William J. Casarella, MD, FSIR, a founding member of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) and its president from 1979–1980, has died at the age of 86.
One of the first interventional radiologists in the United States, Dr. Casarella was a pioneer who helped develop life-saving angioplasty and diagnostic angiography techniques now used routinely across multiple medical specialties. He served as the chair of Emory University’s Department of Radiology from 1981 to 2004, as the executive associate dean for clinical affairs at Grady Memorial Hospital from 1999 to 2013, according to a remembrance on Emory’s website. Dr. Casarella helped to grow Emory's residency program; create a cutting-edge, advanced radiology clinic; and develop filmless imaging.
As a founding fellow of SIR, Dr. Casarella was present at the first meeting of what would later become the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, now SIR. In an interview with SIR for the society’s 25th anniversary, he recalled SIR’s early meetings as “a small group of 30–50 people who met around a U-shaped table, and everyone presented their new material" and noted his strongest memory from SIR's first 5 years is the "exchange of ideas between people who were doing similar things and, in particular, the development of great friendships." He served as the society’s secretary-treasurer from 1976–77 before being elected president-elect in 1978 and president in 1979. He was instrumental in expanding the society’s membership eligibility and, in 1986, was a member of the rules committee that established SIR’s first multi-tiered membership structure. By the time he delivered the 9th Annual Charles T. Dotter Lecture at the annual meeting in 1993, the meeting had grown from a U-shaped table of 30–50 people to 2,796 attendees sharing their breakthrough treatments, and membership had grown to 2,120. A strong proponent of scientific research and author of more than 115 articles, he also served on the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology’s first editorial board.
In 1994, after the American Board of Medical Specialties officially approved vascular and interventional radiology certificates of added qualification (CAQs), the American Board of Radiology (ABR) tapped Dr. Casarella to sit on its Vascular and Interventional CAQ Committee, assembled to create the first oral examination.
In honor of his contributions to interventional radiology, Dr. Casarella was awarded SIR’s highest honor—its Gold Medal—in 2001. In addition to being awarded the SIR Gold Medal, he also received similar honors from the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) in 2005, the American College of Radiology in 2009 and the Radiological Society of North America in 2018. In addition to founding and leading SIR, he also served as president of ARRS and ABR.
SIR invites you to share your memories of Dr. Casarella on SIR Connect.
