Amanda Wilde (Host): Welcome to the Sinai Chicago Health and Hope podcast, where caregivers from Sinai Chicago share insights, updates, and important advice on the health topics impacting our communities. From the latest in medical research to practical tips for improving wellness; our doctors, nurses, and health professionals are here to help you and your families take control of your health.

In this episode, we're focusing on how cutting-edge practices in radiology and vascular interventional radiology are shaping patient care; from addressing fibroids to lung screenings to 3D printing for trauma related imaging. I'm your host, Amanda Wilde, and joining me is Diagnostic and Interventional Radiologist, Dr. Amar Shah. Dr. Shah is the Chairman of the Department of Radiology and Vascular Interventional Radiology at Mount Sinai Hospital and Holy Cross Hospital.

Welcome Dr. Shah, and thank you so much for being here and sharing your expertise.

Amar Shah, MD: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Host: Going to something I mentioned in the introduction, which isn't new, fibroids and women's health. Now, fibroids are quite common, and while some women don't know they have them, other's really suffer, pain, heavy bleeding, and disruption to daily life because of fibroids.

How does interventional radiology offer treatment options for fibroids, and when should a woman consider seeing an interventional radiologist for a consultation?

Amar Shah, MD: Absolutely. That's a great question. So Interventional Radiology, provides a minimally invasive option done through a needle smaller than the size of a pen. And it allows relief of symptoms associated with fibroids, kind of the ones that you talked about, while it still allows a woman to avoid a big surgery and lets her keep her uterus.

So those are some positives. As for when, I think you can seek consultation at any time, and you could even go directly to your interventional radiologist. Shameless plug for Sinai, if you call 773-884-4867, or 773-257-6501, we can help you make an appointment directly with us either at Holy Cross if you're comfortable there for the first number, or Sinai with that second number.

Host: And that's an excellent resource. Interventional radiology, though isn't often well understood by patients. So in the fibroids case, for example, how do you help women feel informed and empowered while they're exploring minimally invasive options instead of surgery?

Amar Shah, MD: Yeah, I think the main thing is to speak in a language they can understand, not make it so technical, so they understand exactly what we do to support them, and also the alternatives because it's important to have a good 360 degree view of what you can have potentially done to help with your fibroids.

Our practice wants patients to be educated, have someone to understand their pain, and know that they have an advocate that's willing to advocate for them throughout the entire process.

Host: Now on another note, we often hear in the community it's hard to get imaging done or receive results quickly. What does the imaging turnaround time look like at Sinai, and how does your team ensure patient's get answers quickly?

Amar Shah, MD: Yeah, this is a big topic in the medical world with medical imaging as it's kind of become proliferated and everyone gets imaging for almost everything. So we kind of understand that even if after you've had your study taken, if the result's not available in a timely manner, the patient may be even more frustrated and anxious because now they've had the imaging done and they're waiting weeks to get imaging done.

Again, with that radiology physician shortage, I've heard of some places where results are backed up weeks, sometimes one or two weeks. We don't want our patient's to deal with that anxiety, so we ensure that we always have enough doctors and that all the cases are read within 72 hours, if there are no extenuating circumstances.

Host: As you just mentioned, across the country, there's a shortage of radiologists and imaging resources. What is Sinai doing differently that allows your department to excel despite those challenges?

Amar Shah, MD: Yeah, I mean for us it's just about keeping it simple. Longevity is a key. I've been here for over 13 years. A lot of my colleagues also. So we try to find local people. I was born and raised in Chicagoland, and a lot of my colleagues trained around here. As you know, Chicago has a lot of training institutions, so we have a lot of people to choose from.

We use our local network and we find people that really believe in the mission of medicine in a large safety net community, which is what Sinai typically serves. I think the familiarity with each other and the oath of the mission makes it so that we take our job more seriously than just someone reading studies like Pacman and more like someone that's a key point guard in a patient's care.

Host: Mm-hmm. Good analogy. I want to just jump to lung cancer screening, AI and 3D printing. So first of all, lung cancer screening can be lifesaving. We know that, especially for people with a smoking history. Can you talk about Sinai's lung cancer screening program and how new AI tools are helping detect cancer earlier?

Amar Shah, MD: Yeah, I'm glad you asked about this. So, as you know, our community suffers from an inordinate amount of lung cancer for many reasons, including environmental factors and smoking. That's why over the course of three years, I created a partnership with an international healthcare artificial intelligence leader.

The goal of using AI to help radiologists find lung cancer on CTs, which is pretty normal, but even now using x-rays to potentially catch them, we're helping fine tune the technology at Sinai so that one day, maybe even a simple chest x-ray will be able to be a screening tool of choice to find early lung cancers.

We're also looking to participate in a large multicenter center trial to show the results of this technology. So I'm really excited about it and the potential.

Host: Because as we know, the earlier we can detect cancer, the more likely it is that we can put it into remission or even cure it. Also just want to touch on innovation and 3D printing in care. One of the most exciting innovations at Sinai is the use of 3D printing for trauma related imaging. Can you explain how creating a 3D model from imaging benefits physicians and patients?

Amar Shah, MD: Yeah. So one of our partner hospitals brought me the unique opportunity for the radiology department to be able to be a sort of point guard in coordinating and making sure that CTs that we're already taking of patients can be turned into 3D models that can be printed on site for complex facial fractures.

So what this does is it allows the surgeons to pre-plan surgeries, before they even get into the surgery suite, and it results in surgeries that can happen in three to 10 hours instead of sometimes having to wait seven to 10 days. So what's the result of all this? It leads to faster surgeries, smaller incisions, and better patient satisfaction.

So with this 3D printing, we've been able to show that it works pretty well with a small sample, and now we're working on creating a institutional review board study to show this.

Host: That is quite amazing. Dr. Shah, thank you so much for an excellent education on how radiology and vascular interventional radiology are improving patient care.

Amar Shah, MD: Yeah. Thanks so much for letting me come and talk about radiology and shed some light on our field. I appreciate it.

Host: And we appreciate you. Dr. Amar Shah is the Chairman of the Department of Radiology and Vascular Interventional Radiology at Mount Sinai Hospital and Holy Cross Hospital. For more information, visit sinaichicago.org. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social media and check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you.

 Thanks for being part of the Sinai Chicago Health and Hope podcast.