Interventional radiologists are arguably some of the most innovative and passionate physicians in healthcare. While no two practices are exactly the same—which is one of the exciting, and challenging, aspects of this great specialty—IRs have always come together despite these differences to take on the big (and sometimes audacious) goals that raise us all up together. In November, the SIR and SIR Foundation Steering Council, SIR Board of Directors and SIR Foundation Board of Directors will meet to begin strategizing society and foundation initiatives for 2023 and beyond. These initiatives are guided by the experience and advice brought up through our Clinical Specialty Councils and Divisions, as well as suggestions, observations, and feedback we receive directly from you, our members.
Member feedback is crucial, whether via hallway conversations, check-ins or more formal vehicles like the recent membership survey. We thank you for taking the time to complete the survey, as your input directs SIR’s and SIR Foundation’s focus in meeting your needs.
Within this issue of IR Quarterly, you will find several articles that encapsulate some of the larger questions and missions affecting IR that we will discuss in November: how can we advance clinical research, demonstrate the value of IR and improve members’ ability to practice IR?
Demonstrating the value of IR is more important than ever, and with it comes the need to better understand our workforce and how we practice, through efforts like the one posed in our research forum section (pg. 24) by Elizabeth Ignacio, MD, FSIR.
Along with exploring how an IR practices, our specialty also needs to accelerate the rate of data collection to showcase the efficacy of our procedures. In “Designing an NIH-funded study,” Akhilesh Sista, MD, FSIR, and Suresh Vedantham, MD, FSIR, discuss the larger impact of the upcoming PE-TRACT, which will not only provide an answer to the efficacy of catheter-directed therapy for intermediate pulmonary embolism, but will establish a precedent for high-quality IR research and trial design for evaluating established therapies (pg. 14).
This crucial IR data can be collected in a multitude of ways—by trials like PE-TRACT, or through research like the kind Rahul Sheth, MD, explored utilizing the SIR Foundation Ring Grant (pg. 22).
But even without the infrastructure for research, every IR can and must contribute to data collection. Developing data sets on the procedures IRs perform and outcomes IRs achieve is pivotal to supporting the inclusion of our work in care pathways for all the disease states we treat. This is an area where IRs must be all in. We need data to justify the approval of our devices and to validate the reimbursements we pursue for our patients. All of this seeks to quantify and validate IR’s worth to health systems, hospitals and payors, which translates to more access to the treatments we provide our patients.
SIR has developed the VIRTEX registry for the IR community to accomplish those exact things. Through VIRTEX, all IRs can participate in the creation of clinical data, even without dedicated research time. Other medical specialties have long used this strategy, and interventional radiology—a primary specialty just as any other—needs to step up to do the same. By employing SIR’s standardized reports, IRs can improve their reimbursement and coding processes while seamlessly contributing to the VIRTEX registry (pg. 17).
For members who wish to become even more involved in the future of IR, there are increasing opportunities to participate in device regulation, such as through working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On pg. 20, Donald Miller, MD, FSIR, and Minhaj S. Khaja, MD, MBA, FSIR, discuss their experience working and collaborating with the FDA and share how others can contribute.
There are so many ways for IRs to become engaged in the future of the specialty, and the first step is to acknowledge that we have a responsibility to support the education and training of all IRs, as well as support further advanced education and research within the clinical specialty council disease domains that SIR has identified. Our members have always demonstrated immense passion for IR, and each member has something different to bring to the table, whether it be a unique skill, practice type or area of specialization—and it’s these differences that strengthen the field of IR.
As we move toward this November meeting, we call you, members, to embrace this message: All in for IR. The future of IR is yours to create through research, volunteering, collaborating and educating. Registration for SIR 2023, held March 4–9 in Phoenix, is now open, and we hope to see you all there to help us shape and celebrate the future of IR together.
