March 25, 2024 — The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) Foundation today presented the Leader in Innovation Award to Suresh Vedantham, MD, FSIR, during SIR’s Annual Scientific Meeting in Salt Lake City.
The 2017–18 SIR president, Vedantham is widely recognized as a distinguished leader in the clinical delivery and rigorous investigation of image-guided therapies for venous thromboembolism (VTE). A central accomplishment of his career has been in defining a pathway for interventional radiologists to obtain large-scale National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant support. Vedantham is the national principal investigator (PI) and/or co-PI of three landmark, NIH-sponsored trials defining the optimal role of catheter-based therapy in the management of VTE—ATTRACT, C-TRACT and PE-TRACT. The results of ATTRACT, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and other journals, yielded deep insights into the effects of endovascular therapy upon post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS), and heavily influenced societal guidelines for clinical practice and research. He is currently a professor of radiology and surgery at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where he also serves as assistant dean for clinical research.
“Dr. Vedantham has played a critical role in refining IR treatments for venous disease through his ground-breaking research, which has delivered us the robust evidence needed to guide high-quality venous care for patients worldwide,” said SIR Foundation Chair Maureen P. Kohi, MD, FSIR. “Dr. Vedantham continues to serve IR as a mentor, helping to develop the next generation of IR researchers and we thank him for his contributions to the field of IR.”
Support for research honored
During the SIR Foundation awards ceremony on March 25, SIR Foundation will recognize John Lipman, MD, FSIR, with the Frederick S. Keller, MD, Philanthropy Award, which honors an individual who demonstrates outstanding commitment to SIR Foundation through their exceptional generosity and work to inspire others to give.
Lipman is the founder and medical director of the Atlanta Fibroid Center and an adjunct clinical assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Morehouse School of Medicine. He is an expert and key opinion leader in the minimally invasive treatment of women with symptomatic uterine fibroids and/or adenomyosis with uterine artery embolization.
He is also a philanthropist, entrepreneur, and an award-winning public speaker. He has delivered over 200 invited lectures at renowned medical centers, including Harvard, Morehouse, Vanderbilt and Yale Medical Centers. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Medical Association of Atlanta and Cobb County Medical Society and is a fellow of both the American College of Radiology and Society of Interventional Radiology, honors that only 10% of radiologists ever achieve in their career. He is the current president of the Southeastern Angiographic Society (SEAS). He was an Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Health Care Hero of the Year, a “Top Docs” in Atlanta from Atlanta magazine, the 2019 Trailblazer Physician of the Year from the Atlanta Medical Association, the 2021 Vanguard Award for Philanthropy from Morehouse, and in 2022 he was recognized by AmeriCorps with a Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding Community Service.
“Dr. Lipman is a tireless advocate for his patients. Through his outstanding clinical work and his wide-ranging educational and outreach efforts, Dr. Lipman has enabled thousands of women across the country to have both knowledge of and access to appropriate, uterine-sparing treatments,” said Kohi. “His generous support of SIR Foundation and numerous other charitable organizations devoted to medical research will ensure even more women will have access to the care they need.”
Future researchers also spotlighted
The Dr. Gary J. Becker Young Investigator Award recognizes promising young practitioners to support the pursuit of academic careers. This year’s recipient is Dania Daye, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of radiology in the division of interventional radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School. She is co-director of IR research at MGH, and director of the Precision Interventional and Medical Imaging Lab. Her research centers around the applications of machine learning and computer vision for precision medicine.
To date, her research has resulted in several patents, more than 85 peer-reviewed publications, and numerous presentations and invited talks worldwide. Daye received many awards for her research, including the Association of American Physicians Stanley J. Korsmeyer Young Investigator Award, the Association of University Radiologists Memorial Award, the 40 under 40 MedTech Boston Healthcare Innovators Award and the J. George Teplick Memorial Award. She was previously elected as a junior fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. She also served as the president of the American Physician Scientists Association and currently serves on its Board of Directors. For her local and national leadership roles, Daye was the recipient of the American Medical Association Foundation Leadership Award.
“Dr. Daye is an inspiring young investigator who is moving IR forward through innovative uses of breakthrough technologies,” said Kohi. “Her work embodies the spirit of innovation that has put IR at the forefront of medicine since Charles Dotter performed the first angioplasty in 1964.”
Daye will be recognized during the award ceremony on March 25, which will also honor the recipients of SIR Foundation’s Excellence in Innovation, Dr. Constantin Cope Medical Student Research Award, Resident Research Award and Research Scientist Award. A full list of award recipients is available on sirfoundation.org.
For more information: www.sirweb.org
April 25, 2024 
