Leaders and Innovators Recognized at SIR 2022 Annual Meeting
The SIR Gold Medal, the society’s highest honor, was presented to Janette Durham, MD, MBA, FSIR; M Victoria Marx, MD, FSIR; and Scott O Trerotola, MD, FSIR, during its Annual Scientific Meeting. SIR also presented the Leaders in Innovation Award to James B Spies, MD, MPH, FSIR and the Dr. Gary J Becker Young Investigator Award to Nima Kokabi, MD,
These Gold Medal awards acknowledge distinguished and extraordinary service to SIR or to the specialty of interventional radiology. Following the awards ceremony, Riad Salem, MD, MBA, FSIR, delivered the 2022 Charles T Dotter Lecture.
“All of the 2022 honorees have distinguished themselves through their scientic research, collaboration with other specialties, mentorship of future IRs and dedication to advancing quality patient care,” said SIR 2021–2022 President Matthew S Johnson, MD, FSIR, an interventional radiologist and professor of radiology and surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. “Physician-leaders like our 2022 honorees are role models for IRs and fellow physicians across the medical community.”
Janette Durham, MD, MBA, FSIR, has served as a volunteer on several SIR committees throughout her career including the Executive Committee of the Society of Interventional Radiology from 1996–2005. Durham also served as SIR President in 2004. She received the SIR Foundation Frederick S. Keller, MD, Philanthropy Award in 2020. Durham began her career after a residency in diagnostic radiology at Indiana University in 1987, followed by the completion of a fellowship in vascular radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University. She worked for 28 years as an interventional radiologist the University of Colorado School of Medicine. While University of Colorado, she was promoted to professor in 2003, later served as co-director of the Cardiac and Vascular Center, and most recently as the medical director of interventional radiology.
M Victoria Marx, MD, FSIR, has been an active volunteer for the Society of Interventional Radiology since 1990 when she wrote the initial edition of SIR’s patient information brochures. She served on the society’s executive council from 1997–2006 as a member of the SIR Annual Scientific Meeting Committee and as the councilor for the SIR Member Services Division. Marx was instrumental in the actuation of interventional radiology as a primary medical specialty. She chaired the SIR IR/DR Residency Task Force from 2014–2017 during the initial launch of the new Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) IR Residency. Marx was an officer of SIR from 2014–2020, serving as president from 2018–2019.
Scott O Trerotola, MD, FSIR, has served on over 10 SIR committees, was a member of the SIR Executive council from 1998–2004 and served as 2001 SIR Annual Meeting Chair. He chaired the SIR Educational Materials Committee and was editor of three SIR syllabi. He has served on the editorial board of every major radiology journal and continues to review for multiple radiology and nephrology journals. In 2011 he received the SIR Foundation’s Leaders in Innovation Award and, in 2016, he delivered the Charles T. Dotter Lecture at the SIR Annual Scientific Meeting. Trerotola is the Stanley Baum professor of radiology and professor of radiology in surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, where he is also associate chair and chief of interventional radiology and vice chair for quality and safety.
Riad Salem, MD, MBA, FSIR, is the recipient of the 2017 SIR Foundation Leaders in Innovation Award. He is a professor of radiology, surgery and medicine, vice-chair, image-guided therapy and section chief, interventional radiology in the department of radiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. A graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Salem was recipient of the Wood Gold Medal, as well as the J. Francis Award in Internal Medicine.
James B Spies serves as the chairman, chief of service and a professor of radiology at Georgetown University and associate executive director for the American Board of Radiology (ABR). He is a fellow of SIR and has served on numerous committees, including as SIR Foundation chair from 2006 to 2008 and SIR president from 2014 to 2015. He has also received SIR’s highest honor, the Gold Medal, in 2019. An author of more than 100 published scientific studies and presenter of more than 400 presentations, Spies is recognized as an international authority for his research in uterine artery embolization. He maintains an active practice in uterine artery embolization for broids and developed the Uterine Fibroid Symptom Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire (UFS-QOL) tool that assesses the symptoms assisted with uterine broid tumors, through a grant provided by SIR Foundation.
Nima Kokabi, MD, is currently an assistant professor of interventional radiology and image-guided medicine at Emory University School of Medicine where he leads the Interventional Oncology Clinical Research Program and serves as the associate program director of Emory’s IR residency program. As the co-chair of the SIR Foundation Comparative Effectiveness Research Committee, he has created multidisciplinary collaborations and conducted high-impact studies illustrating the critical role and value of IR within the healthcare system. He has also been actively involved in building global IR training programs, particularly in East Africa, with the overarching goal of addressing health disparities and increasing access to life-saving IR procedures and therapies worldwide.