Inspirations, favorite quotes and more about speakers at SIR 2023—from well-known luminaries to first-time presenters! Click the names to find each one in the SIR 2023 program.
Robert E. Beasley, MD, FSIR
Robert E. Beasley, MD, FSIR
Why did you choose IR?
I chose IR because it has the best of both worlds. It is a blend of both a minimally invasive surgical specialty with a state-of-the-art diagnostic specialty.
How do you explain your work to non-IRs?
I perform image-guided surgery. There are multiple subspecialties within IR that can be accessed using image-guided surgery. Everything from complex carotid and aortic interventions to new techniques such as prostate artery embolization and genicular artery embolization.
What would you say drives your work or inspires you?
Improving the lives of my patients, from folks with diabetic foot ulcers and chronic limb-threatening ischemia to curing liver cancers that were considered inoperable a few years ago.
What is your favorite or most meaningful memory/experience as an IR?
I have had a long career and there are many, but the ones that stand out most are the patients that were told by surgeons that there was nothing more to do except amputation and we were able to prevent the loss of the limb.
What is your favorite quote?
Save A Limb Save A Life
Nicole Keefe, MD
Nicole Keefe, MD
Why did you choose IR?
Entering medical school, I wanted a specialty that was in the center of the action. Like many others, I initially thought about emergency medicine and surgery. I was lucky enough to find out about IR early in my medical school career and took every opportunity I could to scrub into cases. I learned over time how IR was not only at the center of the action, but was for so many specialties, patient populations and disease pathologies. The variety, innovation, and cutting-edge research and technology is what keeps me coming back for more.
How do you explain your work to non-IRs?
I'm a surgeon who uses image guidance to do procedures. Very similar to a cardiac cath, just for everywhere else in the body. I treat tumors, blocked blood vessels, aneurysms, infections and much more.
What would you say drives your work or inspires you?
Many have told me that what they learned in fellowship isn't what they do anymore in practice because we keep growing and innovating as a specialty. That spirit, of always being at the forefront of medicine, is what inspires me to do more research, teach students and "MacGyver" during procedures.
What is your favorite or most meaningful memory/experience as an IR?
I had a UFE patient come to the clinic for initial evaluation who would rarely leave her house because she would have such unpredictable and robust bleeding that she had soiled a friend's couch and was mortified for it to happen again. During her 3-month clinic visit post-op, she was in tears she was so happy because she was able to go out to dinner with her old friends and felt so "sexy again" since she fit into some of her old clothes. The feeling of gratitude and relief that patients have can be so rewarding and continually motivating.
What is your favorite quote?
"Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." —Calvin Coolidge
Eisen Y. Liang, MD
Eisen Y. Liang, MD
Why did you choose IR?
I was trained as a diagnostic radiologist. But then soon afterwards I realized that there was so much we could do to help the surgeons out without excisions and general anaesthetics. I was no longer satisfied with being a detective. I can actually save lives as a real doctor, being IR.
How do you explain your work to non-IRs?
I am a medical plumber. I fix leaky pipes and blocked pipes; and we do special installations. More recently, I often say: I shrink fibroids without surgery.
What would you say drives your work or inspires you?
I now work almost entirely in women's health IR. It is the vast improvement of quality of life that we can give back to women. They often say, "I wish I knew much earlier about what you could do for my menstrual issues without a hysterectomy; I wish I didn't have to put up with the symptoms all these years."
What is your favorite or most meaningful memory/experience as an IR?
Successfully stopping torrential PV bleeding in a young woman with cervical ectopic, while the whole O&G team was watching in the control room.
What is your favorite quote?
Better is the enemy of good; accepting a good result can avoid a disaster.
Ayah Megahed, MD, MBBS
Ayah Megahed, MS, MBBS
Why did you choose IR?
IR gives us the power to treat the most complex patients in the most elegant way. IR treats all mankind with solutions to target the whole gamut of pathologies that intrigued me as a medical student and intern. The IR community I met throughout my journey has been inspirational and welcoming. Finally, IR is forever expanding, with new frontiers opening every year, and will keep us IRs young always.
How do you explain your work to non-IRs?
Through a small incision in the skin, we can access any organ needed for diagnosis or intervention, or access the arteries or veins to reach any organ to either remove a blockage or treat a bleed. We can also place or remove material into the patient's body to treat disease processes. Our specialty is expanding and is integrated with all subspecialties to help patients in the most minimally invasive manner.
What would you say drives your work or inspires you?
Our exposure to patient vulnerability outstands me. It's such a sacred responsibility. To help a patient and touch his or her life and their family makes it worth anything it takes.
What is your favorite or most meaningful memory/experience as an IR?
My first IR experience was with the neurointerventional unit at Ain Shams University in Cairo. Seeing the first stroke patient treated in our INR unit post-thrombectomy with no deficit will be the most awe-inspiring IR moment embedded in my memory.
What is your favorite quote (if you have one)?
"There's a time for everyone/If they only learn/That the twisting kaleidoscope/Moves us all in turn." —Elton John
Sara Smolinski-Zhao, MD
Sara Smolinski-Zhao, MD
Why did you choose IR?
I chose IR for the same reason many did: I loved radiology but wanted to continue working closely with patients and I loved working with my hands. It seemed very elegant to do such precise procedures through small incisions. It really is cutting edge. And in the end, as I went through my medical school rotations, I just felt at home in the IR suite more than anywhere else in the hospital.
How do you explain your work to non-IRs?
With a grain of salt because it probably sounds very strange to a nonmedical person! I usually say we do everything from biopsying a tumor to treating that tumor by placing a catheter through a papercut incision, going through the arteries under x-ray and injecting chemotherapy/radiation therapy directly into that tumor. We block structures that shouldn't be leaking (bleeding, for example) and provide egress for structures that should be (blocked kidneys, bile ducts).
What would you say drives your work or inspires you?
Patient care excellence. This is why we're here, to help people through what may be the most difficult time of their lives. In order to provide this we must communicate well—by reaching out to referring clinicians about their patient to coordinate care goals, by being available to patients for questions and listening to their concerns, and with thorough documentation to communicate the plan to myself, referrers and other members of my team. I hope to instill this sense of responsibility in my trainees.
What is your favorite or most meaningful memory/experience as an IR?
I have two: one when I treated a patient for his cancer and he gave me a hug in gratitude and the other, when a resident of mine gained access to the cisterna chyli during a lymphangiogram for the first time under my guidance. Both very satisfying experiences and the inspiration that keeps me going!
What is your favorite quote (if you have one)?
My mother always said, "Any job worth doing is worth doing well."
