The Kinked Wire

There was a report that several people had been sick, and several were transported to hospitals. The next thing we heard was that all of the ambulance crews and firemen who had been involved in the transfer were in quarantine … and it really seemed kind of crazy.—R. Torrance Andrews, MD, FSIRWarren Krackov, MD, FSIR, speaks with R. Torrance Andrews, MD, FSIR, a Seattle-based interventional radiologist, about the onset of COVID-19 in that area and the role that interventional radiology continues to play during this global health crisis. Find IR resources for COVID-19 planning, staffing, personal protective equipment and more at the Society of Interventional Radiology website, sirweb.org.Listen to more interventional radiologist perspectives on COVID-19:July 21: New York, N.Y. (Akhilesh K. Sista, MD, FSIR)June 9: Atlanta, Ga. (Janice Newsome, MD, FSIR)May 20: Miami (Costantino S. Peña, MD, FSIR)May 8: Chicago (George Behrens, MD)April 29: Pal Alto, Calif. (Raj Shah, MD, FSIR)Note: This episode was recorded on March 30, 2020.SIR thanks Varian for its support of this episode.Contact us with your ideas and questions, or read more about about interventional radiology in IR Quarterly magazine or SIR's Patient Center.(c) Society of Interventional Radiology.Support the show

Figure out your targets and then automate as much as possible, be it through automatic transfers, automate your savings, move it to a separate account that you're not going to touch. And do as much of that through automation as possible, because really when it's left up to our willpower, all of us are pretty bad at it ... and so what we want is to have good systems in place.  —Clint Gossage, CFPWarren Krackov, MD, FSIR, speaks with Clint Gossage, CFP, from CMG Financial Consulting, about the unique personal financial circumstances that physicians find themselves in throughout their career. SIR thanks Varian for its support of this episode.Contact us with your ideas and questions, or read more about about interventional radiology in IR Quarterly magazine or SIR's Patient Center.(c) Society of Interventional Radiology.Support the show

If you put yourself in a place where you say, "Oh, that will never happen to me because I'm strong, and I'm stoic, and I have it under control and I have all the answers," then you already have made yourself susceptible to burnout. —Felicia Speed, LMSWWellness and burnout are increasingly important topics in today's fast-paced culture, and we all want to achieve wellness on the job, at home, in our lives. Warren Krackov, MD, and Jaimin Shah, MD, talk with wellness expert Felicia Speed, LMSW, about how the busy interventional radiologist can achieve wellness and avoid the pitfalls of burning out. SIR thanks Varian for its support of this episode.Contact us with your ideas and questions, or read more about about interventional radiology in IR Quarterly magazine or SIR's Patient Center.(c) Society of Interventional Radiology.Support the show

ATTRACT essentially found that, really, it's the people with iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis (DVT) who are the ones most likely to benefit and that, in fact, quality of life was improved in the iliofemoral patients. And so that certainly suggests that we're barking up the right tree with the C-TRACT Trial.—Suresh Vedantham, MD, FSIRHot on the heels of the ATTRACT Trial results comes another exciting new trial on post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS): Chronic Venous Thrombosis: Relief with Adjunctive Catheter-directed Therapy (C-TRACT). According to private practice interventional radiologist Mary Costantino, MD, “I’m thrilled that people are researching these clinical questions, and it’s incredibly pertinent to those of us in non-university settings who are trying on a daily basis to do the right."Warren Krackov, MD, and Jaimin Shah, MD, talk with Principal Investigator Suresh Vedantham, MD, FSIR, on the importance of such research efforts, the potential for C-TRACT to help your patients, and how you can get them enrolled in the study.Learn more about C-TRACT.Contact us with your ideas and questions, or read more about about interventional radiology in IR Quarterly magazine or SIR's Patient Center.(c) Society of Interventional Radiology. Support the show

Without being able to articulate what that value is, I’m sure many IRs across the country can relate to the struggle that might ensue when you’re trying to [explain it]. You know you’re valuable, but you have trouble quantifying it and articulating it. —Matt Hawkins, MDIn December 2019, SIR Foundation hosted a Research Consensus Panel on the Value of Interventional Radiology, led by Matt Hawkins, MD. Warren Krackov, MD, and Jaimin Shah, MD, talk with Dr. Hawkins about measuring value and with SIR coding consultant Stephanie L. Dybul, MBA, RT, about the tools IRs can use to get reimbursed appropriately.Contact us with your ideas and questions, or read more about about interventional radiology in IR Quarterly magazine or SIR's Patient Center.(c) Society of Interventional Radiology. Support the show

That could actually create a really big void if we’re not in communities taking care of patients. We’re the “go-to,” we’re necessary in these big systems or big hospitals, but when you get very far from them at all, then you have communities that have absolutely no access to IR. —Laura Findeiss, MD, FSIRIn 2009, SIR held its inaugural Leadership Development Academy (LDA). Among that first class’s graduates was Laura Findeiss, MD, FSIR, who has since held a number of key leadership roles in both SIR and SIR Foundation. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the first LDA, Warren Krackov, MD, and Jaimin Shah, MD, speak with Dr. Findeiss about the LDA’s impact on her career, and about the current trajectory of IR.Contact us with your ideas and questions, or read more about about interventional radiology in IR Quarterly magazine or SIR's Patient Center.(c) Society of Interventional Radiology. Support the show

It’s not me trying to do five more so that you guys do five less. It’s my trying to work with you to reach out to these women who are suffering in silence out in the community. There’s somewhere in the United States 2 to 3 million women with symptomatic uterine fibroids who just aren’t getting treatment at all.—A.J. Gunn, MDIn 2019, interventional radiologist A.J. Gunn, MD, and his colleagues discovered that they weren’t getting many uterine fibroid embolizatoin (UFE) referrals—and surprisingly few from inside their institution. Working with their hospital's marketing team and collaborating with the gynecologic community, they doubled their practice’s annual number of fibroid referrals. Warren Krackov, MD, and Jaiman Shah, MD, speak with Dr. Gunn about the novel way he and his colleagues reversed the trend.  Contact us with your ideas and questions, or read more about about interventional radiology in IR Quarterly magazine or SIR's Patient Center.(c) Society of Interventional Radiology. Support the show

During that time period, many of the Japanese Americans, like my parents who were born in the United States, were a quiet bunch of people ... and so my parents never talked about it. In fact it wasn’t in our history books, growing up. I didn’t even know about the internment camps—and the fact that my family was affected by them—until I was 25.—Alan H. Matsumoto, MD, FSIRAt the SIR 2019 annual meeting, Alan H. Matsumoto, MD, FSIR, received SIR’s prestigious Gold Medal award. During his speech, he announced his vision for a new program to support diversity in IR: the Grants for Education of Medical Students (GEMS) Program. Hirschel McGinnis, MD, speaks with Dr. Matsumoto about this grant, what inspired it in the first place, and the importance of diversity and inclusiveness in interventional radiology—and in our country. Contact us with your ideas and questions, or read more about about interventional radiology in IR Quarterly magazine or SIR's Patient Center.(c) Society of Interventional Radiology. Support the show