GUMC Professor Assumes Presidency of Society of Interventional Radiology
Posted in News Release
WASHINGTON (March 26, 2014) — James B. Spies, MD, MPH, FSIR, professor of radiology at Georgetown University Medical Center and chair of the department of radiology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, is the new president of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR). He assumed the one-year term March 26 during SIR’s 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Diego.
Spies, who has served on more than 25 committees during his roughly 27 years as a member of SIR, says his focus as president will be to promote the “limitless potential of interventional radiology and its positive impact on patient care.”
“SIR members are dedicated to improving outcomes for patients through innovation, constantly seeking new minimally invasive technologies and treatments to improve patient care,” Spies says. “It is a great organization full of wonderful people and I am looking forward to working toward achieving our goals.”
SIR is a national organization of over 5,000 members dedicated to improving public health through disease management and minimally invasive, image-guided therapeutic interventions.
SIR has several goals during Spies’ tenure, including launching a new training pathway in interventional radiology recently approved by the American Board of Medical Specialties, initiating a patient safety registry and broadening the professional educational offerings available for practicing interventional radiologists.
Spies is an interventional radiologist whose primary clinical and research interest is in uterine embolization for fibroids and assessing outcomes related to various fibroid therapies. As head of the Georgetown Uterine Fibroid Embolization Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, one of the largest in the United States, he is internationally recognized for his contributions in this field.
Spies has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers on his research into uterine fibroid embolization (UTE), a technique that blocks the blood supply to fibroids (noncancerous growths that develop in the muscular wall of the uterus).
Spies attended Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed his residency in diagnostic radiology at the University of California at San Francisco and a fellowship in interventional radiology at New York University.
About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC’s mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis — or “care of the whole person.” The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization, which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Institutes of Health.
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