Are you a medical student, resident, or fellow and thinking of submitting a case for the RFS Virtual Angio Club but are unsure where to start?

1. Reach out to one of your IR staff, IR fellows or a senior Radiology resident at your institution and let them know you are interested in submitting a case for RFS VAC. If you are having a hard time finding a staff/fellow/senior resident to help you out with getting started, please reach out to rfschair@cairweb.ca who will help you get in-touch with your local  CAIR RFS representative.
2.  Ask if they have an interesting case in mind that could provide clear, helpful and interesting learning points for trainees.
3. Prepare a short 8-10 minute Powerpoint or PDF case presentation with a target audience of both current and future IR trainees.* (see provided case example below for guidance.)

Your case should:

• Be interesting/unique
• Provide trainee level learning points
• Include relevant still images
• Include references (if applicable)
• Be anonymized

*We invite you to take a look at this prior accepted submission by one of our senior RFS members Dr. Killian Newman.   Please note that the example provided is longer than typical and should only be used as a general guideline.

Example of prior accepted case submission

Dr. Aida Ahrari is a second-year radiology resident at the University of Toronto. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Ottawa, and MD-MSc at the University of Toronto. In her role as a member of the CAIR-RFS committee, Aida is involved in organizing a variety of educational opportunities for trainees interested in the field of interventional radiology.

Aida’s research interest includes optimizing safety in the field of interventional radiology. In collaboration with a team at University Health Network, she has studied sources of error in the use of vascular closure devices and angiographic equipment. She has presented this work as an oral presentation at the 2022 annual Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE) and the 2022 North American Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) conferences. Aida is grateful for the mentorship of her supervisor, Dr. Sebastian Mafeld, and for the contribution of her colleagues to this work.

Aida has a strong interest in healthcare leadership and innovation, which led her to complete a Master’s in Health System Leadership and Innovation at the University of Toronto. She went on to create the Entrepreneurship in Healthcare Program—a teaching initiative that promotes innovative design to medical students through a structured curriculum delivered by physician innovators and entrepreneurs. Now in its fourth year, the program has expanded its offering to medical students across Ontario.

For Aida, working with her colleagues to develop and grow the program has been deeply rewarding. Looking ahead into the future, Aida hopes to combine her interests in medical innovation, program building, and interventional radiology.

In her spare time, Aida is an avid cyclist who rarely misses a morning spin session. She also enjoys playing tennis and hiking. Aida has a pet cat named Dalton who isn’t camera shy and has appeared in most of her zoom meetings at one point or another.

CAIR Express – your Canadian Interventional Radiology newsletter at your fingertips. Feel free to pass it along to others in your network, and most importantly, enjoy the content that is developed with you in mind.

It has come to our attention that one of our own has been recognized internationally for their outstanding service and exceptional contribution as a reviewer for CardioVascular and Interventional Radiology (CVIR). We would like to congratulate Dr. Sean Kennedy for being recognized by CVIR for his outstanding service to the journal for the most reviews carried out in 2021.

Sean was born and raised in Toronto. He majored in biochemistry and biology at the University of Toronto for his undergraduate studies followed by McMaster University for medical school. Following this, he returned to Toronto to complete both his diagnostic radiology residency as well as an interventional radiology fellowship at JDMI (UHN and Mt. Sinai).

During his time at McMaster, he developed a passion for clinical epidemiology, meta-analysis, systematic reviews and evidence-based medicine and sought to apply them to the field of IR. This has culminated to date in over 50 peer-reviewed publications.

Following his fellowship, in 2021, he was recruited to join Humber River Hospital in Toronto. His current clinical interests include embolotherapy, complex dialysis/venous access, venous disease, interventional oncology, and spine intervention including vertebroplasty/kyphoplasty.

Purpose

The purpose of the CAIR Award is to recognize those who have made significant contributions and provided extraordinary service to the Canadian Interventional Radiology Association and/or the discipline of Interventional Radiology.

• Service to Interventional Radiology may include teaching, research, clinical investigation, and/or promotion of Interventional Radiology or CAIR. Research must be recognized for quality and consistency by publication in recognized professional journals.
• Service to CAIR may include outstanding contributions to the CAIR, other medical organizations, and/or government agencies.

The CAIR Award may also recognize individuals who have dedicated their past and present talents to advancing the quality of patient care through the practice of Interventional Radiology, and/or who, by their outstanding achievements, also help to ensure the future of the field.

Eligibility

• CAIR member in good standing for the past five (5) years
• Candidates may not nominate themselves
• CAIR Board members are not eligible during their term of office
• Individuals will not be considered if they have received an award within the last five (5) years

Nomination Process

Nominations must be submitted via email to luciana.nechita@cairweb.ca, by January 31st, 2023, attention: Nominating Committee, subject: CAIR Award nomination and include the following:

1) Completed nomination information, including:

• Nominator’s name, affiliation, title, address, phone number, and email.
• Nominee’s name, affiliation, title, address, phone number, and email.

2) A statement / letter of nomination, not to exceed 500 words, addressing the following areas:

• Significance of contributions.
• Quality and impact of contributions.
• Years (duration) of significant effort.
• Geographic range of contributions.
• Resume or CV of nominee.

3) One (1) letter of support (in addition to the nominator’s narrative) from a person familiar with the nominee’s achievements.

Please note the letter of support must be from a person other than the nominator.

Evaluation Criteria

The process of evaluating nominations is:

1) Determination of eligibility for consideration

• Does the nomination satisfy the guidelines for eligibility?
• Is the nomination complete?

2) Determination of merit

• If a candidate is deemed eligible, the merit of their nomination should be evaluated with respect to the narrative, letter of reference, resume/CV, and any additional supporting documentation.

3) Selection: A nominating committee will review the submissions and make recommendations to the CAIR Board for final approval.

• CAIR is under no obligation to present the award annually.
• Except under special circumstances, the award will be given to one nominee each year.
• Only in the event of the demise of the nominee after being selected shall the award be presented posthumously.

Presentation of the Award

The CAIR Board President will present the Award at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Canadian Association for Interventional Radiology.

CAIR is seeking skilled leaders and innovators to serve on its Board of Directors

The Canadian Association for Interventional Radiology (CAIR) is currently seeking interested individuals to serve on the Board of Directors for a two-year term commencing in June 2025. The deadline for submitting nominations is December 31st, 2024.

CAIR is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and we encourage applications from candidates who reflect the diversity of the individuals and communities we serve.

Equity and diversity are essential to excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been marginalized. To address the CAIR’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusivity, in recognition of the underrepresentation of members of historically and currently marginalized groups, preference will be given to applicants who self‐identify as one or more of any of the following: diversity of gender identity,2SLBGTQ+, Indigenous peoples, racialized persons, persons with disabilities.

About the CAIR Board

The Board currently consists of eleven (11) directors serving staggered two-year (2) terms, with an option to extend for a maximum of five (5) two-year (2) terms. Based upon the tenure of the existing directors, the Board anticipates requiring a minimum of two (2) new directors in 2025.

With over 20 years of history and tradition, serving over 900 members, CAIR brings together the vast majority of Interventional Radiologists as well as other professionals of the field and works with patient groups and other allies to help increase accessibility for Canadians to patient friendly, effective, minimally invasive, image guided treatments.

Our vision is to improve Canadians’ health and quality of life through minimally invasive, image guided therapy.

The CAIR Board provides strategic leadership and general direction, governance, creates internal policies and procedures, oversees the organization’s general performance, and ensures overall accountability.

Composition and terms

All CAIR board directors must be members of CAIR. The CAIR by-laws permit a maximum of eleven (11) directors; all directors must be in ethical and professional good standing with their respective regulatory body(ies) where applicable.

Board members who are elected at the May 2025 annual meeting will have a two-year (2) term.

Commitment and Meetings

The Board meets between three (3) to four (4) times a year via teleconference or video conference, for typically around two (2) hours. In addition to attendance and preparation for meetings, Directors are expected to participate in email and telephone dialogues on various matters that arise in between and as a result of meetings, as well as sit on committees as required. The board is expected to participate in the two (2) in-person board retreats that happen in February and November of each year.

Attendance at the CAIR’s Annual Scientific Meeting, as well as other CAIR organized events is strongly encouraged. The board members may be asked to represent the organization in meetings with other partners and stakeholders, local, national, and international (meetings with different levels of government, SIR, CIRSE, etc.).

Board Roles & Responsibilities

The role of the CAIR board is to:

• Establish the mission, goals, and policies of the organization.
• Develop a long‐range plan for the organization; define strategy and a time frame for achievement of goals.
• Ensure the long‐term financial stability and strength of the organization, develop, and maintain sources of income to provide for the continuing operation of the organization.
• Ensure the long‐term organizational stability and strength of the organization, bring into the organization individuals with the necessary abilities to lead and manage the organization in the future.
• Hire and develop the CEO/Executive Director to manage the operations of the organization.
• Exercise high level oversight of the executive director and the operations, approve annual budgets, review operating and financial results, audit for compliance with internal policies and external requirements, review performance against goals.

The responsibilities of the board are to:

• Be committed to the mission, goals, and policies of the organization.
• Perform the functions and work of the board to the best of one’s ability.
• Recommend others who could serve on the board or be of value to the organization in other capacities.
• Avoid any conflicts of interest and situations that would compromise the principles of the organization or lead to the perception of compromise.
• Be knowledgeable about the organization, the services it provides and the IR community in which it operates.

Compensation

Board of Directors shall serve without remuneration. No Director shall directly or indirectly receive any profit from occupying the position of Director. Directors may be reimbursed for reasonable expenses incurred in the performance of their duties.

Process

All applications will be considered based on merit; however, preference will be given to candidates with a background in leadership and governance, prior experience on or working with a Board of Directors, financial or accounting experience, familiarity with revenue generation in non-profit structures and sound financial sustainability practices, programs, and activities development from a national association perspective.

To submit an expression of interest in CAIR’s Board of Directors, please email luciana.nechita@cairweb.ca, addressing it to the Nominating Committee, including your resume and a brief cover letter sharing why you are interested in joining CAIR’s Board of Directors, what skills, knowledge, and expertise you feel are most exciting to share and what serving the interventional radiology community means to you.

As part of the assessment and recommendation process, candidates may be invited to interviews with the Board Nominating Committee and may be asked to participate in reference checks.

The submission deadline for positions for the coming year is December 31st, 2024.

Interventional Radiologists

 University Medical Imaging Consultants (UMIC), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon

Permanent Full-Time Academic & Clinical Position

WHY WE ARE HIRING

UMIC has undergone significant recent expansion of services combined with some pending radiologist retirements. As such, we are recruiting with Interventional Radiology as an area of special need.

ABOUT OUR PRACTICE

UMIC is currently a group of 29 radiologists centered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We have a mixed academic, hospital and community practice. All our members are affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan and actively involved in teaching and supervising residents and medical students. Our mix of academic and clinical services allows us to have an academic mission combined with good remuneration. We have a large on-site presence at Royal University Hospital and Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon. We also provide diagnostic radiology services for Battlefords Union Hospital (in North Battleford) and Lloydminster Hospital (in Lloydminster) through a mixture of remote and on-site services. We own and operate Saskatoon Medical Imaging, a community radiology practice providing mammography, ultrasound, and x-ray services at over 20 clinics centered in Saskatoon. We have also recently started providing outpatient MRI and CT services at National Medical Imaging in Saskatoon.

WHO SHOULD APPLY?

The preferred candidates will have strong clinical training in Interventional Radiology. Although working within the specialty is expected, candidates must also be able and willing to practice covering a wider range of general radiology. Candidates must be willing to work both in hospital and clinic settings. Ability to perform breast imaging (mammography and ultrasound) would be preferred.

Candidates must also have an interest in academic radiology with a focus on resident supervision/teaching. A desire to participate in research including resident research supervision would be preferred but is not essential.

Diagnostic services covered by our group include MRI (3.0T & 1.5T with subspecialty reading), CT, ultrasound, mammography, radiography, and fluoroscopy.

Interventional radiology is hospital based and includes vascular (trauma/GI bleed embolizations, vascular access, uterine artery fibroid/AVM/hemorrhage embolizations, TACE, IVC filters) and non-vascular (biliary and gallbladder drains, nephrostomy tubes and ureteric stents, PG/PGJ tube placements, image guided ablations, chest and abdominal drains, image guided biopsies). Areas of desired expansion include but are not limited to TIPS and TARE.

Full posting available here.

Image-guided pain management is kind of the elephant in the room with many VIRs in Canada – we don’t do a lot of this, as they are typically performed by anesthesiologists, surgeons in subspecialties, or MSK-imaging trained diagnostic radiologists. During fellowship, the only image-guided pain control procedures Coco and I recalled performing were celiac plexus ethanol ablations and observing the odd vertebroplasty through a leaded glass window. As VIR staff, we have come to realise that a majority of our chronic vascular and haemodialysis patients (over 50%) have had some form of image-guided interventions (most commonly cervical/lumbar facets and large joint injections) performed by non-radiology specialists. We decided to dig deeper into the world of image-guided pain management and came across nerve ablation for large joint pain (typically fracture or OA) in non-operative patients. We discovered an interventional radiologist in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Prologo, and decided to pick his brain about nerve ablation.

J. David Prologo, MD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology at Emory University School of Medicine and Director of Interventional Radiology Services at Emory Johns Creek Hospital. Dr. Prologo is an interventional radiologist specializing in diagnostic radiology, interventional radiology, obesity medicine, interventional pain management and bone tumor ablations.

Dr. Prologo received his MD from Ohio State University and completed  radiology residency at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He then completed a fellowship in vascular and interventional radiology at Metrohealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Prologo’s research has focused on the application of image guided techniques to the delivery of stem cell therapies, the treatment of cancer pain, and for obesity management. He is a recognized expert in ablative therapies and has pioneered several new procedures in the subspecialty including the cryoablation of nerves.

When we first learned about genicular nerve ablation, we thought to ourselves – how? RFA? Microwave? Cryo? Ethanol? Could you briefly describe your experience with this procedure and how you have seen it evolve in recent years? ​

The original fluoroscopically guided RFA procedure was largely driven by industry. Companies with RFA probes marketed to the public and then trained the interventionalists. Over time, research demonstrated quite a bit of variability in the nerve courses and suggested that we were missing a good amount of the time. As a result, we (IR) began (as we always do LOL) to improve on this by using ultrasound (better guidance) and/or cryo (larger ablation zones).

Other than using an (RFA) probe, would you consider other methods to be safe? For example, could etOH ablation be feasible or would damage to muscular branches be too risky?

​Alcohol in my opinion is too expensive and impossible to control in this setting. Cryoablation is less painful, more predictable, and covers more space – making it ideal.

Could this procedure be performed solely under US guidance?

Yes.

How are you referred patients?​

Primarily from ortho in patients who don’t qualify or don’t want knee replacement.

How do you select patients?

Painful osteoarthritic knee or failed knee replacement without contraindication.

How do you follow these patients?

At 3, 6, and 12 months. Usually between 12 and 18 months we will repeat.

How many treatments are typically required?

One treatment lasts 12-18 months. The best outcome would be if the patient used that window to exercise, lose weight, and get the TKR.

What is the most common complication you see?

Complications are quite rare.

How does this compare to genicular artery embolization (GAE)?

​Interesting question. GAE does attempt to attenuate the pathophysiology of the disease while (genicular nerve ablation) is purely pain relief. That said, GAE is a little more involved and risky.

How many times do people refer to genicular nerve ablation as geniculate nerve ablation? 

​They generally refer to IR. We then decide which procedure to perform.

How can an established VIR get trained in this procedure?

These patients are out there. I recommend primarily going straight to them by pitching a news story, engaging a media liaison, or straight marketing. Alternatively, one could educate the orthopaedic surgeons (as above) and/or primary care doctors about these non-surgical options. Last, I would try to provide as quick a service as possible for the referrers.

Select references:

A Review of Long-Term Pain Relief after Genicular Nerve Radiofrequency Ablation in Chronic Knee Osteoarthritis 

Is Genicular Nerve Radiofrequency Ablation Safe? A Literature Review and Anatomical Study 

Can cooled RF ablation relieve post-knee replacement pain?

Cooled Radiofrequency Ablation May Relieve Chronic Pain after TKA

The Department of Radiology, McMaster University and the Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hamilton Health Sciences are seeking a full-time radiologist for the Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre interventional program, for start date of July 2023. Academic rank will be commensurate with the candidate’s qualification and experience.

As a full time faculty member within the Department of Radiology, the successful candidate will promote clinical scholarship and have a strong commitment to excellence in teaching, mentorship and interest in research. The successful candidate will participate in teaching and supervision of residents within our highly rated Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program and will support and participate in teaching activities in the undergraduate medicine program and other relevant programs. Teaching and supervision of interventional fellows in our McMaster fellowship programs is required.

Applicants must be certified (or eligible for certification) by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Diagnostic Radiology (or equivalent) and hold (or be eligible for) an independent license in the Province of Ontario. Successful applicants must have completed specialty fellowship training interventional radiology. Full posting here.

CAIR Express – your Canadian Interventional Radiology newsletter at your fingertips. Feel free to pass it along to others in your network, and most importantly, enjoy the content that is developed with you in mind.