At this year's SIR meeting, held in Seattle, WA, March 1-6, 2007, Dr Michael Dake presented the prestigious Dotter Lecture to an almost full theatre. Through a variety of entertaining measures, including famous quotes and scenes from the film 'The Big Lebowski' and the television series '24', the premise of Dake's lecture focused on the importance of interventional radiologists moving away from the 'turf war' battle with other specialties and concentrating on securing their future through collaboration.
Dake, Chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, encouraged interventional radiologists to face up to the issues of competing specialities and subspecialties and instead of blaming these other areas for stealing procedures, interventional radiologists should be proactive and move forward by managing their individual clinical practices.
"We are running out of places to retreat," he said. "No longer can we respond to challenges in a reactionary mode, but with a plan based on our own core values, and what our patients want and what we know they need."
Dake further explained that in order to move forward and fulfil the need of the patient, it is important for interventional radiologists to focus on a list of areas such as strategic components, research, education, clinical care, policy initiatives and overall economics. Funding through the SIR Foundation must increase on a per-member basis to cultivate the new funding sources that are critical to sustain interventional radiology's research initiatives, as well as education, he said.
"Education affects our future trajectory of this specialty. To secure the future of this speciality may mean focusing more of our time on specialisation. Decisions must be made quickly by our leaders with our voice in the ears," stated Dake.
Collaboration not confrontation
According to Dake, policy makers do not care about turf battles, instead focusing on increasing levels of quality for their constituents, along with lower costs. "Much can be accomplished through us keeping costs low," said Dake. "Instead of battling with other specialities, we might be better served to aggressively seek out and forge alliances to protect what is ours. In that we become the predator, not the prey."
Imaging is no longer exclusive to interventional radiologists, said Dake. Establishing strong relationships with other specialities that have entered the domain will allow the speciality to grow, and become more advanced in terms of quality, safety and service at lower costs.
"We need to be inspired to farm the same land alongside our competitors in order to offer better quality, more convenience and more economical medical care. Embracing a currently comfortable status quo will doom the speciality for future generations," added Dake.
Summarising, Dake explained that many interventional radiologists think they have enough rewards and avoid initiating new programmes or other changes. Adopting this attitude will eventually cause the speciality to either be overtaken by new specialities or be taken over by already existing ones. The survival and growth of the speciality lies in the hands of interventional radiologists today.
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