SIR establishes GEMS travel grant


Alan Matsumoto, MD, FSIR
Professor & Chairman
Department of Radiology
University of Virginia

The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) announced the establishment of the Grants for Education of Medical Students (GEMS) Program at its 2019 annual meeting in Austin, TX. Alan H. Matsumoto, MD, former SIR president and new recipient of a SIR Gold Medal Award, introduced the program, which aims to support diversity by providing travel grants for medical students participating in a visiting clerkship in interventional radiology (IR) outside of their home institution.

The GEMS program is targeted to medical students who are seeking to be the first generation of physicians in their family. Students from racial or ethnic groups that are underrepresented in IR, women, or LGBTQ students are eligible, as well as students who come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.

“GEMS will allow medical students to gain an in-depth understanding of IR through a more personal experience in a new environment. As a prelude to the residency application and interview process, GEMS will enable selected third- and fourth-year medical students a chance to develop early mentoring relationships in IR and to broaden their professional networks,” Dr. Matsumoto said. “This program will facilitate connections between IR training programs and the next generation of IRs who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend these clerkships.”

SIR Foundation Chair Jeremy C. Durack, MD, an interventional radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, N.Y., said “Diversity brings new ideas and innovation, and GEMS will be an integral program in our efforts to ensure that interventional radiology stays at the forefront of medicine by bringing the brightest minds from all backgrounds into the field. We are thankful to the Matsumoto family and our industry colleagues for their commitment to helping us increase the diversity and inclusiveness in the specialty, and to further enhancing the exciting future of interventional radiology.”

“SIR and SIR Foundation are incredibly grateful to Dr. Matsumoto, his family, and our inaugural industry sponsors—Boston Scientific, Penumbra, Siemens Healthineers, Gore, and Cook—for supporting this important initiative to engage diverse groups of medical students in interventional radiology,” said SIR President M. Victoria Marx, MD. “Through this program, they are helping us achieve our vision to increase the diversity of IRs to better represent the patient populations we serve.”

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