The Frederick S. Keller, MD, Philanthropy Award honors an individual who, through exceptional generosity and through inspiring others to give, demonstrates outstanding commitment to SIR Foundation.
John Lipman, MD, FSIR, will receive the Frederick S. Keller, MD, Philanthropy Award during the Monday, March 25, plenary at SIR 2024.
Dr. Lipman is being recognized for the generous contributions he made to SIR Foundation for the advancement of uterine fibroid and adenomyosis research. During the 2023 SIR Foundation Gala, Dr. Lipman made a gift to fund the Dr. Scott C. Goodwin Grant for Adenomyosis and the Dr. James B. Spies Global Summit on Uterine Fibroid and Adenomyosis Research.
The Dr. Scott C. Goodwin Grant for Adenomyosis, which just closed applications, will provide funding to encourage exploratory/developmental research by providing support for the early and conceptual stages of project development focused on a prospective and comparative adenomyosis clinical trial.
The Dr. James B. Spies Summit for Uterine Fibroid Research: UFE and Fertility, led by Gloria M. Martinez-Salazar, MD, FSIR, and Jessica K. Stewart, MD, which was held in July 2023, brought together subject matter experts from interventional and diagnostic radiology, obstetrics and gynecology, and reproductive medicine for a panel to discuss and prioritize critical research topics focusing on fertility in patients undergoing uterine artery embolization for uterine fibroids.
In his private practice, Dr. Lipman devotes much of his energy to advocating for and treating women’s health. He said he saw uterine fibroid embolization as an area with great opportunity, as well as great need.
“There’s been very little fibroid research, despite the fact that it impacts a huge number of women, African-American women in particular,” Dr. Lipman said. “It’s a glaring disparity, especially compared to other diseases that predominantly impact Caucasians. I made my donation because I wanted to do my best to make an impact where I could.”
Read more about Dr. Lipman’s donation and the need for fibroid research in The fibroid puzzle.
For Dr. Lipman, it’s humbling to be recognized among past Philanthropy Award winners, whom he describes as leaders of industry and titans of the field.
“The recognition isn’t something I thought of when giving my gift,” he said. “But I do hope that this will inspire other IRs, especially private practice IRs like me, to do what they can.”
Funding research is crucial to all IRs, he said, because research is the key to demonstrating IR outcomes and providing evidence-based care.
“We know our treatments are effective, but we still have work to do with demonstrating it to other institutions and stakeholders, especially with adenomyosis,” he said, adding that some insurance companies won’t cover uterine artery embolization for the treatment of adenomyosis rather than fibroids.
For private practice IRs and those operating in the office-based lab (OBL) model, Dr. Lipman believes that providing therapies for UFE and adenomyosis can have tremendous benefit to the community.
“I work at an OBL and we are so efficient and provide great value to our community. As medicine moves more toward the OBL model, IR—with our focus on minimally invasive therapies—is in the sweet spot to provide the evidence-based care that is so necessary right now.”
In addition to donating to the progression of research, Dr. Lipman encourages members who want to enact change to donate to SIRPAC.
“A lot of things happen at the legislative level,” Dr. Lipman said, citing a recent triumph that saw UFE included in a Rhode Island state bill regarding coverage of fibroid treatment. “We saw that the proposed law didn’t initially include UFE and notified SIR. The SIR government affairs team reached out to the Rhode Island representative sponsoring the bill and educated her on the impact of UFE.”
After this meeting, UFE was added to the legislation, which passed last year. Dr. Lipman traveled from Atlanta to witness the governor sign the bill into law.
“It’s easy to ask, ‘What can just one person do?’ Actually, quite a bit if you put your mind to it,” Dr. Lipman said. “As Arthur Ashe said, ‘Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.’”
