Going through medical school in Ireland and a residency and fellowship in the US, Geraldine McGinty, MD, learned from people who helped her succeed. But none of that assistance was part of a formal program.
“I don’t think I heard the word ‘mentor’ until I was a practicing radiologist,” she said.
As chief resident at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. McGinty and a few cohorts started a program to assist first-year residents. It was the beginning of what would become a lifetime of service as a mentor, even if the group wasn’t using that word to describe the contributions they were making to their younger colleagues.
“We started the program to make sure that they understood what they were starting, what was expected of them,” she said.
Now a professor of radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine and an attending radiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. McGinty spends time every week working with physicians during varying points of their careers. Some meetings happen virtually, and others take place over a cup of coffee.
One of her mentees is Connie Lu, MD, fourth-year diagnostic radiology resident and chief resident at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. Dr. Lu is part of one of several “families” established by the chief resident that include an attending, a senior resident, and a junior resident. Dr. Lu connected with Dr. McGinty as a first-year resident when she expressed an interest in health-care policy and economics.
“From the beginning, Dr. McGinty has been a supportive mentor and role model in all possible ways with her empathy, her active listening, her attention to not only career development but also to personal growth,” Dr. Lu said. “Dr. McGinty has taught me through her own expertise and experience, but she also draws upon her connections and relationships to other people to provide different perspectives and experiences.”
Dr. McGinty takes keen interest in working with women to bring out their leadership skills. She speaks from a world of experience having filled top roles at various associations, societies, and institutions. She was the first woman to serve as chair of the American College of Radiology, where she eventually became president.
Five years ago, she endowed a scholarship at her Irish alma mater, the University of Galway, to support female physicians who are pursuing MBAs.
“I have mentees who are from very diverse backgrounds, male and female,” said Dr. McGinty, who has an MBA from Columbia University. “But when I look at the fact that the majority of the healthcare workforce is female, that’s not how it looks in the highest levels of leadership.”
Anyone who signs on to be a Dr. McGinty mentee understands expectations from the start. For example, when she introduces them to important people in their fields, they need to give their all by making a positive impression and showing that they value the opportunity.
“I want to make sure that I’m clear what I want, because to some extent, when I make an introduction for you, you’re wearing a jersey with my name on it,” Dr. McGinty said. “If you don’t show up, you don’t do the right thing, then the person’s not going to be as willing to make time for the next person I introduce.”
She’s also willing to realize when the partnership isn’t working and that the mentee would be best paired with someone else. They might even come back to Dr. McGinty at some point down the road.
“I’ve never had a mentee who’s disappointed me,” she said. “The foundation of the relationship is not what I want. It’s what they want. What I would hope to say to them is, ‘Don’t think that you’ve closed the door. I’m here if you want to open this conversation another time.’ ”
In her time working with Dr. McGinty, Dr. Lu can see why her mentor has left a lasting impact on many physicians with plenty more to come. Her mentor’s history of helping is evident across the profession.
“Many of the people I have met along the way told me how Dr. McGinty was a mentor to them as well,” she said. “It’s hard to find the words to encompass how truly amazing a mentor Dr. McGinty is and how many people she has positively impacted.”
Three recent Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine graduates let out a collective sigh of relief during The Match a couple of months ago. Not only had they landed their top choices, but they were staying in Chicago to start training as diagnostic radiologists.
New physicians Sophia Liu, Christina Shehata, and Michelle Wiese all matched at Northwestern for their residencies. The school’s main campus in Evanston is 14 miles from where they will be training in downtown Chicago.
All three believe that familiar surroundings and knowing the culture will help them thrive.
“Northwestern is such an amazing institution,” said Dr. Wiese, who grew up in Elmhurst, Illinois. “The people are there because they want to teach and they’re really good at what they do.”
Just as important, all three will have no worries about packing and moving hundreds or thousands of miles for training. They won’t be uprooting their lives in an already tumultuous time.
“Chicago just feels like home,” said Dr. Shehata, who’s from Orland Park, Illinois. “Every time I visit another city I always think, ‘Could I see myself living here?’ I’ve found that there are a lot of places in the country that I love to visit, but I’m always happy to come home to Chicago.”
Dr. Liu had an elevated level of anxiety before matching. She and her partner, who’s training to become a surgeon, were looking to land in the same community. She was relieved when they both secured residencies in Chicago.
“The great thing about Chicago is that there are a lot of opportunities everywhere in so many different hospitals,” said Dr. Liu, who grew up in Johnson City, Tennessee. “It works out really well, especially since his residency is a bit longer. I would love to stick around for fellowship and my career as well.”
Drs. Liu and Shehata will spend all five years of their training together: they’re both doing their intern years at Ascension Resurrection hospital. Dr. Wiese will be at Ascension St. Joseph.
When they get back together at Northwestern for training in July 2025, they will be part of a class of 10 residents that’s split evenly between men and women.
“The Women in Radiology group at Northwestern is really strong, and the faculty are very interested in providing advice, resources, and support to female residents and female medical students who are interested in radiology,” Dr. Wiese said “It’s not a coincidence that there are so many women interested in radiology at Northwestern. It’s a really supportive place.”
All three have an interest in giving back to Northwestern and sharing their love of radiology by working with medical school students as mentors.
“It would be great if we could start a mentorship program, pairing residents and medical students interested in radiology and having a streamlined process for students who are applying (for residencies),” Dr. Liu said. “It’s such a great field; it would be nice to get students interested earlier on.”
They found their medical school clinical work to be rewarding. In a metropolitan area of approximately 9.6 million people, they saw a variety of cases.
“With the diversity of the population in Chicago, you get to work with a lot of different patients in the hospital and throughout community clinics,” Dr. Liu said. “Whatever interests you have and whatever patient population you would like to work with, the opportunity is there.”
They were so interested in radiology throughout their time as medical students that they have already started considering subspecialties: Dr. Liu (either breast or body imaging), Dr. Shehata (body imaging), and Dr. Wiese (pediatrics).
“I definitely want to take the time during residency to explore everything and choose a subspecialty because I like it and not because it’s the thing that’s the most comfortable,” Dr. Shehata said.
Dr. Wiese said: “I think it would be cool to have a career where I can do a little bit of pediatric and a little bit of adult no matter what kind of body system I specialize in.”
Dr. Liu said breast imaging fits her interest of having patient contact.
“It’s more patient focused and you’re able to perform procedures and talk to people about their diagnoses,” she said. “That would be interesting to explore.”
Whichever direction they choose, the three physicians know where they will be for the next five years and likely beyond. Dr. Shehata said there are many reasons why she enjoys living in Chicago, even after her parents moved away to Florida.
It’s clear that she gives the city a positive Yelp review.
“I’m a big foodie, so I like trying new restaurants and Chicago is a big hub for the James Beard Awards, people opening up Michelin star restaurants or just creative things,” she said. “That’s one of the things that keeps me here. This is my home and where I want to be in the long term. I could rave about Chicago all day.”
Radiologists have the unique opportunity to use imaging to look inside their patients to make a diagnosis. Some of the things they find are unexpected.
Diagnostic radiologists Margarita Revzin, MD, and Nadia Solomon, MD, teamed up to study and write about their profession’s vital role in identifying eating disorders for the RSNA journal RadioGraphics. They found that while such disorders are common, they are often underdiagnosed and undertreated because social stigma makes patients less likely to seek medical attention and less compliant with treatment.
“A lot of patients are not forthcoming when describing their problems,” Dr. Revzin said. “They may not even understand that they have a problem, or they may be in denial and don’t come to the physician and say, ‘I have anorexia … I have bulimia.’”
Drs. Revzin and Solomon are colleagues at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Revzin is an associate professor of radiology and biomedical imaging, and Dr. Solomon is a fourth-year diagnostic radiology resident and senior chief resident. In addition to being on the Holman Research Pathway, Dr. Solomon is enrolled in the Investigative Medicine PhD Program with the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Solomon also is a member of the ABR’s Diagnostic Radiology Initial Certification Advisory Committee.
Dr. Revzin was the inspiration for the two to begin collaborating on material for medical journals.
“We worked together in the emergency department one day and she mentioned that she had projects, and I was interested in getting involved,” Dr. Solomon said. “We just bonded as two very enthusiastic people who like learning and teaching.”
Their work found that eating disorders impact between 0.3% and 1% of Americans, with women being 10 times more likely to develop one. The most recognized eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
Eating disorders are a substantial health threat because they can affect any organ system and are associated with the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric disorder. Anorexia nervosa has a 5% to 10% mortality rate within 10 years of diagnosis.
“You have to be vigilant to recognize these abnormalities because you may be saving patients’ lives,” Dr. Revzin said. “As a radiologist, you are the first one to put things together and figure out that the patient suffers from an eating disorder. The mortality and morbidity for eating disorders is relatively high, and a lot of the times they link to psychiatric disorders.”
The subject was a good fit for Dr. Solomon, who has a master’s in forensic psychology from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her initial goal was to pursue a different type of medicine.
“I went to med school to be a psychiatrist,” she said. “I studied psychology and particularly forensic psychology in undergrad and in graduate school prior to medicine. This was an awesome opportunity to explore a topic that is very deeply linked to psychology. I think understanding why certain things appear the way they do or why patients demonstrate certain imaging findings related to these diseases is deeply ingrained in what’s going on with these diseases.”
Dr. Revzin said there are many signs that a radiologist can find through imaging that strongly suggest eating disorders. Their work centered on cardiac, gastrointestinal, and urologic issues.
“One of the major ones that we usually think of is when we see a small heart shadow,” she said. “A small heart shadow is something that right away you can detect on a regular X-ray.”
She said CT scans can reveal a lack of subcutaneous fat. In addition, osteoporosis in a younger patient is a concerning sign as is an underdeveloped uterus or swollen parotid glands.
“Imaging is fascinating (in this clinical context) because your patient may tell you one thing, but what we see is what we see,” Dr. Solomon said. “If we see something there, it’s there. The next step is to figure out what the finding might mean.”
Both physicians agree that society’s expectations often cause people – especially those who are young and impressionable – to develop body image issues. Watching others experiencing their best days on social media – sometimes with the help of photo manipulation – can send a message that nothing short of a “perfect” look is acceptable.
“Society puts a lot of pressure on what is supposed to be normal and what is supposed to be attractive,” Dr. Revzin said. “This is really affecting people in a negative way because they all want to adhere to those expectations.”
Radiologists regularly consult with physicians from outside their field. Dr. Solomon said that it’s crucial to take a big-picture approach when helping patients, and she wants to continue research work that involves other areas of medicine.
“It’s important to dig into what other people are doing outside of your specialty,” she said. “If you really want to be an expert and best serve a patient who is struggling with a certain problem or disease, it’s vital to take an interdisciplinary, multispecialty approach.”
