The Johns Hopkins Department of Radiology and Radiological Science ended another great academic year of accomplishments and tackled formidable challenges. As I look back on our successes, I am proud to lead such an amazing group of faculty members, staff members and trainees.

As we advance toward our goal of becoming One Radiology across the health system to provide an integrated care delivery, educational and research model, we have many highlights and achievements from the last year.

Leadership Changes

This past year, we saw changes in our physician and administrative leadership and are looking forward to the possibilities under these new leaders. Dr. Aylin Tekes stepped into the role as division chief of pediatric radiology and pediatric neuroradiology. Dr. Ihab Kamel is now radiology chair at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, and Dr. Haris Sair succeeded Dr. David Yousem as division chief of neuroradiology. In addition, Dr. Jenny Hoang joined our department from Duke as our first vice chair of radiology enterprise integration and medical director of Johns Hopkins Medical Imaging. Dr. Sheila Sheth came back to Johns Hopkins to assume the role of ultrasound section chief and associate director of diagnostic radiology. Our Radiological Physics Division is also under the new leadership of Dr. George Sgouros. Additional details about these leaders can be found on page 4.

Our education leadership roles also saw changes. Dr. Lilja Solnes is the Radiology Residency Program director, joined this year by Dr. Tony Lin as the new associate program director. Dr. Erin Gomez and Dr. Javad Azadi are now directing the medical school radiology elective.

Last year also marked a transition in our administrative leaders. Andrew Menard joined us from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital as our chief administrative officer, and we recruited Stacey Baldwin from the Department of Surgery to be our functional unit administrator. In addition, Marty Bledsoe recently retired, and Stacey Baldwin assumed Marty’s role as president of Johns Hopkins Medical Imaging.

I am confident that this new generation of Johns Hopkins Radiology leaders will guide our department to new heights and attract additional talented faculty members, trainees and staff members.

Patient care

It was another busy year as we expanded our footprint in the ambulatory setting by opening services at Green Spring Station Pavilion III. The new pavilion offers expanded magnetic resonance capacity and brings interventional radiology services to the outpatient setting for the first time. We continue to be busy at White Marsh and Columbia. In addition, Bethesda is undergoing extensive renovations and equipment upgrades. This year will certainly be busy and rewarding.

Research

Last year, our department was tremendously successful in procuring grant funding. We received $44.7 million in new awards last year, which is the highest ever. These awards validate the talent and vision of our faculty and trainees pushing the boundaries of science and discovery.

We have installed state-of-the-art research imaging instrumentation in a brand-new facility opened in September 2019. These new research instruments that will be available for the first time at Johns Hopkins include a simultaneous 7T PET-MR scanner to perform in vivo molecular imaging and a mass spectrometry imaging scanner for molecular analysis of tissues.

Our research faculty received a gold medal from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine twice in a row (last year to Dr. Susumu Mori, and this year to Dr. Zaver Bhujwalla). I have continued to invest in and support the research efforts of our faculty through the Rad_BriteStar Awards Program that provides bridge and pilot funding for research. We have continued with the successful tradition of our annual Radiology Research Day. Our research mission continues with exciting momentum, making significant advances in discovery and translation.

Education

Last year was also a successful year for trainees. Our radiology department was ranked #1 in U.S. News and & World Report’s best medical school rankings and ranked #6 in Doximity Residency Navigator, where nuclear medicine remains ranked #1.

We also launched a new residency in combined interventional radiology/diagnostic radiology and are now in our third year of the combined diagnostic radiology and molecular imaging residency. Our trainees received many national honors and awards, including the 2019 William W. Olmsted Editorial Fellowship for Trainees for Dr. Matt Alvin.

We are looking forward to another great year in radiology. Please enjoy the newsletter and contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Karen M. Horton

Martin W. Donner Professor and Director,
Department of Radiology and Radiological Science