A new roster of residents and fellows joined the Department of Radiology in July, including the first Interventional Radiology Residents and the first CardioThoracic Fellow!

   •   Joseph Jacob, MD

   •   Yegeniy Karonov, DO

   •   Matthew Mariyampillai, MD

   •   Alex Newbury, MD

   •   Patrick Svrcek, MD

   •   Venkatesh Murugan, MBBS

   •   Alex Pavidapha, MD

The JC surveyors couldn’t have been more effusive about their experience here at the Medical Center and with all our staff. They engaged over 200 people in conversation over the last 4 days and were incredibly impressed. While many of you were involved in the survey and did a marvelous job preparing and presenting, I want to acknowledge one individual in particular – Kevin Reynolds.

The Medical School Class of 2023 will be hosting a virutal Memorial Service for the Anatomical Gift Program Donors on Saturday, September 26, 2020. The memorial service usually takes place in the spring with families of the Donors, students, faculty and staff invited to attend. This year the service has been moved to September and will take place via Zoom.

The newly installed transmission electron microscope, the Talos L120C, has been in use by the EMC personnel and some newly trained users. The EM Core website has been updated to reflect the new microscope, complete with on-line calendar for booking. The Electron Microscopy Core remained operational throughout the Covid-19 pandemic shut-down. Electron microscopy is a unique and vital tool used to understand the structure of this and other viruses. In this lab they can see the “invisible enemy!”

The American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) 2020 Eastern Regional Meeting is scheduled to be held as a Virtual Meeting on October 3, 2020. The meeting is hosted by UMMS Translational Anatomy faculty Lela Giannaris, PhD and Alexandra Wink, PhD. Though originally planned for an in-person meeting at the UMMS Worcester campus, the planning committee decided to be proactive and designate this to be an online synchronous and asynchronous meeting given the COVID-19 social distancing recommendations.

The Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS) hosted their annual meeting virtually this year. Radiology Professor and Director of the New England Stroke Research Center, Matthew Gounis, PhD reported that UMMS is well represented at the meeting. Dr. De Macedo Rodrigues moderated a session, Dr. Gounis gave an invited lecture and was a moderator, their lab had 2 podium presentations and 2 posters and Dr. De Macedo Rodrigues and Dr. Puri were both pictured on the cover of the program.

The Radiology Residency faculty along with current and former residents hosted virtual Q&A sessions for medical students to learn more about our Radiology Residency programs. Two evening sessions were scheduled on Tuesday August 25 and September 1, 2020. Residency interviews will take place virtually this year and these sessions provided medical students an opportunity to learn more about the program at UMMS.

After an appointment today, my son (age 11) needed X-rays of his cervical spine. We went down to the ambulatory radiology suite, and the woman who checked us in couldn't have been more friendly and more attentive to [my son], asking about school and his plans. We went in for X-rays with the tech, who noticed [my son's] taco shirt. He talked to [my son] for 10 minutes (while taking the films) about best toppings, fish tacos, Catalina dressing. It was so funny. I am sorry that I didn't get his name.

This was another productive summer as department faculty engaged remotely with nearly 20 students in multiple programs, including the Summer Anatomy Enrichment Program (SAEP) / Summer Prosection Program (SPP) in the Division of Translational Anatomy, as well as the Research and Curriculum Exploration Summer Program (RCE) and Clinical and Translational Research Pathway (CTRP), sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Medical Education (OUME).

"I wanted to notify you of a compliment we received regarding Leah Berthiaume. We received a wonderful compliment in our office from [a patient] who stated “I was recalled from screening for right breast asymmetry on July 7, 2020 at 2:15 pm. I would like to compliment LEAH (I believe was her name) for making me feel very comfortable during what can be an anxious time. She was very professional, instructional (during COVID procedures), and informational. Great job!”

The European Congress of Radiology 2020 (ECR 2020) was an online-only event this year. UMass Radiology Resident Sameer Hanfi, MBBS, recent grad Evan Ruppell, DO, former visiting fellow Javzandolgor Nyamsambuu, MD and body faculty presented at the European Congress of Radiology. They were scheduled to attend and present at the meeting in Vienna, Austria July 15 – July 19, 2020. Dr Hanfi’s abstract was accepted for both oral and poster presentation. The congress is the annual meeting of the European Society of Radiology. This year the meeting was held virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Alexandra Wink, PhD moderated a webinar for the American Association for Anatomy (AAA) recently titled Filling the Gap: Teaching Anatomy as a Non-Anatomist. Fellow Translational Anatomy faculty member, Amanda Collins, MPH, was one of the featured speakers during the webinar. The webinar focused on the experiences of faculty who were not trained as anatomists (or may not consider themselves to be anatomists) who found themselves having to teach in the anatomical sciences.

The Division of Translational Anatomy was well represented at the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) Annual Virtual Meeting 2020, June 15-19. The meeting was originally scheduled to be held at Weill Cornell in New York City but was moved to a virtual format because of COVID-19. UMass faculty presented seven papers, received awards, and were elected to several of the association committees. Yasmin Carter, PhD was selected as the Inaugural Chair for The Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Amanda Collins was the Anatomical Services Award winner for her paper authored with Dr. Carter titled “Veteran Body Donation Trends at UMASS Medical School.”

Department chair Max Rosen, MD, MPH was one of the experts during a roundtable discussion about integrating AI into Radiology practices.