“I think…if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.” Leo Tolstoy
I have had the opportunity to meet and work with many bright and engaging colleagues at IR radiology conferences and while working on SIR projects. They were from various backgrounds and walks of life; people of all ages, races, genders and incomes; veterans, immigrants, people from the rural Midwest wearing heavy boots, Northeast urbanites—all so different, and yet all with that a unifying love story of how they found a home in IR. These stories showed how bringing diverse talents together can create a unique environment for innovation and build a foundation for better medicine.
During the SIR 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting in Austin, Drs. Harjit Singh, Vishal Kumar, Shantanu Warhadpande and I brainstormed ways to support the diversity and inclusiveness of our specialty.
The discussion led to “Humans of IR,” a project exploring the origins and life decisions that led physicians to pursue a career in interventional radiology. You can find these stories on SIR’s social media channels, on this page, and in upcoming issues of IRQ. We wanted to show how interventional radiologists discover IR, find inspirational mentors and contribute to the success of the specialty. We wanted to know what ignites that fire in their hearts for the everyday fight for their patients and their professional place in current medicine.
Humans of IR is designed not only to showcase the current IR community but also to invite future talent into our specialty and ensure that our physician population is poised to serve communities in all their diversity. After all, we understand that, when offered new procedures and new technologies, patients tend to trust and more accurately follow the advice of physicians who are more like them.
We hope that Humans of IR will have a positive impact on the diversity of our specialty and will help all the great physicians who love IR to find their home. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, “He who is different from me does not impoverish me—he enriches me.”
