The Gold Medal, SIR’s highest honor, is awarded not only for extraordinary service to the society but to those who have dedicated their past and present talents to advancing the quality of medicine and patient care through the practice of interventional radiology. The Gold Medal presentations will take place on Sunday, March 30, at 10:30 a.m., during the Opening Plenary Session.
SIR Today salutes the 2025 recipients of the most prestigious SIR awards with a personal look at their outstanding careers, asking them for a person, place and thing that has particularly inspired or influenced them. Watch for more articles about award winners during the annual meeting. View these award recipients' full bios.
Yasuaki Arai, MD, FSIR, is a researcher, innovator and educator who has made a substantial contribution to the global IR community. From his work at the National Cancer Center to his stint as the president of the Japanese Society of Interventional Radiology, Dr. Arai has established new techniques, created new devices and furthered scientific study. Dr. Arai has published over 200 scientific articles and received many awards and honors from international IR organizations.
After retiring from the National Cancer Center in 2018, he has been actively working as a guest researcher at the National Cancer Center, a guest professor at Tokyo Jikei University School of Medicine and Saitama Medical University, a clinical professor at St. Marianna University of Medicine, and a chief doctor of Uonuma City Koide Hospital.
WHO: The biggest influence on my roots are my parents. They taught me the importance of always being considerate to those around me, pursuing my interests and trying new things, and continuing to do so. Conversely, there were no restrictions on anything else. They nurtured me freely with love in a spontaneous and free environment. This was the environment that led me to find joy in "creating something that no one has ever done before.” I became a doctor in 1979, but unfortunately, IR was almost unknown in Japan at the time. But I was blessed with oncologist colleagues who taught me about evidence and clinical trials, which led me to conduct many clinical trials in IR. I was also blessed to work with excellent surgeons who were always ready to help me when I needed it, especially when facing the challenges of IR. All achievements I have made in the field of IR have been possible because of the strong support of my colleagues. I was also blessed to have the help of my colleagues not only in Japan, but also abroad. Despite my humble English skills, they always gave me the greatest assistance. Finally, my patients are the true teachers. My specialty was interventional oncology, and although most of my patients have already passed away, their cases always gave me new ideas for IR, and their happiness and joy have always been my greatest source of motivation for my IR services.
WHAT: My daily conversations with patients often taught me what I was missing and how to improve. Often, though, there were no answers in the textbooks, so my daily routine was focused on trying to find answers to my patients’ needs. Thus, the answers I eventually reached were ones that had never been reported before. There were safety considerations and ethically acceptable procedures to follow, of course, but every day was like a dream for me to be able to take on the challenge of creating something that had never been done before. The development of new methods of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy and various nonvascular IR methods, as well as IR devices and systems such as angio-CT equipment and tip-deflecting microcatheters, were developed in the course of my daily routine. The establishment of the Japan Interventional Radiology in Oncology Study Group (JIVROSG), a multi-institutional clinical trial organization for IR, is also a wonderful accomplishment for me.
WHERE: After becoming a physician in 1979, I spent 5 years working at the 2nd National Tokyo Hospital in Tokyo. During this period, I participated in two expeditions to 8000m peaks in the Himalayas, and nearly died in an avalanche the second time. From 1984, I worked at the Aichi Cancer Center in Nagoya for 20 years. There, I learned a lot from oncologists and developed many IR techniques, and in 1992 I developed the angio-CT. I was also committed to training young IR physicians. Many of them are now at the forefront of the field, which I am proud of. After moving to the National Cancer Center in Tokyo in 2004, I continued to perform IR myself, develop IR techniques and equipment, mentor young IR physicians and conduct IR clinical trials. I also served as the president of the hospital (2012–2015) and the president of the Japanese Society of Interventional Radiology (2014–2017) and devoted myself to the development of IR in Japan. Today, I go to Uonuma City Koide Hospital (Uonuma City, Niigata Prefecture) 3 days a week to develop geriatric IR, a new subspecialty of IR dedicated to improving the quality of life of elderly people.
