RSNA and Twitter, a Powerful Pair

RSNA, for me, is about so many opportunities: great scientific content, the latest technology, but so importantly, the opportunity to connect with friends and colleagues, both old and new.

Bhavya Rehani (@BhavyaRehaniMD) and I first met as part of our radiology Twitter community, but #RSNA13 provided us an opportunity to meet face to face. We bonded over our unsuitable #RSNAshoes and I’ve followed her career with great interest. This year, I was delighted to see her face on the wall of RSNA grant awardees for her web based virtual radiology classroom. I was delighted that we were able to find a few minutes in both of our busy schedules to learn more about this exciting initiative.

Rise aims to bring world class radiology education to parts of the world that might not otherwise have access to it. Bhavya is a neuroradiologist at UCSF who lives in Palo Alto, so was able to tap both her own coding expertise and the technology community in which she lives to build the infrastructure for the program. She’s found a willing faculty among her UCSF colleagues but also plans to have her international students develop content to share back to the US based on their unique experiences.[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_crop","fid":"43877","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image media-image-right","id":"media_crop_7746232411083","media_crop_h":"0","media_crop_image_style":"-1","media_crop_instance":"4868","media_crop_rotate":"0","media_crop_scale_h":"0","media_crop_scale_w":"0","media_crop_w":"0","media_crop_x":"0","media_crop_y":"0","style":"float: right;","title":"Geraldine McGinty, MD, MBA, FACR","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]

The word “Seva” in Hindi means “selfless service.” When I asked Bhavya about the origins of her commitment to global health, she responded “it came from my grandfather, he used to talk to us all the time about the concept of ‘Seva’.” Bhavya’s commitment to bringing radiology expertise to trainees across the globe would certainly make her grandfather proud.

Another Twitter connection story has me leaving #RSNA15 with a bag full of Lego. Yes, you read that right. Dr. Ben Taragin (@BTaragin), a pediatric radiologist at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in New York first approached me by e-mail to ask me how he could publicize his idea for a Lego kit that could help children deal with the stress of having an MRI.  

Ben built the prototype with his son and the kit allows a kid to build their own MRI machine. Hopefully it can help reduce the anxiety associated with the exam. I loved the idea and tweeted it. Another member of our radiology Twitter community, Dr. Erik Ranschaert (@eranrad), from Belgium was able to make the connection with a Lego certified professional Dirk Denoyelle (@DirkDenoyelle) to get it into production.

Several hundred kits were distributed at RSNA and I’m lucky to be taking one home with me. Now all I have to do is build it! It’s great to know that Ben’s care and empathy for our smallest patients has been amplified by our radiology community both near and far.