It’s Safe to Say That She’s Now Ready to Be a Trustee
When asked if she had an interest in becoming a member of the ABR’s Board of Trustees (BOT), Phuong-Anh T. Duong, MD was a little surprised. Despite an endorsement from Trustee David Larson, MD, MBA, Dr. Duong had to think about the opportunity.
“I always feel a little imposter syndrome when I’m asked to lead,” she said. “But he convinced me that it would be a good opportunity and it would give me a chance to have a little bit more say in how the test is run, which is always a good thing.”
She eventually warmed to the idea and was selected for the BOT by the Board of Governors. Dr. Duong will start her duties this fall at the conclusion of the board meeting, replacing Dr. Larson, whose second term as the quality and safety Trustee for diagnostic radiology is expiring.
Dr. Larson, a Trustee since 2020, has worked closely with Dr. Duong. What he saw from her as a leader on two ABR committees — noninterpretive skills and test assembly for the DR Qualifying (Core) Exam — convinced him that she would be an excellent replacement when his term expired.
“As a committee chair, she has served admirably as a contributor and associate editor of the NIS study guide, as a leader and mentor to the committee members, and in test assembly for the qualifying exam,” Dr. Larson said.
An ABR volunteer since 2018, Dr. Duong rose through the ranks to become a committee chair twice over. Realizing that the people on her teams have busy schedules, she makes sure they get as much work as possible done in their allotted time.
“As soon as we have a quorum, I start the meeting and when people join, that’s great,” she said. “I’m very focused. I rarely allow more than five minutes to edit a question. If it takes that long, I say we either start over or send it back (to the question writer) and tell them how we would like it to be fixed. It’s important to run a good meeting so that we get the most out of it.”
Her NIS committee put in a lot of effort last year to stay current, including adding content to the study guide and exam questions about using AI in diagnostic imaging.
“We did a fair number of revisions, and it was hard to make all those changes and not let the guide grow too much,” she said. “We need to make sure that the things we put in there are things we think are important.”
Dr. Duong and her family live in Salt Lake City, where she works remotely as an associate professor in the department of radiology at New York University. Although she misses working directly with colleagues on site, she appreciates the flexibility of her job.
“My dad was really sick last year, and I spent a lot of time helping my parents,” she said. “It really helps for a better work-life balance to have that kind of flexibility.”
All her work is clinical, whether with inpatients or outpatients. Seeing how cases move through the system is crucial to her quality and safety role as an ABR Trustee.
“I see healthcare providers doing their utmost for their part in healthcare,” she said. “But so many issues are with the interfaces with communication, the reliability of how things are done. We should have higher reliability in the way we do a biopsy or image people.”
Dr. Duong believes training is a key period for physicians to learn good habits and put them into action.
“I think it’s crucial that residents understand how to keep patients safe when they are in the MR scanner, what to do when patients experience a contrast reaction, or recognizing when there’s bias in the AI tool they are using,” she said. “Noninterpretive skills are as important as reading a CT scan.”
Dr. Duong remembers attending a quality and safety presentation by Dr. Larson a decade ago. Not yet an ABR volunteer, she couldn’t have imagined eventually assuming his spot on the BOT. All she knew was that he was an excellent role model and leader in the field, a space she now occupies.
“He’s been terrific,” she said. “I was always so inspired by him.”
