October 2008

National Radiologic Technology Week (NRTW): Nov. 2-8

By Anne Taylor, SH, Business Systems Analyst

National Radiologic Technology Week (NRTW) is an annual celebration that occurs during the first full week in November. Established by the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT) in July 1979, NRTW is an annual recognition and appreciation of radiologic technologists across the nation that honors and promotes their hard work and important contributions to health care.

This annual event is also a celebration of Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen's discovery of the X-ray in his laboratory on November 8, 1895, which revolutionized science and medicine. He could never have predicted that the art of imaging would be so specifically organized and professed by a group of radiologic technologists who take such pride in their careers.

Radiology includes so much more than obtaining images. The entire team here at Stanford plays such an important role in serving our patients. The scheduling staff, front office assistants, digital image library staff, technologist aids, nurses, and informatics team all play a very specific and crucial role in providing quality imaging studies for diagnosis and treatment.

The Department of Radiology at Stanford Hospital & Clinics is committed to improving health through excellence in image-based patient care, research, and education by embracing the latest advances in imaging techniques and by utilizing state-of-the-art equipment.

During National Radiologic Technology Week (NRTW), we celebrate all who contribute to the success of Stanford Radiology.

Dr. Federle's Welcome Dinner

On Monday, October 6th, the Abdominal Imaging Section of Stanford Radiology held a dinner in honor of Dr. Federle to celebrate his appointment as our associate chair for education. The dinner was held at Il Fornaio Restaurant in downtown Palo Alto.

(Images courtesy of Dr. Aya Kamaya)

Radiological Sciences Laboratory (RSL) Retreat 2008

On Tuesday, September 23rd, the 10th annual RSL Retreat 2008 began with lunch on the beach at the Asilomar Conference Grounds. By the beginning of the retreat program, there were 102 people in attendance to watch the RSL Group introductions, which were entertaining as well as informative. If you would like to view a few of these introductions, please click on the following links:

Dr. Fahrig's Group; Dr. Pelc's Group; and Dr. Spielman's Group.

Our retreat also featured keynote speaker Dr. Charles Taylor from the Department of BioEngineering. Other retreat events included a presentation by Drs. Napel and Plevritis regarding our new departmental section, ISIS (Information Sciences in Imaging at Stanford) as well as a workshop entitled "Life after School Ends" with Brian Hargreaves, PhD, assistant professor of radiology, and RSL alumni Kris Wedding, PhD, assistant professor of physics at Carleton College, and Alex de Crespigny, PhD, Head of Biomedical Physics at GSK's new Clinical Imaging Centre at Hammersmith Hospital in London and Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Clinical Neurology at Oxford.

In addition to Jeopardy!, a delicious BBQ dinner, volleyball, and karaoke, we had a photo hunt, which included three categories for photo submission. The winner of each category will have his or her winning photo hung on a wall in the Lucas Center. The three categories and the winning photos and their photographers were as follows:

Category #1. "Wow, You Took This at Asilomar?"
Is there anything besides trees, sand, and water in Asilomar?
Is there a special view from your room? Perhaps an antique in a corner that everyone overlooked?

Winning Photo for Category #1 by Stefan Skare, PhD

Category 2. "Anything but People."
Not a human soul in the photo; no exceptions!

Winning Photo for Category #2 by Aloma D'Souza, PhD

Category #3. "This Is Why I Come to the Retreat."
Maybe a photo showing bonding between colleagues, a photo of you swimming with dolphins, or saving a dear in mortal danger

Winning Photo for Category #3 by Sandy Napel, PhD

The retreat ended with our Town Hall Meeting. For a brief description of the issues discussed, please see Donna Cronister's summary below. Thanks to the following retreat committee members for a wonderful retreat: Priti Balchandani, PhD; David Clayton, PhD; Gary Glover, PhD; Andrew Holbrook, PhD; Christine Law, PhD; Sam Mazin, PhD; and Norbert Pelc, ScD. For the blog posting from last year's retreat, please access http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/10/2007_rsl_postre_1.html. (For more retreat photos taken by Michelle Christierson and Aloma D'Souza, PhD, please see the very end of this article.)

TOWN HALL MEETING SUMMARY by Donna Cronister, administrative services manager and administrative director for the Lucas Service Center

"For those or you who did not receive an RSL mug, please let me know. Also, for those of you who have not received a sweatshirt (given out at the retreat last year and afterwards), please send me an email with your size. If you have already given me this information, please disregard this request.

Mark your calendars, our 2009 retreat dates are 9/16-9/17. I am hoping this earlier date will mean that there will be no overlap with the start of classes.

We have been working on some of the issues brought up at the Town Hall Meeting. A good percentage of the concerns centered around facility issues. A lively discussion ensued about basement-level refrigerators, in addition to other items sent to Andrew for discussion.

1. Refrigerators in basement. Two fold attack: one is to replace the older model with a new energy efficient model. This is in the works as we speak. The other is to do a major cleaning job to get us started towards a newer, gentler, less odoriferous environment. Anne has volunteered to clean the refrigerators. Thanks Anne. We should have drawn straws for this event, but we do appreciate your taking the initiative. More importantly, establish new guidelines as listed below (some may work--or not . . . but we can only try):

a. Label food with name/date in;

b. Do not keep massive quantities of food here. Because this is a shared resource, please do not bring a month's worth of food. Be mindful of others' storage needs;

c. More frequent cleanings. Perhaps, everyone's name (including our MIPS colleagues) should go in a hat and be drawn at two-week intervals, maybe at happy hour (one need not be present to win, or lose, depending on if you see the glass half empty or half full). Two people should be able to make short order of the task of discarding expired or offending science projects and a quick wipe down. We will keep cleaning supplies on hand to assist with this task.

d. Personal responsibility: as you put food in, eat it or remove it. You spill, you clean up! Pretty easy math!

2. Sub-level refrigerator. Fresh drinking water: The fridge at this level has an automatic water dispenser; however, the filter has not been changed. Gary has asked that our facilities folks do regular preventative maintenance, so this should become a non-issue. We can also site a water cooler in the sub-level. I don't know if we can plumb one in, but we could put a free standing unit and have water bottles delivered bi-weekly ($~30/month).

3. Bathrooms: I think a large problem with the basement-level restroom maintenance issue is the sheer volume of folks using this restroom. This floor now houses ~115 full-time people. In addition, the Learning Center brings another high volume; 2 resident conferences per day (~30 people) and now the clerkships are held here 6 hours per day (3 hours AM; 3 hours PM) drawing another 15-20 people per day to use the facilities. Gary is working on the battery operated faucet and low-flow toilet problems, but I don't know if anyone has a quick answer/remedy for general cleanliness. Privacy wall is still an issue.

4. Sticky residue on tables and chairs in the light well: Again, no quick fixes in sight. I am going to purchase some oilskin table cloths for the tables. These are easy to clean. We will keep cleaning supplies handy in the kitchen area. Realistically, we cannot expect the housekeeping staff to clean these daily, or, even if they did, that it would eradicate the problem. Possible solutions include more umbrella's to cover the items or an easy up to store the furniture when not used. Removable seat covers? Your ideas are welcome!!

5. Window washing. Both internal and external: Two times per year is not enough. Is there funding to have them done more often? During the swallow season, more University-level facilities' involvement/$$ to eradicate the bird droppings.

6. Second floor carpeting: Is cleaning enough? Probably not is the consensus. Cost is borne by the Department--not the University (I have lobbied for University funds to replace the carpeting and was shot down). We did have a quote awhile back in the neighborhood of $40K. Will need departmental buy-in for this expense. Source other vendors for more economical carpet installation?

7. Dedicated computer for the poster printer: Tom to look into this. Also, dedicated/shared space for the document scanner on the basement level. Same location as poster-printer computer? Same computer?

8. Go pass/transportation subsidies for graduate students: This issue was raised and discussed. Moriah, who trumpeted this issue with the Graduate Student Association, explained the University/Cal Trans/graduate student increased fee positions on this matter. The problem is certainly understood, but no resolution is clear at this point.

9. Graduate students sitting in postdoc space: Brian explained that this should be a non-issue, as graduate students should be asked to vacate said space if a postdoc needs a desk.

10. Elevator safety issue: This is a health and safety issue, which will be addressed immediately. In the future, please let John Mendoza (our facilities manager) know as soon as a problem such as this is encountered. If you cannot find John, please contact me, and I'll have the appropriate maintenance folks out to survey and fix the problem.

The admin. staff will be giving a presentation at an RSL meeting to be announced. We will cover a number of issues that were discussed at last year's Town Hall Meeting (please see http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/10/2007_rsl_postre_1.html). If you have any administrative issues that you would like us to discuss, please drop me a line, and we will include (or attempt to include) them in our presentation.

I'm sure there were other things discussed, but these are those that stuck in my mind.

Thanks for a retreat well done!"

Awards and Honors: October 21, 2008

Geoffrey D. Rubin, MD, professor of radiology; chief of cardiovascular imaging; vice chief of staff; and associate dean for clinical affairs, has been selected to present the annual Charles T. Dotter Memorial Lecture at the 2008 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association on November 11th in New Orleans, Louisiana. His presentation, "More Surprises from the Healthy Donut," explores the evolving role of computed tomography in the diagnosis and management of cardiovascular diseases.

Stanford Radiology Welcomes Associate Chair for Education Michael Federle, MD

By Julie Ruiz, PhD

As our new associate chair for education, Michael Federle, MD, is transforming our educational programs at all levels, from medical students to practicing radiologists, by channeling the excellent technical and personal resources in our Department and on campus.

Since he arrived at Stanford this fall, he has been excited about the outpouring of support from faculty: "There are so many faculty members in our Department who are already integrating new teaching methods into the classroom and who are eager to play an important role in transforming education. One of the enticements for coming here was the opportunity to work with such bright and supportive colleagues." Dr. Federle has already initiated weekly teaching sessions with the body imaging fellows, and he will be taking an active role in our Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program. He is also working to ensure that there is dedicated space for radiology as part of the Immersive & Simulation-Based Learning Center at Stanford's Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge.

Medical student education is one area in which Dr. Federle is also making a significant impact:

"I really think that Stanford medical students are not getting as much exposure to radiology as they should, and I want radiology to be part of their curriculum from day one and to play an integral role throughout all four years of their medical education." Towards this end, Dr. Federle has met with the Medical Student Curriculum Committee and with faculty from departments such as Anatomy to discuss improving and updating medical student education. As a result, Dr. Federle will be teaching part of the Anatomy course and integrating different teaching methods into the classroom, such as virtual dissections and 3D modeling. Overcoming the pervasive campus culture weighted towards new research and technological developments will be another challenge he will face in his new role as associate chair: "I have to work to assure that the clinical and educational parts of our mission are given their due time and resources to keep everything in balance."

Dr. Federle brings a wealth of expertise to our Department and its mission of improving health through excellence in image-based patient care, research, and education. He completed his undergraduate degree in biology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and went on to graduate from medical school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. After finishing his internship in internal medicine at the University of Cincinnati Hospital in Ohio, he decided that radiology was more interesting. He applied to and was accepted at the radiology residency program of the University of Cincinnati.

At the completion of his residency, Dr. Federle began teaching at the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) as a clinical instructor and then as a professor. As a clinical instructor, Dr. Federle had the opportunity to interact with many of his current Stanford colleagues such as Drs. Barth, Glazer, Herfkens, Jeffrey, and Van Dalsem. During his 10 years at UCSF, he served in a variety of prominent positions including chief of radiology; vice chair of radiology; section chief of CT body scanning and GI radiology; and chief of the medical staff. Prior to coming to our Department, he was the director of abdominal imaging for 16 of his 19 years at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also served as the chair of radiology as well as the chief of quality process and improvement.

Dr. Federle's interest in teaching began when he was an undergraduate: "I really enjoy finding new knowledge and transmitting it to others. It doesn't matter what the content is. So I studied biology as well as English and philosophy as an undergraduate; I thought I would end up teaching English. I eventually decided on medicine as a career even though I had no role models in the field because I come from a long line of farmers from southern Indiana." Throughout his career, his teaching duties have spanned the spectrum from teaching beginning medical students to teaching the most sophisticated subspecialty radiologists, and he has enjoyed the unique challenges of educating such a variety of audiences.

His numerous awards attest to his teaching talents. Dr. Federle has been awarded Teacher of the Year multiple times throughout his career. In 2007, the residents at the University of Pittsburgh created an award in his honor, the Michael P. Federle Mentorship Award. The residents developed this award to recognize Dr. Federle not only for his remarkable teaching but also for his service as a role model and mentor to future radiologists. In addition to his teaching, Dr. Federle's research accomplishments include 238 peer-reviewed journal articles and 17 books.

Dr. Federle is also a co-founder of Amirsys, which is a company that produces radiology textbooks to provide decision support to radiologists and to guide them in making diagnoses. He established the company along with Rick Harnsberger, MD, and Anne Osbourn, MD, neuroradiologists from the Radiology Department at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Each series that Amirsys publishes is based on the experiences of authors from around the country: "Our series of textbooks cover the entire spectrum of every specialty in radiology, and each have become the bestsellers in their field. Our online decision-support product, STATdx, is now used in several thousand radiology departments across the country including the great majority of training programs." Dr. Federle and his colleagues have just finished a new Expert Differential Diagnosis Series, which will be coming out at the 2008 Annual Conference of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). His contribution will be a section on the abdomen: "Writing for Amirsys is both a vocation and avocation; I really, really enjoy the whole process from gathering interesting cases to writing them up. I can lose myself for hours doing that."

After 19 years, Dr. Federle is excited to be back in the Bay Area and at Stanford: "I greatly admire my colleagues in Radiology. This is a satisfying and stimulating environment." Although he has been away from Stanford for many years, Dr. Federle's older son, Andrew, attended Stanford as an undergraduate. Andrew and his wife now live in Toronto, where he is an Episcopal priest. Dr. Federle's younger son, Tim, has performed on Broadway in New York, where he was part of the original cast of "The Little Mermaid." He is currently the choreographer and associate director for a new Broadway play, "The Prairie," which is based on the book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

When he's not in his office, you will probably find Dr. Federle on the Stanford golf course. At his golf course in Pittsburgh, he made a hole in one at the 15th hole from 165 yards away. He hopes to improve his shot at Stanford.

The Radiology Interest Group at Stanford (RIGS) "Meet and Greet" will include a panel discussion, a light dinner, and informal socializing with the faculty. Please bring your questions about radiology and life as a radiologist. Faculty from both diagnostic and interventional radiology at Stanford as well as residents and fellows will be present. Please RSVP to Bhargav Raman (ramanb@stanford.edu).

RIGS supports "interest in the field of radiology and provides advice to those who wish to pursue radiology as a career. RIGS holds events to provide medical students a better idea of what radiology is and what the various imaging specialties are, to guide those applying to residencies in this field, and to encourage women and minorities to consider a career in radiology; these events also allow medical students the opportunity to meet radiology physicians and residents. In addition, RIGS is a resource for those interested in research opportunities in the field of radiology" (from the RIGS Web site at http://rigs.stanford.edu/). Please contact Harpreet Dhatt (harpsd@gmail.com) for more information.

To read prior Radiology Interest Group at Stanford (RIGS) postings, please access http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/11/radiology_inter_1.html and http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/08/inside_terroris_1.html.

Awards and Honors: October 20, 2008

Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine (cardiology) and radiology, has been awarded the New Innovator Award from the National Institute of Health. This award is designed to stimulate highly innovative research and to support promising new investigators. Dr. Wu received the New Innovator Award for his research on pluripotent stem cells, which can develop into a wide variety of cell types. Dr. Wu's research produces pluripotent stems cells by turning skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells by using microRNAs, which are single-stranded RNA molecules that are involved in regulating gene expression. To read more about Dr. Wu's award, please access "Creative Thinking Nets Stanford Researchers Two NIH Pioneer Awards, Three New Innovator Awards" at the following link: http://med.stanford.edu/news_releases/2008/september/pioneer.html.

For Dr. Wu's prior awards, please see http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/06/awards_and_hono_42.html and http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/04/awards_and_hono_1.html.

Celebrating 5 Years of Service: Dirk Mayer, PhD

Dirk Mayer, PhD, senior research scientist, has been working as a Stanford senior research associate (50%) and as a research scientist (50%) at SRI International since 2007. As a senior research associate at the Lucas Center, Dr. Mayer works with Dan Spielman, PhD, focusing on the hyperpolarizer project, and with Drs. Pfefferbaum and Sullivan at SRI International. He originally came to Stanford as a postdoctoral scholar in October 2000, when he began working with Dr. Spielman, PhD, on MR spectroscopy and spectroscopic imaging. Three years later, he started as a research associate in the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS) under the guidance of Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD, professor of radiology and bioengineering, and head of the Nuclear Medicine Division. Dr. Mayer's hobbies include basketball, scuba diving, and cooking.

Did You Know?

The Stanford Breast Imaging Program has been instrumental in making new MRI techniques available to at-risk patients far in advance of commercial availability.

Celebrating 5 Years of Service: David Clayton, PhD

David Clayton, PhD, research and development engineer, has worked at Stanford for over five years. Prior to working at Stanford, Dr. Clayton studied physics and ran cross-country and track as an undergraduate at Rutgers University. After graduation, he earned his MS in physics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a PhD in biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2000, he began working at the Lucas Center as a postdoctoral fellow, researching novel techniques for spectroscopic MR imaging with clinical applications. Three years later, he became a research associate, focusing on improving acquisition and reconstruction methods for parallel MR imaging. In his current position, Dr. Clayton develops software for database management, web sites, and scanner quality assurance for the Lucas Center and Radiology Department. When not working, he enjoys running, cycling, hiking, backpacking, and skiing.

(Image courtesy of Mark Riesenberger)

Celebrating 5 Years of Service: Murugesan Subbarayan, PhD

Murugesan Subbarayan, PhD, physical science research associate, has worked in our Department for five years. Prior to coming to Stanford, Dr. Subbarayan obtained his BS in physics from Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu, India, and his MS and PhD in applied biological chemistry from Bombay University, Mumbai, India. He spent twenty years as a nuclear medicine scientist in the Radiation Medicine Center at the Tata Memorial Hospital Annex in Mumbai, India. In 2000, he began a two-year position as a postdoctoral research associate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2002, Dr. Subbarayan worked in Dr. Gambhir's laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles, before coming to Stanford in 2003 as a physical science research associate in the Radiochemistry Facility of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS).

In addition to over 30 publications, Dr. Subbarayan's awards include the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) Award as a Visiting Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Department of Radiation Oncology; an American Society for Photobiology Travel Award; an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Scholar Award; and an American Society for Photobiology Travel Award. During his career, he has also developed and standardized a radioiodinated meta-iodobenzylguanidine (mIBG) for the first time in India, which was made available locally for the detection and treatment of neural crest tumors. Dr. Subbarayan also holds two Indian patent rights on second generation photosensitizers porphyrin and chlorin derivatives. Along with the Head of Cylotron Radiochemistry Fred Chin, PhD, Dr. Subbarayan is producing a useful molecular probe for monitoring the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents in cancer patients called 18F-Fluorouracil for upcoming human studies.

Dr. Subbarayan's hobbies are meditation and reading.