Vascular and Interventional Radiology

Description of division:
Interventional Radiology is minimally invasive, image-guided treatment of different medical conditions through innovative techniques that once required open surgery. Using different imaging technologies like CT, ultrasound and x-ray guidance, interventional radiologists can treat a variety of conditions from vascular disease, cancer and beyond.

The Interventional Radiology Division at Western University is comprised of 10 faculty members committed to advancing the subspecialty of IR with compassionate and high-level patient care, along with contributing to the science of IR with teaching and research. The division involves the delivery of IR care at three sites, including the Victoria and University campuses of LHSC and St. Joseph's Health Care London. This includes treatment of adult and pediatric patients with a variety of IR procedures supporting multiple specialties. IR at Western is also a clinical service, with an outpatient consultation service and admitting for some patients in hospital following IR procedures.

Many of our faculty lead the country in various administrative roles, including the Canadian Association for Interventional Radiology (CAIR) and the Canadian Association of Radiologists (CAR), including roles at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons as examiners and curriculum development. They are leaders provincially, with roles within the interventional oncology working group at Ontario Health and CorHealth Ontario. In addition, our faculty are often speaking at national and international conferences in IR and involved as journal reviewers for the specialty.

List of the division members:
Dr. Amol Mujoomdar, Division Lead, IR, LHSC/SJHC
Dr. Fabio Accorsi, Residency & Fellowship Program Director
Dr. Leandro Cardarelli Leite
Dr. Derek Cool, Research Lead for IR
Dr. Maria-Paz Garcia, Residency Deputy Program Director
Dr. Greg Garvin
Dr. David Hocking
Dr. Joanne Howey
Dr. Roman Kozak
Dr. Stewart Kribs
Dr. David Peck
Dr. Daniele Wiseman

Research: 

The Division of Interventional Radiology is active in many areas of research covering the broad spectrum of diseases treated by interventional radiology. The division is actively involved in both basic science research and clinical trials. Some areas of active research include:

Basic Science:
- 3D ultrasound for guidance of liver and kidney cancer ablation
- Augmented reality with pre-procedure fusion imaging to enhance procedure accuracy
- Deep learning algorithms/artificial intelligence for needle guidance

Clinical Research:
- Point-of-Care percutaneous ultrasound gastrostomy (PUG)
- Evaluation of safety and efficacy of percutaneous gastrostomy and gastrojejunostomy insertion
- Optimizing transarterial liver locoregional treatments for patients with metastatic neuroendocrine tumours (NET)
- Enhancing radiology reporting of small Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms to optimize patient surveillance within primary care
- Evaluating optimal adjunctive interventions for pain management during uterine artery embolization treatment for uterine fibroid disease

Publications: 
Complete list of IR Division member publications are found here: PubMed