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SIIM: A Place to Breathe – And Grow

Dr. David Hirschorn Profile

David Hirschorn, MD
Staten Island University Hospital

The year 2010 marked Dr. David Hirschorn’s eleventh SIIM Annual Meeting. This was also the year that Dr. Hirschorn, in conjunction with SIIM institutional member, Staten Island University Hospital, developed and hosted the first New York Medical Imaging Informatics Symposium. The September 20 regional meeting, held in New York City, was a smashing success. Many of the 165 attendees were from New York and New Jersey, but some attendees were from as far away as Brazil and France. Hirschorn attributes the acumen he developed in program and meeting planning to his attending a decade of SIIM Annual Meetings.

Now the Director of Radiology Informatics at Staten Island University Hospital and researcher in Radiology Informatics at Massachusetts General Hospital, Hirschorn discovered SIIM through a fortuitous Internet search while in medical school.

While at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark, Hirschorn took an elective in medical informatics at NY Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. He didn’t know that radiology informatics existed at the time, but was going into radiology so he decided to find out. An Internet search led to information on the Laboratory for Radiology Informatics at UCSF, where Dr. David Avrin worked at the time. Dr. Avrin (SIIM Fellow, SIIM Program Committee Member, Journal of Digital Imaging Editorial Board Member) suggested he get in contact with SIIM, then called SCAR.

Hirschorn presented at the SCAR Annual Meeting in 2000 and has been attending the annual meetings ever since. He said he values the networking opportunities available through SIIM.

"SIIM has been huge with putting me in contact with people from around the country that are in the field, just for the networking aspect – to find other doctors with similar interests," Hirschorn said. "And just as important, if not more important, to other non-physicians that are interested in this field," including scientists, hospital executives, system administrators, and vendors.

During his residency at a state hospital, Hirschorn had become frustrated with how things like record keeping were managed. He remembered thinking, "This is a nightmare. It doesn’t have to be this way. I know it doesn’t have to be this way. I went to SIIM and for the first time was able to breathe." Hirschorn decided, "This is an organization that’s going to save radiology – save it from itself."

"Unfortunately the healthcare world does not move the way the business world moves," Hirschorn said. In the business world, he said, companies will embrace new technology to get the advantage because otherwise, their competition will, and they’ll lose. "In healthcare, unfortunately, there’s a huge inertia because they say the patient’s going to get sick and come to our hospital anyway," Hirschorn said. "So, if they spend money on the new technology or don’t, the patient is still going to come."

His response: "Yes, but don’t you want to do the right thing for the patient? Don’t you want to give them better healthcare? Don’t you want to not make mistakes and take out the wrong kidney?" Hirschorn said he did what he could as a resident, including putting in their first DICOM station and getting LCDs and projectors installed in conference rooms. He then went on to complete a fellowship in Radiology Informatics at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School under Dr. Keith Dreyer, a SIIM Fellow. 

Hirschorn’s recommendation to residents now: Have "a healthy dose of audacity;" don’t be afraid to question your surroundings if you think there’s something you can do to improve healthcare. Residents are adept at technology and have resources like SIIM to help them.