Optimizing minimally invasive patient care

×

Expand

Over the past 43 years, the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) and SIR Foundation has grown to represent more than 7,000 practicing interventional radiology physicians, trainees, medical students, scientists and clinical associates, including physician assistants, nurse practitioners, radiologic technologists and paramedical professionals. Believing that patient lives can be improved through image-guided therapy, SIR’s vision is to optimize minimally invasive patient care. Our strategic plan identifies several important goals we want to achieve in the next 3–5 years.

1. We must make sure the entire health care marketplace supports greater patient access to IR care and an IR’s ability to thrive in his or her chosen practice model.

• We’ll get there by studying IR workforce trends and eliminating barriers. We will use this to stimulate the demand for IR, while at the same time increasing diversity within the specialty. And, we will only adopt positions and take actions that increase patient access to high-quality IR care.
• We’ll deliver to members and stakeholders resources to build successful, high-quality IR practices. We’ll benchmark and measure success through our practice satisfaction surveys and track increased presence and distribution of the IR workforce using population-based maps.

1. We will continue to make evidence, not anecdotes, the foundation of IR’s ability to translate innovation into better patient outcomes and value.

• We’ll get there by making a major investment to further increase the amount, quality and usability of information. With better access to research data, we’ll improve the culture of research and innovation for interventional radiology and better communicate results across the spectrum from clinical to advocacy. We will also strive to increase the number of IR investigators and the overall grant dollars for IR.
• We’ll deliver an annual assessment of how IR research advances a prioritized agenda. We’ll benchmark and measure increased number of and funds for IR investigators, from varied sources.

1. Because learning never ends, we must deliver and support comprehensive life-long learning to produce innovative, highly-trained and competitive interventional radiology teams, worldwide.

• We’ll get there by first enhancing the breadth and consistency of the education provided to residents according to the ACGME curriculum. We will then expand training and knowledge in disease specific areas not specifically reflected in the ACGME curriculum to validate new standards of competency. And, because this is not just for trainees, we will offer life-long learning for the entire global IR community.
• We won’t be satisfied until all IR residents gain equivalent education and training through a universal curriculum. We’ll benchmark and measure success by increasing engagement and loyalty to SIR via life-long learning.

1. We also recognize that we cannot do this alone. We will form alliances with external organizations to influence decision makers to advance the value of interventional radiology and improve patient outcomes.

• We’ll get there by first bringing focus and alignment of pivotal society challenges to partnership opportunities. We will then transform how we engage with external organizations and more effectively distribute shared message through stakeholders.
• We’ll benchmark and measure success by increasing support funding and partnerships, tracking expanded reach of key messages to policy makers and patients and annually demonstrating how common priority goals are enhanced with alliances.

Underlying the plan are 2 fundamental shifts in how we work:

• We will increase the transparency and agility of how we work—listen and observe more; improve operational and project management tools; set a more proactive cours;e and respond with change as needed.
• We will more fully empower our members and other stakeholders to help us succeed.