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Membership Update: Spring 2009

New IRS Officers Elected for 2009-2010

Kathleen A. Ward, MD, FACR from the Department of Radiology at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood has been elected President of the Illinois Radiological Society (IRS) for 2009–2010 having served as the Secretary/Assistant Treasurer and then President-Elect/Treasurer over the past two years. She replaces Matthew J. Kuhn, MD, FACR from Methodist Medical Center in Peoria, who was President during 2008–2009. Gary L. Dillehay, MD, FACR from Chicago’s Northwestern University has moved up to President-Elect/Treasurer, with Mandar A. Pattekar, MD from Methodist in Peoria selected as the Secretary/Assistant Treasurer. Thomas Anderson, MD, FACR from Mercy Hospital in Chicago and Jennifer Lim-Dunham, MD from Loyola University in Maywood were elected Alternate Councilors for the American College of Radiology (ACR). Alexander Nemeth, MD from Northwestern was appointed to a position created and funded by the ACR called Young Alternate Councilor to encourage participation by more youthful physicians. Councilors and Alternate Councilors also serve as members of the IRS Executive Committee. For a full listing of Executive Committee members, visit the IRS web site at www.illradsoc.org.

Chicago Radiological Society Installs New Officers for 2009–2010

Edward A. Michals, MD from the University of Illinois in Chicago Hospitals was elected President of the Chicago Radiological Society (CRS) for 2009–2010. Previously, he served as President-Elect and Program Chair. He replaces John F. Hibbeln, MD from Rush University Medical Center who was President of the Chicago Radiological Society for 2008–2009. Davide Bova, MD from Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood continues as CRS Secretary/Treasurer but added the title of President-Elect. Jennifer Lim-Dunham, MD from Loyola was elected to a two-year term as Vice President and Program Director. In addition to these officers and six Trustees, the CRS Board includes those members who are serving on boards of other Chicago medical organizations as well as the ACR Councilors and Alternate Councilors who are members of the CRS. For a full listing of officers, Executive Committee members and Trustees, please visit the CRS web site at www.chi-rad-soc.org.

Resident and Fellow Section Elects Officers

Alice Yao-Lee, MD from Rush University Medical Center was elected President of the Illinois Resident & Fellows Section (RFS) for 2009–2010 after serving as Vice-President/President-Elect. She replaces Mustafa Bashir, MD from Rush University who was President during 2008–2009. Christopher Chan, MD from Rush University was elected Vice President/President-Elect following a year of service as RFS Secretary-Treasurer. Additionally, Patrick Alore, MD from Rush University was elected Secretary-Treasurer and Alan Mortezaie, MD from the University of Illinois at Chicago will serve as the RFS Program Director. The RFS meets in conjunction with the monthly meetings of the Chicago Radiological Society. For the past year, Mustafa Bashir, MD also served on the Executive Board of the Resident & Fellows Section for the American College of Radiology and was elected to a second term to the national section during the ACR meeting in Washington in early May.

Central Illinois Radiological Society Officers

Mandar A. Pattekar, MD from Methodist Medical Center in Peoria continues as President of the Central Illinois Radiological Society, the division encompassing the area of Illinois outside Chicago and its surrounding collar countries. Bruce E. Shevlin, MD, FACR from University Radiologists in Springfield continues as Vice President and Dean R. Collette, MD from St. John’s Hospital in Springfield continues as Secretary-Treasurer.

IRS, CRS and CIRS Schedule 2008-2009 Meetings

The Illinois Radiological Society and its two divisions, the Chicago Radiological Society and the Central Illinois Radiological are scheduling their slate of meetings for the 2009–2010 season. 

The Central Illinois Radiological Society is planning a meeting for later in the summer either in Springfield or in Peoria. This follows their very successful dinner meeting held last August 8 at the Par-a-Dice Hotel and Casino in East Peoria, Illinois. Watch the IRS web site for detailed information and online registration

The Chicago Radiological Society will hold five monthly meetings from October 2009 to April 2010 as well as a joint meeting with the IRS and CIRS scheduled for Saturday, March 20, 2010. The CRS Meetings will again be held at the Searle Conference Center in the Professional Building at Rush University Medical Center. Watch your mail, email and the CRS and IRS web sites for updated information.

The dates for the CRS meetings are tentatively scheduled as follows:

• Thursday, October 15, 2009
• Wednesday, November 18, 2009
• Thursday, January 21, 2010
• Thursday, February 18, 2010
• Thursday, April 15, 2010.

Jennifer Lim-Dunham, MD, from Loyola is the 2009–2010 Program Director. 

The Joint Meeting of the Illinois Radiological Society, Chicago Radiological Society and Central Illinois Radiological Society scheduled for Saturday, March 20th will again focus on “Hot Topics in Radiology”.   The meeting will be held at the Feinberg Pavilion Conference Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Leonard Berlin, MD, FACR from NorthShore University HealthSystem—Skokie Hospital is serving as Program Chair. This meeting follows two years of meetings chaired by Doctor Berlin continuing to focus on cutting edge topics important to radiologists. Of note, the Keynote Address for the 2009 meeting was provided by Congressman Mark Kirk, and Syam Vasireddy, MD, resident physician from Springfield, won the $1,000 award for the best Steven M. Pinsky, MD Resident Research Award presentation.

Radiologists hold Capitol Hill Day in Washington

During the ACR Annual Meeting and Chapter Leadership Conference held in May in Washington, a record number of over 400 radiologists from across the United States visited with their respective Congressional Offices. Illinois Congressional Offices visited included Senator Richard Durbin and Representatives Danny Davis, Mark Kirk, Jerry Costello, Judy Biggert and Aaron Schock. The key issues addressed for 2009 were physician payment reform; no further cuts to medical imaging in Medicare; and appropriateness criteria for imaging utilization reforms. 

Residents Gain Exposure to Socio-Economic Issues

The American College of Radiology and the respective state chapters again sponsored residents and fellows allowing them to attend the ACR meeting in Washington. In addition to attending special programming aimed toward residents and fellows, our younger colleagues attended the general sessions and witnessed firsthand the policy-making sessions of the ACR Council. Eight residents from Illinois attended the meeting under sponsorship of the ACR and the IRS. They included Syam Vasireddy, MD, Vivek Patel, MD and Charles Smittkamp, MD from the SIU School of Medicine in Springfield, Nathan Saucier, MD and Hamid Naxeer, DO from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, Christopher Chan, MD and Patrick Alore, MD from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and Alan Mortezaie, MD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Mustafa Bashir, MD from Rush University also attended the meeting as an officer in the ACR Resident and Fellows Section.

Illinois Radiologists Receive Fellowship Status in ACR

Four Illinois Radiologists received their Fellowship designation at ceremonies at the ACR meeting and may now include FACR as part of their credentials: Sandra W. Horowitz, MD, Northwestern University Medical Center; Shahrooz Sepahdari, MD, Mercy Hospital and Medical Center; Bruce E. Shevlin, MD, University Radiologists /St. John’s Hospital in Springfield; and Harish Thakrar, MD, Neurological and Orthopedic Hospital of Chicago. Radiologists, radiation oncologists or physicists interested in applying for consideration in 2010 should apply by June 1, 2009. Fellowship information is available on ACR web site at www.acr.org, under the membership tab.

Legislative Session Overview

2009 ushered in a newly elected 96th General Assembly and a new Governor to start off the year. But, according to Michelle Gentry-Wiseman, IRS Legislative Affairs Consultant, money problems for the state remain a top issue, as they had in 2008, although to a much higher degree. What was initially identified as a $9 Billion dollar deficit has potentially turned into a $12 Billion dollar shortfall with no solid plan to address the problem yet in sight. Budget-related issues seems to have taken center stage, and additionally, there have still been some substantive proposals that have been moving through the process that also impact the IRS and its members.

One bill of primary interest is SB 1905, which implements recommendations of the Task Force that has been working on addressing the issues concerning Certificate of Need and the Health Facilities Planning Board. The bill, as it currently stands, would create a Center for Comprehensive Health Planning to promote the distribution of health care services and improve the healthcare delivery system in Illinois by establishing a statewide Comprehensive Health Plan and ensuring a predictable, transparent, and efficient Certificate of Need process under the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Act. The current Board would be replaced by a 9-member Health Facilities and Services Review Board.  Included in the language was a definition of “capital expenditure minimum,” which as proposed would be $6,500,000 for applicants for projects related to skilled and intermediate care long-term care facilities. 

SB 1617 was introduced to require ambulatory surgery centers to accept Medicaid as a payor source. The bill also had an amendment filed that was of concern to IRS, as it would have lessened the requirements of the Health Care Self Referral Act. The amendment was not adopted to the bill, partially based on IRS concerns. Subsequently, the entire bill was re-referred to the House Rules Committee because it failed to pass out of committee by the deadline for action. 

The IRS has also been talking with the Office of the Attorney General regarding the possibility of working on a joint effort to address the issue of leasing arrangements for MRI or other radiologic facilities. While the AG’s office was unable to add the issue into their agenda during the current session, we will be meeting with them after the session to work on the issue to have it included during either the Fall Veto Session or the next Spring session.

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