RSNA recognizes significant contributions to education and research in radiology with the Outstanding Educator and Outstanding Researcher awards.
Outstanding Educator
Adam E. Flanders, MD
Flanders
A prolific mentor, author and pioneer for digital learning, Adam E. Flanders, MD, is a professor of radiology and rehabilitation medicine, vice chair of enterprise imaging informatics at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia
Dedicated to serving the profession of radiology, Dr. Flanders was the informatics associate editor for RadioGraphics, and he currently serves on the RSNA News Editorial Board. He has also chaired the Neuroradiology RadLex, Reporting and Medical Imaging Resource Center (MIRC) subcommittees. From 2011 to 2017 he served as chair of the RSNA Radiology Informatics Committee (RIC), actively encouraging radiologists to become involved in the EHR selection processes at their hospitals, advocating for engagement in meaningful use initiatives and championing the development of robust electronic teaching files, ultimately leading to the development of RSNA Case Collection. He also chaired the RSNA Digital Roadmap Steering Committee. Dr. Flanders participated in and co-authored the “Digital Roadmap” for the National Institutes of Health/RSNA/American College of Radiology (ACR)/The Academy Workshop on Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging, identifying and prioritizing needs for academic research laboratories, professional societies and industry. He has also helped to facilitate several neuroimaging-based AI Challenges for the RSNA Machine Learning Subcommittee in collaboration with the American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) in 2019 and 2021.
Dr. Flanders is a past president of the American Society of Spine Radiology (ASSR). He has served in multiple roles for the ASNR, including as chair of its Rules Committee and as deputy editor for NeuroGraphics. He contributed expertise to the ASNR informatics programming, standards and guidelines and in the ASNR AI Committee workshops. He now chairs the ASNR Common Data Elements (CDE) workgroup in collaboration with the ACR and RSNA. He works with the Society of Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) in the program committee, and in 2013 he was named a SIIM Fellow for his contributions to imaging informatics.
Dr. Flanders earned his medical degree in 1983 from Rush Medical College in Chicago and he completed a residency in diagnostic radiology at the University of Illinois Medical Center, where he served as chief resident in 1986. After completing a fellowship in neuroradiology at Thomas Jefferson University, he joined the Jefferson faculty.
At Jefferson, Dr. Flanders chairs the Imaging Informatics Council for its Enterprise Radiology and Imaging Service Line. He is also actively involved with the Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center of the Delaware Valley (RSCICDV).
Outstanding Researcher
Pamela K. Woodard, MD, PhD
Woodard
A leading researcher in cardiothoracic imaging and a generous mentor, Pamela K. Woodard, MD, PhD, specializes in cardiac CT and MR techniques and in translating novel cardiovascular PET radiotracers into human subjects.
Dr. Woodard is the Hugh Monroe Wilson Professor of Radiology and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis, where she is also the senior vice chair and division director of Radiology Research Facilities. In this role she provides administrative oversight to the directors of the department’s ten NIH recharge facilities, including the pre-clinical and clinical imaging PET and MRI research facilities and the Cyclotron Facility. She is also director of the Center for Clinical Imaging Research (CCIR), head of Cardiac MR/CT, and director of the Radiology Research Resident Track and the program director of the NIH-funded T32 TOP-TIER clinician-scientist training program in translational imaging research.
Dr. Woodard received her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her medical degree from the Duke University School of Medicine. She completed her internship in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a residency in diagnostic radiology at Duke University, and a fellowship in cardiothoracic imaging at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology.
Following early success in securing grant funding, including a 1996 Siemens Medical Solutions/RSNA Research Fellow Grant and a 1999 Carestream Health/RSNA Research Scholar Grant, Dr. Woodard secured multiple NIH grants. Early in her career, she was a principal investigator (PI) on the landmark NIH-funded PIOPED II project, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which established multi-detector CT as the principal method for pulmonary embolism diagnosis. She also led a key project on the Washington University NIH contract, Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology (PEN) which developed a receptor-targeted radiotracer for atherosclerotic plaque imaging.
Dr. Woodard currently leads her own research program and is a PI or multiple principal investigator on three NIH R01 grants for the translation of cardiovascular radiotracers into humans. She has nearly 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, several patents, and has served as a charter member on NIH study sections, including Clinical and Integrative Cardiovascular Sciences (CICS) and Medical Imaging (MEDI), and chair of the NIH study section Imaging Guided Interventions and Surgery (IGIS). She has received numerous awards for her work including being named an Academy of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research (ARBIR) Distinguished Investigator.
A revered leader in organized radiology, Dr. Woodard serves on the board of directors of ARBIR and the Missouri Radiological Society. She also serves on the American College of Radiology (ACR) Board of Chancellors as the ACR chair of the Commission on Research. She is a past president of the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging. Her expertise has informed the R&E Foundation Research Grant Study Section and the Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance.
