Radiology: A 60-Year Tradition of Excellence Continues
In 1947, Frederic N. Silverman, MD, founded the Department of Radiology at Cincinnati Children's. Retiring from the department in 1975 after 28 years at the helm, Dr. Silverman was one of the first physicians to focus on pediatric radiology as a subspecialty and trained many of the future leaders in the field. His leadership established a tradition of excellence in radiology and medical imaging at Cincinnati Children's that our current scientists and physicians are busy carrying on.
In this issue of Research Horizons, we meet some of the researchers in pediatric imaging who are honoring Dr. Silverman's legacy through continued innovation and excellence.
Cincinnati Children's has one of the largest pediatric radiology departments in North America. With 32 clinical faculty and seven research faculty, the department is responsible for training nearly one-third of all pediatric radiology fellows in the United States each year. The department's radiology fellowship, now in its 58th year, is one of the oldest in the nation. The department performs one of the highest volumes of imaging procedures in the country, while also producing one of the largest numbers of publications each year.
Kids Are the Focus
Always keeping children the focus of their work, the experts at Cincinnati Children's have been national leaders in promoting pediatric imaging techniques that minimize radiation doses to children. They maintain that smaller bodies and pediatric diseases demand special imaging considerations. The Department of Radiology serves as an advocate for children, performing MRIs differently on children than on adults in order to offer the best opportunity of identifying a child's disease.
The research arm of the department, the Imaging Research Center (IRC), functions as the core imaging research source for the Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation. It is an interdisciplinary research laboratory operated by the Research Foundation and the Department of Radiology. The IRC provides access to advanced imaging and image post-processing methods for collaborators involved in basic and clinical research at Cincinnati Children's and the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
In recognition of its excellence, the Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging recently was ranked among the top 25 most influential in radiology by RT Image magazine. And earlier this year, readers of Medical Imaging magazine voted the department fifth best within a hospital. Quite obviously, the commitment to pediatric radiology that Dr. Silverman instilled nearly 60 years ago lives on in the department to this day.
