SPECIAL EDITION
Profile

By C.P. Kaiser

Dr. Vijay M. Rao may soon join a small but elite cadre of women radiologists if she accepts an offer to become chair at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where she has been since residency. Rao, who does everything with purpose, wants women to know they can do it all.

"It's tough to be a physician, a wife, and a mother, but it can be done. I feel I have been an example of that," she said.

Of course, it helps to have a supportive spouse. When her second child was born 21 years ago, Rao considered working part-time in private practice. Flexible academic schedules had not yet been invented. Her husband, a hematology researcher at Temple University whom she met and married in India, persuaded her to stay at Jefferson, predicting that she'd regret leaving. He was right, because Rao loves nothing better than watching residents become radiologists, and as residency program director for the past 16 years, she's seen her share of metamorphoses.

"It gives me great satisfaction to see how residents blossom. When they come here they know nothing, and at the end of four years they know more than I do," she said.

They know a lot, anyway. Thomas Jefferson's residents were recently ranked ninth in oral scores out of 196 programs nationwide.

She has been an attending physician at Thomas Jefferson since 1978 and at Wills Eye Hospital since 1997. Philadelphia magazine voted her top doctor in radiology five times between 1991 and 1999. She is vice chair for education, codirector of neuroradiology, director of medical student education, a professor of radiology, and a professor of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery.

Rao has authored over 120 articles, eight book chapters, and coauthored the 1992 book MRI and CT Atlas of Correlative Imaging in Otolaryngology. She has given over 100 lectures and has conducted influential utilization research with her colleague and mentor Dr. David Levin, the retiring radiology chair.

At Thomas Jefferson, Rao serves on committees for career development, faculty appointments, faculty development, education and research, graduate medical education, career planning, and residency selection.

SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

Rao has applied the lessons learned at Jefferson to her work with the Association of Program Directors in Radiology. As chair of its curriculum committee for the past six years, she spearheaded the development of national core curriculum guidelines for radiology residency. She is now the group's president.

"Sharing resources is the key to success in this era of limited resources," she said.

Nationally, Rao participates in a number of research and education committees, including the RSNA's Research and Education Foundation. In August 2000, she chaired a consensus conference in which the RSNA brought together various societies to identify academic department needs. Topping the list were:

• a curriculum model that is updated constantly;
• an educator track at the RSNA scientific assembly comprising workshops and seminars;
• a standardized system for electronic coding and nomenclature for Web-based teaching material;
• programs to teach teachers how to teach; and
• leadership schools for different levels, such as vice chairs, section heads, and junior faculty.

Rao is partial to leadership training and blames its conspicuous absence on the epidemic of open radiology chairs around the country.

"People don't feel prepared and are hesitant to step into these leadership positions. I feel the same way; I feel I had no formal training in leadership. It was easier in the past to learn on the job. Now the whole paradigm has shifted, and you need a certain set of skills to get a handle on the job," she said.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

Rao grew up in New Delhi, India, in a family of physicians and engineers. She studied at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, a prestigious school that admits only 50 students annually through an open competition. When she entered Thomas Jefferson's residency program, she was the only woman in it.

She pursued radiology because she and her husband, medical school classmates, did not want to enter the same field of medicine. Something about radiology intrigued her, she said.

"Maybe it was destiny that I would be in a field that was going to be so dynamic," she said.

Rao never envisioned being a head and neck radiologist, but the opportunities just seemed to arise. She and her neuroradiology mentor during residency had no chemistry, she said, so she thought her association with neuroradiology was over when she completed her boards. Just before beginning an ultrasound fellowship with Dr. Barry Goldberg, however, she was offered a staff position at Jefferson. There would be time to do the fellowship, the chair promised. On her third day as staff, she was directed to fill an empty slot in head and neck radiology. The ultrasound fellowship would have to wait.

"I just sat there in total surprise, thinking 'What did I get into?' There was no discussion," Rao said. "The chair just said, 'You can do it.' And that was it."

She gave it her best, and neuroradiology began to appeal to her. Soon she found that she loved it and never asked for the promised ultrasound fellowship.

"In retrospect, it was the best thing to happen to me. I'm in a field I absolutely love," she said.

Rao quickly acknowledges her debt to Levin. If she accepts the chairmanship, she wants to follow his lead and teach by example. The tone of the department has been set from the top, she said: Levin has always been dedicated and hard-working. The faculty follows suit and the residents emulate them. With encouragement, they may follow faculty to academic careers, she added.

In a recent conversation with senior residents interested in private-practice jobs, she asked what might make academic radiology attractive to them. Wouldn't they perhaps enjoy working with residents and fellows as a staff?

"Most residents have not thought it through. Most are just thinking of the financial rewards in private practice. But if you take the time to explain alternative pathways, they begin to think differently," Rao said. "It's our job to open their minds to all the possibilities."