Yale University School of Medicine, United States
My training began in Urology, and as my career in Interventional Radiology continues to unfold, I find myself gravitating progressively towards the practice and advancement of cutting-edge urologic interventions. After taking on Dr. Robert White’s active varicocele embolization practice when he retired, I was invited to run a workshop on varicocele embolization with Dr. Jeff Pollak at the international Society of Interventional Radiology meeting two years in a row. My work spawned an invitation to write a chapter on varicocele embolization in a prominent IR textbook. This chapter thoroughly describes the workup, technique, and outcomes data for percutaneous embolization of varicoceles, thereby providing practicing interventional radiologists with all the information they need to perform this procedure. I then first-authored a study describing a novel technique of placing drainage catheters through the bladder to treat pelvic fluid collections that would otherwise have to be treated with open surgery. I was honored with an invitation to speak about such advances in urologic interventions at the National Medical Association annual meeting.
However my career really began to take shape after the advent of prostatic arterial embolization for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia. I determined to become a leader in the development of this procedure and began performing it five-and-a-half years ago. My first case was a success, and within a couple of years I was able to nurture that single referral into one of the largest prostate embolization practices in the country.
As I collected my outcomes data, seeing first-hand how well the body tolerates prostate gland embolization and the success we can have with transarterial prostatic treatments, I was prompted to re-examine the locoregional treatment paradigm for liver cancer. I realized that we are on the verge of another revolution in medicine: the development of the locoregional treatment paradigm for prostate cancer. Moving forward, I plan to shape my career as an academic interventional radiologist around the development of minimally invasive treatments for benign and malignant prostatic disease. I have teamed up with others in our department to develop MRI-guided prostate biopsy and tumor ablation, and I hope to begin investigating arterial embolization as a treatment for prostate cancer. I joined forces with a multidisciplinary group organized by Yale urologists to help lead the effort to establish Yale as a world-class center for comprehensive and revolutionary prostate disease treatment.
Saturday, September 5, 2020
1:16 PM – 1:19 PM CDT