Congratulations to the 2011 RSNA Outstanding Educator: James G. Smirniotopoulos, MD

Abstract

An internationally recognized neuroradiology expert, James G. Smirniotopoulos, MD, is also a pioneer in electronic and online radiologic education. He has created a legacy of innovation—correlating radiologic and pathologic images, creatively using animations and drawings, and employing a unique lecture style—all in the name of teaching more than 28,000 residents over the past 25 years. Many have come to know him through his groundbreaking work at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), Bethesda, Md. Dr Smirniotopoulos first stepped into the role of educator during his radiology residency at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where he mentored nonradiology interns during their radiology rotations and taught Georgetown medical students during their required radiology rotations. While he was a junior staff member at Georgetown, Dr Smirniotopoulos developed a 15hour elective lecture series to teach cross-sectional anatomy to 1st and 2nd year medical students by using computed tomographic (CT) images. From Georgetown University, Dr Smirniotopoulos moved to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Bethesda, Md, where he pioneered the use of radiologic-pathologic correlation for teaching neuroradiology. Before his arrival at the AFIP, “rad-path” correlation had been used primarily for education in genitourinary, gastrointestinal, chest, and musculoskeletal imaging. Dr Smirniotopoulos took advantage of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging—which was beginning to emerge as an important imaging tool just as he began his AFIP career in the early 1980s—and combined it with CT to develop more than 25 hours of didactic lectures for the AFIP. Dr Smirniotopoulos’s career at the AFIP was also distinguished by the development of the annual anatomic pathology course, which he directed for its first 4 years. This course was intended to reach pathology residents nationwide,