The Radiology Department has created two new videos to help spread the word about the department. The first video is about Radiology training at UMMS the second video focuses on some of the research projects currently being undertaken by radiology faculty and staff. Select the links below to view the videos. Thanks to the producers and to the faculty, staff and residents who participated in the creation of these productions.

AuntMinnie.com featured the Pulmonary Artificial Intelligence and Radiomics Research (PAIRR) Laboratory in their November 13, 2020 issue. For more information about PAIRR visit the Cardiothoracic Division webpages.

There is great interest in leveraging AI to produce a high quality MRI, faster. Historically, methods for making MRI faster also degrade image quality. This fall, UMass will be one of the first sites in the United States to implement a deep learning based MR image reconstruction algorithm from GE Healthcare as part of our ongoing partnership with Shields. This technology, developed to allow faster MR image acquisition at 3T without compromising image quality, received FDA approval only five months ago. GE estimates nearly a 30-40% reduction in scan time for some of our most commonly performed MRIs.

Congratulations Radiology Faculty Researchers Gopal Vijayaraghavan, MD, MPH, and Mary Rusckowski, PhD, are among the investigators that have received capital funding awards from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC). Two of the grants are for Women's Health and a third grant is funding for the new PET-CT camera that will be arriving later this month.

The Diversity & Inclusion Office and the International Committee relaunched the storytelling series “UMass Immigrant Stories: Everyone is Included in our Community” on Tuesday, Sept. 29, with Raúl Padrón, PhD, and others of UMass Medical School sharing stories over Zoom.

Read recent letters from patient families and physicians praising Radiology staff.

September was Women in Radiology Month! We would like to recognize our wonderful women faculty!

PGY-5 Radiology Resident Joelle Wazen, MD recently helped to create the UMass Radiology Chapter of Health4TheWorld (H4TW). H4TW goal is "Bringing Free Online Reliable Education in Medicine to Remote Parts of the World." Currently there are four resident members Sameer Hanfi, MBBS, Efaza Siddiqui, MBBS, Yara Younan, MD and Joelle serves as president. Max Rosen, MD, MPH is faculty chair and Carolynn DeBenedectis is a faculty advisor.

The 2020 Anatomical Gift Program Memorial Service took place on September 26 after being postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions. This year's service took place via Zoom with medical students from the Class of 2023 participating with readings, music, poetry and recognition of the donors. Students, families and staff were sad not to have a memorial service at the medical school but happy to be able to host a virtual service. A recording of the service can be viewed here.

Alexander Bankier, MD gave a presentation titled “Management of the COVID-19 crisis in the USA," during the National French Congress of Radiology in October. Dr. Bankier is the division chief of Cardiothoracic Imaging at UMass. The presentation was part of an educational session on coping with the COVID-19 pandemic: International assessment of the imaging response.

UMass Memorial Medical Center recently recognized seventy-three members of the Department of Radiology for their years of service to the organization. Five of these Radiology colleagues were honored for 40 years of service!

Two members of the Radiology staff retired at the end of September. Linda Hughes, administrative assistant who helped with faculty credentialing, CME credits and faculty support, and Charlene Baron who worked with instructional technology, photography, radiology newsletter and maintained the department's websites.