Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Department of Radiology has a director of arts. It’s only natural that an idea developed there to bring radiologists together through an appreciation of art.

Erin Cooke, MD, an associate professor of clinical radiology & radiological sciences and diagnostic radiology residency program director at Vanderbilt, is also the department’s director of arts. It was through the combination of those roles that she met Benjamin Park, MD, a general surgery preliminary year intern at Vanderbilt who will start a residency in nuclear medicine this summer.

When Dr. Park approached Dr. Cooke about doing research, mentioning AI image generation as one of his interests, the conversation turned into one about the intersection of art and radiology.

“It was kind of organic, the way a lot of these things are,” Dr. Cooke said. “Ben had the idea last summer. He and I were talking about how there’s so much interest in AI and radiology and maybe there would be opportunities to combine those elements.”

They formed a group on Discord, a social platform where users form communities to interact with people who share common interests. Drs. Cooke and Park also teamed with Rushay Amarath-Madav, MD, to create a virtual gathering spot named AIRA for radiologists and others affiliated with the field who are intrigued by AI-generated images. 

There are more than 50 AIRA users (and growing) who post their work. Participants use AI platforms, such as DALL-E 2 by OpenAI, to create the work by using key words to generate images. The moderators often suggest broad themes the radiologists and other group members build on, and resulting artworks are displayed in the AIRA Discord as well as on Instagram.

“It has a similar interface to Google,” Dr. Park said. “You type a string of text, including a subject, descriptors, and the art form that you would like it to put out, and it comes up with an image. You can continue to revise it based on what comes out.”

Dr. Park finds the process both counterintuitive and complementary to the work that he and his colleagues do as diagnostic radiologists. 

“Radiologists look at sets of images and describe them with a set of concise words,” Dr. Park said. “We’re trying to do the opposite, which is using very concise, descriptive language to generate an image.” 

Dr. Amarath-Madav, a Wellstar Kennestone Hospital transition year intern who will be starting his radiology residency at Emory this summer, believes the platform has other benefits. He believes that embracing AIRA’s philosophy of community and exercising creativity in the field can help diagnostic radiologists hone their interpersonal skills. 

“People always talk about radiologists being in this dark room, not talking to anybody,” he said. “That’s malarkey. The reality is that we have to be primed to communicate across different cultures in the medical system. It’s pivotal for us to be good at that. We have to be able to communicate with patients, too.” 

Dr. Amarath-Madav has always been interested in the arts. Being colorblind made him lean toward music until he started the path to becoming a radiologist. He said he sees parallels between his chosen profession and Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. 

“Once I got to medical school and became interested in radiology, I started finding ways to merge visual arts with the spatial reasoning and the awareness that you need in radiology,” he said. “I thought that it was so cool to be able to do that.” 

Using AI makes creativity available for anyone, Dr. Park believes, offering benefits to those who found art inaccessible in the past. 

“It’s been proven that the arts and humanities improve wellness and burnout, but not everyone’s an artist,” he said. “Not everyone can produce watercolor paintings. Not everyone can produce music. But AI art is a modality that removes those barriers, allowing you to explore your creativity and produce a high-quality image in a matter of seconds.”

AI’s potential is practically limitless in this medium. 

“The beauty of it is that it’s so versatile,” Dr. Park said. “It can put out whatever you’re interested in, whether it’s painting, comics, watercolor, or photography. It can mimic, combine, and produce variations of pretty much any style that’s available online.” 

There’s also potential for practical impacts. Dr. Amarath-Madav said the group has plans    to develop educational materials. 

“We want to start incorporating a case series where we can introduce a clinical vignette or an image and have people answer in creative ways with their AI-generated art, which could hopefully help in the education realm as well through residency,” he said. 

Dr. Cooke, a painter whose portfolio is available online, is new to AI. She’s accustomed to using more traditional mediums, including acrylics, watercolors, oil, and oil pastels. 

Starting the group has helped her find a unique way of expressing herself by using AI. 

“It’s still a journey of experimentation, but that’s part of the creative fun,” Dr. Cooke said. “It makes you think about other ways of looking. For me, with the artistic background, if I don’t specify what type of style, it’s interesting to see what comes up.”

Anyone who was on track to take an ABR exam in 2020 had an unwelcomed schedule change coming.

The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out all but a few exams that year, pushing candidates back to 2021, when the remote platform developed in-house by the ABR was introduced. One of the physicians who saw his plans impacted was Gaurav Gadodia, MD.

Dr. Gadodia knew that preserving global health was bigger than his path to certification. Still, having to delay his plans while the ABR developed safe and effective ways to deliver exams was understandably challenging. The first remote exams were delivered as pilots in January 2021.

“To put it in perspective, (the pandemic was) obviously way more important,” he said. “I was worried about my family’s safety at the same time I was studying, worrying about my patients’ safety, doing all that and wondering if I could pass a hard exam.” 

He was part of the first class to successfully take the remote Diagnostic Radiology Qualifying (Core) Exam in February 2021. With all the uncertainty of 2020, Dr. Gadodia said he developed several study schedules to be optimally prepared when the exam was offered. 

“It seemed like there was no light at the end of the tunnel for a while,” he said. “When we took the remote exam, I was like, ‘OK. Let’s get this done.’”

A little more than two years later, he earned his interventional radiology/diagnostic radiology certification when he passed the IR/DR Oral Certifying Exam in October. He works as a vascular and interventional radiologist at VIR Chicago, a clinical practice that covers eight hospitals. 

He took to social media after receiving notice that he had passed the oral exam, the last step in his Initial Certification journey. His post on Twitter/X recalled his excitement when he was accepted to medical school at Emory University and how it compared to the relief of passing his last ABR exam. 

“I was thinking, ‘Wow. I’m a board certified vascular interventional radiologist,’ which is what I set out to do 12 years ago,” he said. “I can’t believe that it all paid off, that it all went somewhere. It all meant something. I think the first thought that crossed my mind was remembering that day I got into med school. And now it’s done, it’s the end of formal training.”

His path toward certification started when he earned his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering at Northwestern University, where he was part of a student engineering team that developed a patented device for magnetic resonance imaging. It was as an undergrad that his affinity for tech took hold; it was so strong that he considered bypassing a career as a physician. 

He stayed with medicine but also works as director of medical affairs for a company that combines augmented reality, telecollaboration, and data-driven insights to assist in diagnostic imaging and surgical navigation. 

“I did some patent and device development at Northwestern,” Dr. Gadodia said. “Even though I had always planned on pursuing medicine, I was thinking about not doing it. But I realized what I really like about med tech was being on the clinical side and being the voice of the clinician and how to design things for patients or clinicians, not necessarily the nuts and bolts of the engineering side.” 

After earning his medical degree from Emory University. Dr. Gadodia completed an internship in general surgery at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, followed by a diagnostic radiology residency that included an Early Specialization in Interventional Radiology (ESIR) component at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He completed his training as an independent interventional radiology resident physician in Milwaukee at the Medical College of Wisconsin vascular interventional radiology program. 

One of the highlights of his training was passing the Diagnostic Radiology Qualifying (Core) Exam because of its content and rigor. The harsh reality of COVID was an unexpected hurdle. 

“It’s a hard test over a couple of days,” Dr. Gadodia said. “I also was part of the group that got pushed back three times because of COVID.” 

Earning his Initial Certification last year put a period on a long journey.

“I’m certified to do this, and I’m practicing as a doctor, full stop, not as a student, resident, or fellow,” he said. “I’m not operating under someone else’s license. It always felt like there was something undone until this.”

A second-generation interventional radiologist, Theresa Caridi, MD, has been around the field for as long as she can remember.

Over the past several years, she has found great value in sharing her knowledge as a volunteer for the ABR and the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR). One thought rises to the top when she explains why she’s happy to share her limited free time.

“There are a lot of reasons why it’s a positive thing to volunteer with these organizations, but the biggest driving factor is knowing that you’re affecting patient care in a positive way,” said Dr. Caridi, a clinical associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and associate director of the HHT Center of Excellence. She also recently became medical director for Varian Interventional Solutions, a Siemens Healthineers Company.

Dr. Caridi, who attended the University of Florida for medical school and radiology residency and completed a fellowship in vascular and interventional radiology at the University of Pennsylvania, writes questions for the ABR Qualifying (Core) Exam. She also has filled numerous volunteer roles for SIR, including serving as chair of its foundation’s board of directors.

She said her ABR duties help keep her knowledge current.

“While you’re strengthening healthcare quality and radiology quality, you’re also continuing your own learning and professional development,” said Dr. Caridi, who came to UAB from Georgetown University.

She has worked with trainees from the resident to fellowship level for the past decade, giving her a valuable perspective for writing initial certification exam questions. She understands that residents bring a variety of experiences to the exam.

“I think what is most helpful is understanding that not every organization has the same training, though there’s a tremendous effort to standardize radiology and interventional radiology education,” Dr. Caridi said.

Working with a committee has also helped her write fair and relevant questions.

“What helped me learn how to write questions and content was getting together and reviewing questions with the team,” she said. “You learn each other’s styles. We all have our individual strengths and weaknesses.”

Drew Caplin, MD, who met Dr. Caridi as a fellow ABR volunteer, recently invited her to present grand rounds at Northwell Health Physician Partners. Among his other duties, Dr. Caplin serves as the interventional radiology residency program director at Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University Northwell in New York.

Dr. Caplin’s program has 10 residents, three of whom are women. He asked Dr. Caridi to present because he wanted his residents to learn from an outstanding role model.

“It was great to see how Theresa inspired my residents, especially my female residents,” he said. “All were impressed by her accomplishments, her teaching skills, and her relatability. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to host her at Northwell and to get to know her better.”

Dr. Caridi plans to pull double duty by serving as an ABR oral examiner when she has the time. She has been willing in the past, but important life events have kept her from participating.

“It’s been on my agenda for a long time,” she said. “I’ve heard endless stories about the comradery that’s developed in that setting.”

Even in her remote item-writing committee, members have formed professional and personal connections. A shared goal of helping improve their field sparks discussions that go beyond exam content.

“It goes much deeper than being an acquaintance,” she said. “You have a shared interest in fostering the field and making sure you put out the best and highest quality product possible. The people on our committee have a passion for education. All those things combined allows for strengthening of collaborations and relationships.”