With the annual Radiological Society of North America meeting just weeks away, HealthCare Business News checked in with president, Dr. Matthew A. Mauro, to find out more about his career, and his background with the organization.

We also talked about what attendees can expect at the upcoming meeting at McCormick Place in Chicago.

HCB News: Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in healthcare?
Dr. Matthew A. Mauro: I was an engineering student as an undergraduate at Cornell and graduated with a BSEE degree. As is very common with engineering students, my summer jobs were with engineering firms. You were given as assignment and sent to a cubicle. There was relatively little interaction. I was looking for a way to leverage my abilities in the sciences (biological vs physical) to more directly impact people. Medicine fit that niche.

HCB News: Why did you focus on radiology?
MM: My original direction was to enter the field of surgery. I wanted a discipline that combined both the cerebral aspects of medicine with a technical component. Surgery was my direction until I was involved in a case of a lower GI bleeder who was treated with a new procedure where a substance that causes constriction of the blood vessels was instilled to the area of hemorrhage via a small catheter. This represented the early beginnings of what we now call Interventional Radiology. This was also the time when cross sectional imaging (US, CT) were being routinely used, adding to the excitement of radiology.

HCB News: Can you tell us about some of your career milestones?
MM: I received my medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in New York and completed my residency training at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, serving as chief resident during my final year. I completed fellowships in diagnostic and vascular radiology at UNC and abdominal and interventional radiology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. I joined the UNC faculty in 1982, served as Executive Vice-Chairman for 15 years and then Chair of the Department of Radiology for 14 years. After stepping down as Chairman, I was selected to serve as president of UNC Faculty Physicians and senior physician executive of UNC Health Care System Revenue Cycle. I am the James H. Scatliff Distinguished Professor of Radiology, as well as a professor of surgery at the UNC School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.

I joined the RSNA Board of Directors in 2015, becoming President late last year. I have also served as President of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) and the Southeastern Angiographic Society. I have served on the American Board of Radiology (ABR) Board of Governors and Board of Trustees and the American College of Radiology Board of Chancellors. I was awarded the gold medal by SIR in 2014. I received the ABR Distinguished Service Award and the Lifetime Service Award. I’ve been very fortunate and honored to receive these distinctions and I would be remiss to not mention my gratitude for the many excellent colleagues and mentors I’ve had throughout my career.

X-Ray Homepage