Radiologist, Associate Professor
Mayo Clinic
Byron, Minnesota, United States
I am a breast radiologist who regularly cares for hundreds of patients with breast cancer that has spread to the axillary lymph nodes. I have subspecialty expertise and experience in ultrasound, image-guided interventional procedures, and MRI acquisitions from my biomedical engineering background in MRI. I have trained hundreds of residents and fellows and received the Teacher of the Year Award two times. I co-authored an 881-page body MRI book, developed a comprehensive chest MRI practice at Mayo, and am working with industry to develop a next-generation breast MRI software package. In addition, I have pioneered several significant cost-saving changes to clinical practice, such as providing pre-mixed buffered lidocaine for procedures. I thrive on challenging cases, and my training and experience provide the launching pad for innovative solutions to clinical needs. For example, when our plastic surgery colleagues needed a better way to identify lymphatic vessels for lymphovenous bypass surgery in patients with debilitating extremity lymphedema, I developed novel ultrasound-, MRI-, and CT-guided techniques that outperformed conventional mapping methods.
Over the last decade, I have taken part in the radiological evolution of breast cancer treatment with chemotherapy before surgery so that patients can benefit from targeted axillary dissection (removing the sentinel lymph nodes and the previously biopsied positive lymph node containing a clip) and avoid the morbidities and costs of more extensive complete axillary dissection. This gives me an intimate understanding of the challenges involved in marker migration and in using ultrasound to identify the previously biopsied positive lymph node for the surgeon before surgery.
Sunday, March 26, 2023
5:18 PM – 5:25 PM