Message from Department Chair

Message from Department Chair

Dear Friends,

Since our most recent newsletter, we have made significant progress on our Main 3 renovation project, and we have welcomed three, new and highly-accomplished faculty members. We have also altered the teaching/readout process for our residents to meet their educational needs and to provide a safe working environment during the pandemic. Likewise, as a result of the pandemic, all residency interviews are being held virtually nationwide. Proudly, our faculty and residents continue to make impressive contributions, many now virtual, to the field of radiology.

In this newsletter you will read an article from Malcolm K. Sydnor, Jr., M.D. regarding the status of the Departmental renovation project and the significance of our growth to the community near and far. The director of the radiology residency education program, Josephina A. Vossen, M.D., Ph.D., outlines the important changes to our residency training that will keep residents healthy and our recruitment on target. We close out the newsletter with the contributions we have made to the field of radiology demonstrating the high quality of our faculty and residents.

Indeed, these are unprecedented times, but you can see that we continue to be stewards of safety, patient care and medical education while transforming our Department into one of the most comprehensive and advanced medical imaging centers in the United States.

May your holidays be safe, and may you and your family stay healthy.

Be well,

~ Ann S. Fulcher, M.D., FACR, FSAR

New Radiology Faculty Members

Introducing our newest VCU Department of Radiology faculty members

Christopher Bailey, D.O., who completed his vascular interventional fellowship with us, joins the Division of Vascular Interventional Radiology.

Neeraj Lalwani, M.D., who comes to us from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, joins Abdominal Imaging.

Taryar M. Zaw, M.D., who completed his diagnostic radiology residency with us and his MSK fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, AZ, joins Musculoskeletal Imaging and Intervention.

One of the Most Advanced Imaging Departments in the Country

By Malcolm K. Sydnor, Jr., M.D., Vice Chair, Quality and Safety

Portrait of Malcolm K. Sydnor Jr., M.D. While the VCU Department of Radiology offers services in over twenty locations on campus and throughout the community, the third floor of the Main Hospital remains the central hub and a massive renovation project for the third floor is underway! This is a multi-phased two and a half year project which will be complete by the summer of 2022.

The project actually started several years ago with the relocation of some resources from Main Hospital, including the MR scanners, to the Gateway building. The finished product will result in a state-of-the-art Radiology Department with brand new reading rooms, a new office mezzanine, new imaging equipment and fluoroscopy suites, a 26-bed recovery space, and eight new procedural rooms for fluoroscopic, CT, and US-guided procedures. The Nexaris multimodality angiographic suite, which contains both a CT scanner and a fixed fluoroscopic unit, has already been finished and is being used for a variety of novel procedural techniques. The Department is now also occupying the entire second floor of West Hospital for administrative space.

These exciting changes will result in one of the most advanced imaging departments in the country and will help us continue to deliver the very best care for our patients!

Latest Faculty Contributions to the Field of Radiology

Laura R. Carucci, M.D., received the prestigious award of Fellow of the American College of Radiology (FACR) at the American College of Radiology Virtual Annual Meeting.

Shaimaa Fadl, M.D. received the 2020 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Honored Educator Award for her dedication to furthering the profession of radiology by delivering an array of educational resources in the past calendar year for the RSNA.

Dr. Fadl, along with two radiology residents, presented “CT Perfusion in Acute Stroke” and “ Blunt Trauma with Aortic Injuries” at the American Society of Emergency Radiology (ACER).

Dr. Fadl is presenting, "Use of Prone Positioning in Patients with COVID-19 and Interpretation Challenges" at the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) Virtual Symposium on COVID-19 held January 22, 2021.

Ann S. Fulcher, M.D. made two presentations to the Society of Chairs of Academic Radiology Departments, one addressing Salary & Productivity Benchmarks for academic radiologists, with data provided by Sherry Elliott, MBA, and another focusing on Succession Planning.

The presentation, “Challenges, Stressors and Coping in Radiology Residency" by Neeraj Lalwani, M.D. will be featured in the 2020 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Daily Bulletin. The Daily Bulletin is the official publication of the RSNA Annual Meeting. Dr. Lalwani's presentation is part of a session focused entirely on creating a culture of well-being in education.

Dr. Lalwani co-authored and published " Imaging of Colorectal Cancer: Screening, Staging & Surveillance" appearing in Seminars of Roentgenology and "MRI of Common Penile Pathologies and Penile Prostheses" appearing in Abdominal Radiology.

Mark S. Parker, M.D. participated on the American College of Radiology RADPEER Committee contributing to the preparation of an original Clinical Practice Management article, "Forty-One Million RADPEER Reviews Later: What We Have Learned and Are Still Learning."

Dr. Parker is symposium course director for the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) Virtual Symposium on COVID-19 held January 22, 2021. He is also presenting the course introduction, "Emergence of COVID-19 and the Subsequent Pandemic."

Jacqueline Urbine, M.D., Elizabeth K. Proffitt, M.D. and Mary A. Turner, M.D. were elected as Alternate Councilors for the Board of the Virginia Chapter of the American College of Radiology (ACR).

Josephina A. Vossen, M.D., Ph.D. co-authored "Automatic Characterization of Pelvic and Sacral Measures from 200 Subjects" appearing in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. The investigation for the paper was conducted at VCU.

Visit our VCU Department of Radiology News for additional faculty news and accomplishments.

Resident Research Receives Award-Winning Attention

Christopher Ovanez, M.D., one of our diagnostic radiology residents (PGY5/R4), won the Virginia Chapter of the American College of Radiology (VCACR) Resident Abstract Award, and presented the winning abstract, "Minimal Aortic Injury Detected on CT Angiography During Initial Trauma Imaging: Single Academic Level 1 Trauma Center Experience," at the 2020 VCACR Annual Meeting.

Dr. Christopher Ovanez also won the Summa Cum Laude Award and the John H. Harris. Jr., M.D. Award at the American Society of Emergency Radiology (ASER) Annual Meeting for his contributions to "Minimal Aortic Injury Detected on CT Angiography During Initial Trauma Imaging: Single Academic Level 1 Trauma Center Experience," authored by Christopher Ovanez, M.D., Leila Rezai Gharai, M.D., Mark S. Parker M.D., William Goodman, D.O.

The awards specifically recognize Dr. Ovanez for his exceptional oral presentation skills:

Summa Cum Laude Award for the best oral scientific presentation by an attending, resident/fellow, or medical student
John H. Harris, Jr., M.D. Award for the best scientific oral presentation by a trainee

Radiology Residency Program Successfully Adapts

By Josephina A. Vossen, M.D., Ph.D.

White coat portrait of Josephina Vossen M.D., Ph.D.

Our residents were presented with unique challenges this year but with them we adapted to safely offer contiguous learning. They are in this program for a reason so they did not surprise us with their resilience and take-charge attitudes. As association meetings and conferences were cancelled or shifted to a virtual platform, our residents didn’t become disheartened rather they used every change as an opportunity to learn and lead.

Looking to the end of 2020 and ahead to 2021, the American Institute for Radiologic Pathology™ will be virtual with both synchronous and asynchronous lectures, and the Association of University Radiologists' 69th Annual Meeting and the Radiology Society of North America Annual Meeting will also be virtual. One of the biggest changes for our residents is the American Board of Radiology exams, which were postponed and reimagined. Our fourth-year residents will be taking their Core Exam February 2021 and it will be administered virtually over a three-day period. Our third-year residents will be taking their virtual exam in June 2021.

At the end of August, third-year resident, Vidushani Perera, M.D., left the program and relocated to be closer to her family. A few months later, we welcomed Timothy Fitzgerald, M.D. as a second-year resident to the program. He was previously with the diagnostic radiology residency program at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine.

New this year, we are selecting two individuals for the integrated interventional radiology residency program and six individuals for the diagnostic radiology residency program. Due to COVID-19 we are unable to accommodate in-person applicant interviews. In response, the residency program directors including myself and Drs. Ryan Clayton, Daniel Komorowski and Gordon Morano updated the residency application process and timeline to allow for a new virtual interview process.

The residency application deadline has passed and, with the assistance of Kim Christman and Brittany Jones, we are currently reviewing +700 applications for both the diagnostic radiology and the integrated interventional radiology residency programs. Once we complete the review, we will send selected applicants an interview notification and start our virtual interview process. We anticipate interviews will start in a few weeks and once concluded we will have a ranked list of exceptional applicants.

Visit our radiology education webpages

Kudos From Our Valued Patients

Image of Excellence Newsletter - Fall 2020

Message from Department Chair