The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) presented its highest honour, the SIR Gold Medal, to Alan H Matsumoto, Daniel Picus and James B Spies during its 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting (23–28 March, Austin, USA). These awards acknowledge distinguished and extraordinary service to SIR or to the discipline of interventional radiology.
“The 2019 Gold Medallists exemplify the innovative and collaborative spirit of interventional radiology through their research, mentorship, dedication to the advancement of the quality of medicine and patient care,” says SIR 2018–2019 president M Victoria Marx, interventional radiologist at Keck Medicine of USC, and professor of clinical radiology and diagnostic radiology residency programme director at Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, USA.
Alan H Matsumoto
Matsumoto is professor and chair of the department of radiology and medical imaging at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA, where he has been on faculty since 1991 and helped train more than 200 diagnostic radiology residents and 100 vascular and interventional radiology fellows. He has published 300 articles and book chapters, given more than 300 invited and scientific talks, and served as the site principal investigator for 24 clinical trials. He developed and ran the core lab for the trial that led to the first US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved abdominal aortic stent graft in 1999. A past-president of SIR and programme chair of the 2004 SIR Annual Scientific Meeting, Matsumoto has also served as an American Board of Radiology examiner, in committee and council chair positions at the American Heart Association, and as a member of the American College of Radiology Council Steering Committee and Board of Chancellors.
Daniel Picus
Picus is a professor of radiology and surgery at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, USA. There he established the interventional radiology section, serving as its first chief from 1987–2000. He then took on the role of division chief for diagnostic radiology until 2018. During his career, Picus’ interest in coding and reimbursement led him to become a member of the American Medical Association’s Current Procedural Terminology (AMA CPT) Editorial Panel. He has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed publications, as well as multiple textbook chapters and scientific exhibits. Picus delivered the Dr Charles T Dotter Lecture at the 2013 SIR Annual Scientific Meeting and has served SIR in many roles, including both Education and Annual Meeting Councillor, first editor of the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology (SCVIR, now SIR) newsletter, and first deputy editor and second editor-in-chief of SIR’s Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.
James B Spies
Spies is a professor of radiology at Georgetown University School of Medicine and chair of the department of radiology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C, USA. Spies is recognised as an international authority on uterine artery embolization (UAE) for fibroids. He maintains an active UAE clinical practice, has performed extensive research in that area and continues to actively research outcomes from a range of fibroid therapies. He has published more than 100 scientific studies and given more than 400 invited presentations. In addition to serving as a trustee of the American Board of Radiology (ABR) for interventional radiology since 2016, Spies has served SIR in many roles, including SIR president from 2014–2015, SIR Foundation chair from 2006–2008, and as a member of numerous SIR committees.
