Steering SIR to continued success

By Alan H. Matsumoto, MD, FSIR, FACR, FAHA
SIR 2015–16 President

 
As I assume the role of representing you on behalf of our society, I want to thank you, my colleagues and friends, for your confidence and trust in me. It is a great honor to serve you.

As president, I understand that it will be up to SIR leadership to chart the course for the society through the ever-changing waters of health care. Please know that we will do our best, but also understand, as Vince Lombardi said, “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined efforts of each individual.” Therefore, we will need every member to help us steer SIR along a path of continued success, whether it be at your local institution or at the national level by volunteering with the society.

As we look to this upcoming year, I know that the importance of our specialty remains underappreciated and misvalued at many different levels. Therefore, let me provide four areas upon which I believe we must focus the energy of SIR; but also understand that we will be working on many other activities in parallel.

1. We must create applicable and actionable structured reports and develop and fund registries and clinical trials to generate the quality and longitudinal outcomes data to better demonstrate the value of IR services. Empowered with this data, we will be better equipped to generate meaningful, evidence-based clinical practice standards and guidelines; educate hospital administrators, legislators, payers and patients on the significant role interventional radiologists play in improving medical care; and ultimately increase our sphere of influence in the health care arena.
2. SIR and its leaders are committed to facilitating the implementation of the new IR Residency and creating roadmaps for the process. Interventional radiology has become the 37th specialty recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. We must take advantage of this opportunity by reinventing our IR training programs to better educate and clinically train the next generation of IRs. We must also establish pathways for our trainees to develop a broader foundation in—and a greater knowledge of—how to do outcomes research.
3. We must continue to advance the positive impact that IR has on patient care through innovation and the development of new technologies, techniques, procedures and clinical care pathways for our patients. More than ever, IRs must continue to support SIR Foundation and its spirit of discovery by embracing and employing our creativity and innovative ideas not only to advance our specialty but also to enhance the delivery of integrated patient care models based on outcomes data and through our direct involvement in the longitudinal care of patients.
4. We must move forward in unity, aligned as a single, strong and proud society. So much of medicine is being dictated by legislators and payers. We know that legislators and payers respond in proportion to the voice being heard and the size of PAC contributions, as well as the perceived power of a society. Therefore, we must keep the membership of SIR together and focused on its mission to ensure that IRs have a significant and visible presence with hospital administrators, payers, legislators and, most importantly, patients.

We must leverage our positive working relationships with our diagnostic radiology colleagues and other societies to move our specialty forward. We cannot forget that many of the advancements that have been made in imaging technologies have allowed our specialty to increase its bandwidth and the diversity of the minimally invasive, image-guided procedures we perform. Collaborating with other medical societies to generate outcomes data, as SIR has recently done with the Society for Vascular Surgery with the PRESERVE trial, is also essential, and indeed is being mandated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and many funding organizations like the National Institutes of Health.

Unity in voice and representation is most compelling and influential. Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” We cannot allow shrinking health care dollars, turf wars, politics, egos and individual agendas divide or erode our specialty or derail our efforts to improve the lives of the patients we serve.

On behalf of SIR, I pledge that your society will remain a strong advocate for the advancement and enhanced visibility of IR in the health care arena. As former GE CEO Jack Welch said, “Controlling your destination is better than being controlled by it.” For the benefit of our specialty and our patients, I challenge each and every member of SIR to contribute to your own vision to heal and to become engaged in controlling the destiny of our profession and specialty. What action will you be taking to help IR and your patients? Please feel free to send me your ideas and thoughts to comm@sirweb.org.