Society of Interventional Radiology bestows highest honors

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) presented its highest honor, the SIR Gold Medal, to Katharine L. Krol, M.D., FSIR; Jeanne M. LaBerge, M.D., FSIR; and Gao-Jun Teng, M.D., FSIR, during its Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington. These awards acknowledge distinguished and extraordinary service to SIR or to the discipline of interventional radiology.

"Interventional radiology has provided innovative care for patients for more than 40 years and has never stopped defining the future of medicine and adapting to the ever-evolving health care landscape," said SIR 2016–17 President Charles E. Ray Jr., M.D., PhD, FSIR, who represents SIR's 6,100 doctors, scientists and allied health professionals dedicated to improving health care through interventional radiology. "This year's Gold Medal recipients embody the inspiration and promise of IR's limitless potential," said Ray, professor and head of the department of radiology at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Katharine L. Krol, M.D., FSIR

A past-president of SIR, Krol served as SIR's CPT advisor several years and is now a member of the CPT Editorial Panel, also serving on the panel's executive committee. She has been a proponent for interventional radiology and the care it brings to patients through her numerous roles in economics and in health policy for SIR. Krol was named 2015's Philanthropist of the Year by the SIR Foundation and she currently chairs the SIR PReP (Payment, Research and Policy) Task Force, which is charged with moving SIR members into the new payment policy world created with the passage of the Medicare and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) in 2015. She retired from clinical practice in 2013, but continues to be active in volunteer work for the SIR and AMA, and works as a consultant for a Core Lab. Krol joined SIR in 1985 and was named a Fellow of SIR in 1999. She has served on the SIR Executive Council as Health, Policy and Economics councilor and held the position of chair of the SIR Economics Committee, Government Affairs Committee, and Fellowship Affairs Committee, among numerous other volunteer appointments within the society. She has contributed to the SIR Annual Scientific Meeting for many years, speaking and presenting on clinical as well as health policy topics.

Jeanne M. LaBerge, M.D., FSIR

LaBerge is a professor in residence at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and is chief of interventional radiology at UCSF's Mount Zion Campus. Known for her interest in education and training, as well as for her clinical interests in portal hypertension and hepatobiliary interventional radiology, she has assumed several prominent roles within radiology leadership, such as her selection to the American Board of Radiology (ABR) Board of Trustees. She also served as a member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Residency Review Committee for radiology. In her leadership roles at ABR and ACGME, LaBerge has been instrumental in the development and implementation of the new IR Residency and IR/DR certificate—a landmark achievement for interventional radiology and a transformative event in IR training. Her other major contributions within SIR leadership have been in the development of an original syllabus series, the categorical course case-based review series and the film panel at SIR Annual Scientific Meetings. She delivered the Dr. Charles T. Dotter Lecture in 2011 and has been a Fellow of SIR since 1992.

Gao-Jun Teng, M.D., FSIR

Teng is chair of interventional radiology and vascular surgery at Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, China. He was the chair of radiology from 1998 to 2016. He is also the president of Zhongda Hospital, following his five-year term as the dean of the university's School of Medicine. A corresponding member of SIR since 1996, Teng began his interventional radiology career in 1987, when the practice of interventional radiology was just beginning in China. Collaborating with leaders in the fields of medical imaging and the interventional radiology families, Teng has worked to champion the field of interventional radiology in China; working to standardize practice, education and research in the field. He has been one of the pioneers in the development of modern imaging technologies in China, including molecular imaging and fMRI. Teng is the current vice president of Chinese Society of Radiology and president of the Asia-Pacific Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology from 2016-2018. He served as the president of the Chinese Society of Interventional Radiology (CSIR) from 2009 to 2011 and he has been a fellow of SIR since 2008. Teng has greatly contributed to establishments of relations between CSIR and other societies such as SIR.

About the Society of Interventional Radiology

The Society of Interventional Radiology is a nonprofit, professional medical society representing more than 7,000 practicing interventional radiology physicians, trainees, students, scientists and clinical associates, dedicated to improving patient care through the limitless potential of image-guided therapies. SIR's members work in a variety of settings and at different professional levels—from medical students and residents to university faculty and private practice physicians. Visit sirweb.org. The Society of Interventional Radiology is holding its Annual Scientific Meeting March 4–9 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. Visit sirmeeting.org.

SOURCE Society of Interventional Radiology

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