions and thank you in advance for your generosity.

2021 Awardees

The Roentgen Fund, supported by your contributions, is proud to champion emerging and talented physicians who are impacting the future of radiology. Please join us in congratulating the 2021 awardees.

Camilo Jaimes, MD—ARRS Scholarship

Boston Children's Hospital & Harvard Medical School

Dr. Jaimes’ long-term objective is to become an independently funded physician scientist—leading a clinical division of fetal imaging and directing a fetal MRI research program. He intends to focus his research on imaging biomarkers of fetal brain health, characterizing brain injuries, and studying the effects of emerging neuroprotective therapies.

His scholarship project aims to determine whether fetuses with congenital heart disease have abnormal white matter microstructure using motion robust fetal diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI); to characterize cortical microstructure in fetuses with congenital heart disease using motion robust fetal DTI, and to ascertain whether fetal brain microstructure is associated with neurodevelopmental outcome at 2 years of age.

Tatiana Kelil, MD—ARRS Scholarship

University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Kelil is interested in optimizing the performance of diagnostic tools and developing reliable imaging biomarkers that can be used for personalized breast cancer risk assessment. As an African-American woman particularly passionate about promoting health equity, her aspiration is to address existing disparities in the presentation and outcome of breast cancer among women.

Her scholarship project aims to use machine learning to characterize the imaging features of background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) in breast MRI—determining its ability to predict future breast cancer development and thus improve personalized breast cancer risk assessment. Her project also hopes to determine if machine learning can help differentiate abnormal enhancement from normal BPE, improving the sensitivity and specificity of breast MRI to detect breast cancer.

Omer Awan, MD, MPH, CIIP—Melvin M. Figley Fellowship in Radiology Journalism

University of Maryland School of Medicine 

An associate professor of musculoskeletal radiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Dr. Awan also serves as associate program director of the diagnostic radiology residency program and associate director of radiology medical student education. Certified by the American Board of Imaging Informatics, he interprets a wide spectrum of musculoskeletal imaging studies and performs minimally invasive procedures, including CT-guided bone biopsies and ultrasound-guided soft tissue tumor biopsies.

Francesco Giganti, MD—Lee F. Rogers International Fellowship in Radiology Journalism

University College London

An academic radiologist and a clinical research fellow in the division of surgery and interventional science at University College London, Dr. Giganti’s areas of expertise are genitourinary and gastrointestinal imaging—with a specific interest in prostate MRI. An expert in teaching prostate MRI to radiologists and urologists, currently, he is working on assessing the radiological progression of prostate cancer on MRI during active surveillance (i.e., PRECISE score).

Resident/Fellow in Radiology Awards

Learn more about the studies below by watching the Scholar and Resident/Fellow Award Presentations Session: Sunday, April 18, 2021, 8:30–10:00 AM Eastern Time during the 2021 ARRS Virtual Annual Meeting.

Madison Kocher, MD—Melissa Rosado de Christenson Award

Medical University of South Carolina

Dr. Kocher’s study, “Thinking Outside the Breast: Predictive Value of AI-Detected Lung Metastases in Breast Cancer Patients,” investigated the utility of a novel AI model using data from standard initial staging chest CT to accurately predict risk of future progression of disease and death in breast cancer patients.

Ningcheng (Peter) Li, MD—President’s Award

Oregon Health & Science University

Dr. Li’s study, “Multicenter Assessment of Augmented Reality Registration Methods for Image-Guided Interventions,” evaluated and compared manual and automatic registration times, as well as registration accuracies, between HoloLens 1 and HoloLens 2 for aligning a 3D CT phantom model onto a CT grid.

Keegan K. Hovis, MD—Executive Council Award

Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Hovis’ study, “Rate of Contralateral Breast Cancer After Treatment for Ductal Carcinoma In Situ and Associated Clinicopathological and Imaging Risk Factors,” examined the rate of and risk factors associated with contralateral breast cancer in women treated for ductal carcinoma in situ.

Yu-Hui Huang, MD, MS—Executive Council Award

University of Minnesota

Dr. Huang’s study, “Rectal Tube Placement in Multiparametric MRI of the Prostate: Multi-Reader Evaluation of Image Quality Improvement,” explored the impact of rectal tube placement on artifact reduction and image quality of prostate multiparametric MRI.

2021 Virtual Annual Meeting Awardee Presentations

Many past and present awardees are serving as faculty for the upcoming ARRS Virtual Annual Meeting, acknowledged in the Daily Schedule. We thank them for their contributions. If you are registered for the ARRS Virtual Annual Meeting, please support them by attending their presentations.

Scholar and Resident/Fellow Award Presentations Session

Sunday, April 18, 8:30–10:00 am EDT

In addition to the ARRS Resident/Fellow in Radiology presentations above, we have two ARRS Scholar presentations to highlight:

Albert Hsiao, MD, PhD; 2019 ARRS Scholar—Advancing AI: From Automating Cardiac MRI to Detecting Viral Pneumonia on X-Ray

Richard Duszak, MD; 2019 Berlin Scholar—Radiology Malpractice and Risk Management