Recognizing Excellence

Carlo Catalano, MD  

A dedicated educator and researcher studying digital health innovations, Carlo Catalano, MD, is chair of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Radiology at Policlinico Umberto I, Sapienza University of Rome. He is also a professor of radiology at Sapienza University.  

For more than a decade, Dr. Catalano has served as the director of the Radiology Training Program at Sapienza University, offering one of the largest training programs in Italy. He has developed the Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Radiology as an innovative hub in radiology subspecialties attracting medical students and residents from around the world.

Dr. Catalano manages the large EU research project, D3 4 Health, focused on prognostics and therapeutics for sustainable health care. This innovative health ecosystem carries out activities to enhance research on digital technologies in health care, through a data mining process, to improve diagnosis, monitoring and treatment.  

Dr. Catalano is a former president of the European Society of Radiology (ESR). He currently serves as past-president and on the ESR Board of Directors. He served as Chair of the Educational Committee of the ESR, as the treasurer of the European Society of Cardiovascular Radiology and is a co-founder of the European Working Group on MR-guided focused US (MRgFUS). He has served as Chair of the Italian Society of Cardiovascular Radiology. He also served as the chair of the Young Leaders Club for the International Society for Strategic Studies in Radiology (IS3R) and as co-chair of the European Cancer Organization Digital Network.  

Fátima Matute, MD 

An internationally respected abdominal imager and researcher, Fátima Matute, MD, is the Health Minister of the Government of the Community of Madrid. She oversees more than 90,000 health care professionals, 35 hospitals, 460 primary care centers and several emergency and public health care facilities throughout Madrid.  

Dr. Matute specialized in abdominal imaging in the Department of Radiology at Hospital Clínico San Carlos de Madrid where she also served as head of studies in the School of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Technicians. She was previously the director of imaging diagnostics at Health Diagnostico, Quiron Salud, a network of health centers throughout Spain.  

Dr. Matute is vice president of the Spanish Society of Safety, Management and Quality, where she previously served as treasurer. She is the director of education for the Inter-American College of Radiology and is a member of the European Society of Radiology’s Quality, Safety and Standards Committee. She previously served as chair of the RSNA Regional Committee for Europe. She also was general secretary of the Spanish Society of Medical Radiology (SERAM) and a board member of the Federation of Spanish Scientific Medical Associations.  

Dr. Matute is the editor and director of Proradio, a professional update program in radiology. She also is area editor of management and quality and reviewer of Radiología, the SERAM journal.  

Claudio Silva, MD, MSc  

An internationally respected educator and cardiothoracic radiologist, Claudio Silva, MD, MSc, is the vice-chair of Academic Affairs in the Radiology Department at Clinica Alemana de Santiago, Chile. He is also professor of radiology at the School of Medicine, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile, and an adjunct professor to the Radiology Department at Duke University.  

Dr. Silva oversees radiology academic endeavors at Clinica Alemana de Santiago, including the Research Division, International Outreach and the residency and seven fellowship programs. He also supervises the incorporation of medical imaging topics into the medical school curriculum at Universidad del Desarrollo.

Dr. Silva is chair of the RSNA Outstanding Community Impact Award Committee and a member of the Annual Meeting Program Planning Chest Imaging Subcommittee. He previously served as chair of the RSNA Committee on International Radiology Education that developed the RSNA Global Learning Centers. 

An associate editor and international editorial board member for Radiology and a reviewer for RadioGraphics and Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging, Dr. Silva has also provided guidance for the development of RSNA Spotlight Courses around the globe.  

Dr. Silva is an editorial board member of the Journal of Thoracic Imaging and is a reviewer for European Radiology. He has served as the scientific director of the annual meeting of the Sociedad Chilena de Radiología on four occasions. He served as editor-in-chief of Revista Chilena de Radiología.  

Nestor Müller, MD, PhD 

An internationally recognized educator in chest radiology and respiratory physiology, Nestor Müller, MD, PhD, has mentored hundreds of students, residents and faculty throughout his career. Dr. Müller is professor emeritus at The University of British Columbia (UBC) and remains active on the cardiothoracic radiology team at UBC and Vancouver General Hospital (VGH). He was previously chair of the Department of Radiology at UBC, head and medical director of the Department of Radiology at VGH, and regional medical director of Diagnostic Imaging at Vancouver Coastal Health.  

Dr. Müller is the section editor of pulmonary imaging in the pulmonary and critical care medicine section for UpToDate, a suite of online publications through Wolters Kluwer.  

Recognized in 2003 by the American Journal of Roentgenology as being an outstanding teacher and scholar, Dr. Müller has supervised more than 100 graduate students.

He has been an invited speaker at more than 200 national and international meetings. He gave the RSNA 1991 Annual Oration in Diagnostic Radiology entitled High-Resolution CT: Insights into Morphology and Pathophysiology of Lung Disease. He is a past president of the Society of Thoracic Radiology.  

Dr. Müller has been recognized by numerous international societies, including gold medals from the Brazilian College of Radiology and the Society of Thoracic Radiology.   

Farrokh Dehdashti, MD 

Groundbreaking researcher and international leader in PET and molecular imaging, Farrokh Dehdashti, MD, is the Drs. Barry A. and Marilyn J. Siegel Professor of Radiology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, where she also serves as the senior vice chair and director of the Division of Nuclear Medicine and co-leader of the Oncologic Imaging Program of the Siteman Cancer Center.  

A national and international leader in advancing PET for clinical practice and research, Dr. Dehdashti was the earliest investigator worldwide to study the uses of [18F] fluoroestradiol (FES) as a method for in vivo quantification of estrogen receptor (ER) expression by PET, and to characterize metastatic/recurrent ER-positive breast cancer.  

Dr. Dehdashti led a multicenter ECOG-ACRIN trial validating the reliability of FES-PET for predicting response to endocrine therapy in metastatic breast cancer. Her work was instrumental in securing FDA approval of FES and in developing clinical guidelines for its use.  

Beyond FES, Dr. Dehdashti has contributed early-phase research for other radiopharmaceuticals for PET. Her recent work using the PET progesterone tracer [18F]FFNP showed its ability to assess functional ER and accurately predict response to endocrine therapy, parallelling her earlier studies using metabolic flare to predict breast cancer therapy response.  

Efrén J. Flores, MD 

Working together with patients and their communities to co-develop programs aimed to improve access to radiology care, Efrén J. Flores, MD, has devoted his career to recognizing the impact of social determinants in radiology care.  

Dr. Flores is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and serves as faculty in Thoracic Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He currently serves as MGB Radiology vice chair of trainee and faculty enrichment and is the founding director of the MGH Radiology Inclusion & Systemic Equity Center, a transdisciplinary research initiative focused on increasing access to radiology care and improving health outcomes for every patient.  

Dr. Flores is a member of the RSNA Annual Meeting Program Planning Committee. He is the previous co-chair of the RSNA Health Equity Committee and has served as faculty at numerous RSNA annual meetings.  

He is a member of the American Cancer Society’s National Lung Cancer Roundtable and serves on the health equity, prevention and imaging committees for the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, a part of the National Cancer Institute’s National Clinical Trials Network.  

In recognition for his work, Dr. Flores was selected as one of the inaugural National Academy of Medicine Scholars in Diagnostic Excellence in 2021. He currently serves as associate editor of health equity for the Journal of the American College of Radiology and is an editorial board member of CHEST and Diagnostic Imaging.