February 2009

Drs. Gold and Hargreaves' Osteoarthritis Research Featured on ABC7 News

At 6 PM on Thursday, February 26th, ABC News on channel 7 featured research by Drs. Gold, associate professor of radiology (left), and Hargreaves, assistant professor of radiology (right), regarding the detection of osteoarthritis using the latest imaging techniques in sodium MRI in their broadcast, "MRI Detects Knee Injuries Sooner." To view a video of the broadcast or to read the transcript, please click here or Download file

To read more about their project, please access their prior blog posting, "Drs. Gold and Hargreaves Detect Osteoarthritis Using Sodium MRI." Please also see an earlier news release from the Stanford School of Medicine highlighting their research, "Stanford Develops Imaging Technique to Catch Arthritis Early in Onset" or Download file.

Awards and Honors: February 19, 2009

Adam Wang, MS, doctoral student in Electrical Engineering and member of the Radiological Sciences Laboratory (RSL), was 1 of only 8 finalists (out of 34 entrants) for the Michael B. Merickel Student Paper Award at the 2009 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Medical Imaging Conference for his work entitled "Optimal Energy Thresholds and Weights for Separating Materials Using Photon Counting X-Ray Detectors with Energy Discriminating Capabilities."

Mentored by Dr. Norbert Pelc, Mr. Wang is currently a research assistant in the RSL where he is investigating task-based optimal multi-energy discrimination techniques for CT systems and developing lossy compression methods to reduce CT data rate without diagnostic impact.

Prior to entering the doctoral program, Mr. Wang received his master's in electrical engineering from Stanford, after completing his BS in electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to being a finalist for the Michael B. Merickel Student Paper Award, Mr. Wang's other awards include an Electrical Engineering Departmental Fellowship from Stanford University and the Distinguished College of Engineering Scholar Award at the University of Texas at Austin. When he's not working, he enjoys running, cycling, and working on his bikes.

Dr. Atlas' Commentary on Our Healthcare System Featured in The Washington Times

In his commentary, "ATLAS: Pardon the Interruption," Dr. Scott Atlas, professor and chief of neuroradiology and senior fellow at both the Hoover Institution and Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies, critiques the call for a larger role for government in our healthcare system. Citing several published studies, Dr. Atlas highlights a "few unheralded facts about America's health-care system." To read his commentary, please access http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/18/pardon-the-interruption/ or download the article here: Download file.

New Stanford Medicine Imaging Center Opens in Redwood City

In February of 2009, we opened an innovative imaging center in Redwood City at the Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center (SMOC) (see photo on left), which will allow us to accelerate the delivery of patient-centric imaging services. Our new facility, Stanford Medicine Imaging, Redwood City, includes two 3T MRIs and one CT and focuses on musculoskeletal and abdominal studies. Future plans include increasing the number of modalities to three CT and three MR scanners. For more information, including directions, maps, parking, and scheduling an appointment, please click here: Stanford Medicine Imaging, Redwood City. To read the latest articles on our new outpatient imaging center, please access the following:

"For Many Outpatient Services, the Doctor Will Now See You in Redwood City"

"Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center Set to Open on February 17" (Download file here)

"Outpatient Center Was Built with Patient-Centric Care at Its Heart" (Download file here)

"A Closer Look: The Clinics at the Outpatient Center" (Download file here)

"Did You Know" (Download file here)

Awards and Honors III: February 13, 2009

Brian Rutt, PhD, professor of radiology and director of the High-Field MRI Program, has been elected to Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Election to Fellow of the AIMBE is awarded to outstanding bioengineers in academia, industry, and government who have distinguished themselves through their contributions in research, industrial practice, and/or education. On February 12th, Dr. Rutt traveled to Washington, DC, to receive his award as part of the induction ceremony of new fellows of the AIMBE. Before coming to Stanford, Dr. Rutt was a scientist at the Robarts Research Institute and professor of diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine at the University of Western Ontario, where he has held the Barnett-Ivey Endowed Research Chair, Heart and Stroke Foundation since 1997. At Robarts, he co-founded the Cellular and Molecular Imaging Program; served as the scientific director for the 1.5T and 3T research MRI facilities; and established a hardware engineering core facility. Under his direction, the first 1.5T MRI scanner and one of the first 3T MRI systems in Canada were installed in London, Ontario.

After completing his BASc in engineering science at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Dr. Rutt received his master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford, returning to Canada to attain his PhD in medical biophysics at the University of Western Ontario. Subsequently, he completed a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). His research interests include MRI technology development and the application of advanced MRI techniques for studying the cardiovascular system, brain, and cancer. When he is not working, Dr. Rutt enjoys bicycling and wood working. For Dr. Rutt's prior blog posting, please access http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2009/02/meet_brian_rutt.html.

Did You Know?

RADIOLOGICAL FEES IN 1910*

Sinus Examination: $25 to $50
Location of Foreign Bodies in the Eye: $25 to $50
Examination of Teeth: $10 to $75
Diagnosis of Renal and Vesical Calculi and Gallstones: $50 to $200
Chest Examination: $25 to $100
Shoulder Examination: $25 to $50
Elbow Examination: $15 to $50
Hand and Wrist Examination: $15 to $50
Foot and Ankle Examination: $15 to $50
Leg and Knee Examination: $25 to $75
Stomach and Bowel Examination: $75 to $200
Hip and Pelvis Examination: $50 to $100

(*The above statistics are for examinations and work done "inside the laboratory of the operator"; for work done outside the laboratory, "add 50 to 500 percent more." All statistics are from the ARRS Committee on Fee-Table [sic] published in "Minutes of the ARRS Meeting" from the Americal Quarterly of Roentgenology (1910;3:80) and quoted in "Radiology--Then and Now," by NJ Nazinitsky and BM Gold from the American Journal of Radiology (1988;151:251)).

Awards and Honors II: February 13, 2009

Dr. Shreyas Vasanawala, assistant professor of radiology, has won an International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Seed Grant for his proposed research project, "Non-Contrast-Enhanced Renal MRA Using Multiple Inversion Recovery." Developed in collaboration with doctoral student Hattie Dong and Professor Dwight Nishimura, Dr. Vasanawala's proposal was cited for its innovation and potential impact. The competition was open to young investigators, and only one grant was awarded in each of the areas of low back pain and renal MRI.

Dr. Vasanawala's research focus includes testing the feasibility of magnetic resonance imaging techniques for evaluating pediatric and abdominal disease. Dr. Vasanawala joined the Department of Radiology faculty in July of 2007, after receiving his degree and a PhD in biophysics from Stanford University, followed by residency training in radiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a pediatric radiology fellowship at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (LPCH). During his fellowship, Dr. Vasanawala received specialty training in pediatric musculoskeletal imaging at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and in pediatric cardiovascular imaging at Sick Kids in Toronto. For his prior blog postings, please access http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/07/awards_and_hono_43.html and http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/07/new_faculty_hir.html.

Awards and Honors I: February 13, 2009

Adam de la Zerda, PhD candidate in the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Laboratory (MMIL), has been awarded the Best Poster Presentation Award for his poster on enhanced sensitivity photoacoustic imaging agents at the Photoacoustic Session of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Photonics West 2009 Conference.

Mentored by Dr. Gambhir, Mr. de la Zerda researches photoacoustic molecular imaging and its broad applications for cancer. He is the PI of two predoctoral grants: one supported by the Department of Defense (DOD) Breast Cancer Research Program and the other by Bio-X. He has received numerous awards for his work including the Young Investigator Award at the World Molecular Imaging Congress 2008; the Bio-X Student Travel Award; and first place at the Bay Area Entrepreneurship Contest. He holds a number of publications and patents, and he is also a professional reviewer for Nature Nanotechnology and Medical Physics. Prior to coming to Stanford, Mr. de la Zerda received his BScs Summa Cum Laude in computer science, electrical engineering, and physics from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.

For Mr. de la Zerda's prior blog award announcements, please access http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/11/awards_and_hono_60.html; http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2008/07/awards_and_hono_45.html;
and http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/06/awards_and_hono_6.html.

Meet Brian Rutt, PhD, Professor of Radiology and Director of Our High-Field MRI Program at Stanford Radiology

By Julie Ruiz, PhD

With over 20 years of experience in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Dr. Brian Rutt is an expert in MRI technology development and the application of advanced MRI techniques for studying the cardiovascular system, brain, and cancer. As director of our High-Field MRI Program in the Radiological Sciences Laboratory (RSL), he is looking forward to furthering our efforts in building a 7T research program. "We need to update and integrate the 7T with the other scanners at the Lucas Center and on campus so that users can easily use it to produce reliable and excellent images," he commented. "Although higher field strength makes everything more challenging, the promise of higher image quality means that we should be able to detect disease earlier. We don't really know what all the clinical applications of 7T MRI will be, but . . .

I would expect that most will be in the brain and extremities (for example, knee cartilage). There is a lot of interest, and I hope to act as a catalyst for bringing new users to the 7T, which should be easy given the research strengths and interests of our faculty, staff, and students. I would also like to establish synergies between the Lucas 7T and the 7T animal scanner located at the Clark Center, which should help to build bridges between RSL and MIPS."

Dr. Rutt has an excellent track record of building interdisciplinary programs. Before coming to Stanford, he was a scientist at the Robarts Research Institute and professor of diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine at the University of Western Ontario. At Robarts, he co-founded the Cellular and Molecular Imaging Program with Paula Foster, PhD; served as the scientific director for the 1.5T and 3T research facilities; and established a hardware engineering core facility. Under his direction, the first 1.5T MRI scanner and one of the first 3T MRI systems in Canada were installed in London, Ontario.

However, it was in Stanford, California, not London, Ontario, where Dr. Rutt was first introduced to medical imaging. "I was a very young and green engineering student when I came to Stanford for my master's degree in electrical engineering in the late 70s. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in engineering science, I applied to Stanford but was wait listed. I already had a job lined up when Stanford accepted me for admission to their master's program in electrical engineering late in the summer of 1976. I turned down the job; accepted the Stanford offer; packed a couple of bags, a bike, and a guitar onto a plane; flew out to San Francisco; and proceeded to have the most wonderful year of school of my life. I knew nothing about medical imaging when I got to Stanford, but that year I took a course on the principles of medical imaging from Albert Macovski, Stanford professor of electrical engineering and a pioneer of many imaging methods. He was assigned to me as my MSc advisor and during my second term, I did an independent research project with him, which exposed me to the exciting world of research in medical imaging. I loved attending Stanford that year. I rented a room in a house in Ladera on the way to Portola Valley and rode my bike to school every day, watching the sun rise over the big dish each morning during a famous drought year. At night, I would bike back up Alpine Road in the dark, and that last mile home was straight up hill, so I was in the best physical shape of my life!"

After earning his master's degree, Dr. Rutt went back to Canada to complete his PhD in medical biophysics with a focus on dual energy methods in X-ray, then returned to California for a postdoc. As a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF), he was surrounded by the pioneers of the IMATRON ultra-fast CT technology in the early 80s (i.,e., Doug Boyd, PhD, and others, including Sandy Napel, PhD). Just down the road from his lab in south San Francisco, scientists were making MRI breakthroughs, notably Lean Kaufmann, PhD, and Larry Crooks, PhD, and word of these developments was spreading throughout the University and the world. Although his graduate and postdoc research had been in CT, Dr. Rutt decided to switch to MRI after hearing about these new developments.

Because of his prior history, returning to California, and to Stanford in particular, has not been difficult, and Dr. Rutt's biggest challenge has been not being able to bring his group with him from the University of Western Ontario. However, he is looking forward to working with Stanford faculty, students, and staff, and he is excited to be back: "I've had such great experiences in California that I feel very much at home here. It's not just the weather; it's also the liberal and fast-moving environment and community." The Stanford musical community is particularly interesting to him. Dr. Rutt's daughter, Leana, is studying to be a professional classical musician at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and her cello professor, Matt Haimovitz, is well known to the Stanford musical community. Like his daughter, both his son, David, and his wife, Susan, are very musical. Over the past 20 years, his wife created and built the highly successful Kindermusik Program in London, Ontario. David is currently attending the University of Ottawa and completing his education degree but plays jazz and rock on the side. He plans to pursue a teaching career in high school math and physics.

Dr. Rutt's other plans for his new life at Stanford include time for hobbies, particularly bicycling, appreciating California wine, and getting back to a former love of wood working. He comes from a long line of wood workers; his father, uncle, and grandfather Rutt were all carpenters. He has already Googled "Rutt of Los Altos," a local custom cabinetry business, and plans to find out if they are related, or at least if they'll give him a discount on some kitchen cabinets.

Did You Know?

The Department of Radiology is home to three National Institutes of Health (NIH) Centers of Excellence:

The National Center for Advanced Magnetic Resonance Technology (CAMRT);

The In Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center at Stanford (ICMIC); and

The Center for Cancer Nanotechnology and Excellence Focused on Therapy Response (CCNE-TR).