Cultivating Clinical Practice

By Scott C. Goodwin, MD, FSIR
SIR President
Fall 2013 

Interventional radiologists routinely provide longitudinal care, engage in multidisciplinary quality initiatives and integrate disease-specific knowledge and expertise to provide outstanding patient care. This is SIR’s strategic goal when it comes to you—our members—and clinical care.

 We know that we want all health care providers to routinely and directly rely on and value our expertise as clinical care experts, leaders and providers of image-guided therapy. We want to be recognized as a critical component of the health care system, playing an integral part as leaders in hospital decision-making at all levels. We want robust admitting services and mature office practices. How do we reach this envisioned future? How do we ensure that IR becomes the first choice for image-guided therapy?

 One way we are answering these questions is by engaging in strategic collaborations with health care professionals. Specifically, SIR is working with the American College of Radiology (ACR), which over the years has endorsed IR’s clinical patient-centered nature—recognizing that we need an office presence, time allocated to see patients, time to consult with referring physicians and time to see patients on the ward. Last year, SIR was instrumental in the passage of an ACR resolution to develop implementation and marketing tactics to help optimize the clinical practices of IR and interventional neuroradiology (INR). An educational campaign to promote and demonstrate the value of IR and INR clinical practices to all important stakeholders is a principal component of the multipronged effort. 

The Interventional Radiology (IR) and Interventional Neuroradiology (INR) Clinical Practice Task Force was formed last summer with a diverse set of medical professionals, representing SIR, ACR and the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS). The task force, which is chaired by Philip Cook, MD, FACR, FSIR, has a steering committee and six subcommittees (INR/IR Spine, MSK and Pain Management; Neurointerventional Vascular; General IR and Interventional Oncology; Clinical IR Vascular; Education and Training; and Finance and IT).

Task force members have explored these questions: What are barriers to the clinical practice of IR/INR? What can be done to ensure the successful future of IR and INR? Forty national IR and INR thought leaders examined topics such as the adequacy of the clinical training model, the resistance of IR physicians to be more involved in longitudinal patient care, and the need to be seen as drivers of new health care delivery models and as part of the clinical infrastructure future. They crafted a draft multiphase action plan, which is being submitted to the Board of Chancellors, ACR’s executive body, for review and revision this fall. Once implemented, the action plan will first add clarity to the definition of IR clinical practice. It will then address the further establishment of the value of IR, clinical education, the creation of financial models to address financial sustainability and patient access to IR, and increasing the awareness of the importance of IR and INR to major stakeholders.

I want to thank all the members of this important task force and subcommittees who have been involved with this ambitious undertaking. While we are members of the medical house of radiology, we are also hands-on clinicians who are known as innovative problem solvers and critical resources in tough medical situations. We have a unique skill set comprised of competency in diagnostic imaging, image-guided procedures and periprocedural care. ACR’s support comes at an important time—it comes on the heels of the ABMS’s recognition of IR as a primary specialty in medicine that was a very important step in the formalization of the interventionalist’s clinical role. Forty years ago we worked as the “specialists’ specialist,” helping other doctors manage their patients with the most difficult problems. While those physician relationships remain strong, we have now taken a position in the front line of medical care.

That’s where we need to be for patients.