SIIM Announces New Awards!

Abstract

The Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) has created six new awards to be inaugurated at the 2020 Annual Meeting. These include the Gold Medal of the Society, The Joe Gitlin Award, the Dr. Ruth Dayhoff Award for the Advancement of Women in Medical Imaging Informatics, the Imaging Informatics Innovator Award, the Early Career Achievement Award, and the Educator Award. The award criteria, nomination, and selection processes are outlined in this paper with the goal of encouraging nominations (including self-nominations) for these prestigious awards recognizing contributions to imaging informatics in medicine.

The Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) has a long history supporting and recognizing trainees, faculty, and other attendees at its annual meeting with a variety of awards (e.g., student travel and Bauman Award). There are, however, many activities and personal accomplishments that go unrecognized by SIIM members and supporters. In order to address this and let those in the Imaging Informatics community appreciate and celebrate these accomplishments, the SIIM Board of Directors decided to create new awards. The newly formed Awards Committee is responsible for recommending and maintaining awards policies for the society, providing oversight of the awards process, and making the final recommendation of the award winners to the SIIM Board of Directors on an annual basis. The Committee is composed of a Chair and at least four members, who must have active membership in SIIM and be a representative of SIIM’s membership composition.

New SIIM Awards

There will be six new SIIM awards, with the first awardees recognized at the 2020 annual meeting. They are briefly summarized here. Each awardee will receive a plaque and an honorarium.

The Gold Medal of the Society will be the highest honor the Society bestows. It is awarded annually in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in research and/or implementation of imaging informatics applications. The recipient(s) shall have made an exceptional contribution to the advancement of imaging informatics and to SIIM (SCAR/RISC).

The Joe Gitlin Award will be presented annually in recognition of outstanding lifetime contributions to the field of imaging informatics through the development of innovative, high-impact solutions. The award particularly honors pioneering contributions to informatics methods and devices that have facilitated advancements in imaging and/or medicine.

As the name indicates, this award honors one of SIIM’s foremost supporters and founders Joseph N. Gitlin, DPH, FSIIM (Fig. 1). Dr. Gitlin was born August 14, 1927 in Scranton, PA, served in the US Air Force and the US Public Health Service (where he directed the National X-ray Exposure Studies). He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received his Masters’ (1966) and Doctor of Public Health (1970) from Johns Hopkins University, where he subsequently became a faculty member.

Fig. 1.

Joseph N. Gitlin, DPH, FSIIM

In 1980, he was a founding member and past Chair of the Radiology Information System Consortium (RISC which in 1989 became the Society for Computer Applications in Radiology (SCAR) and in 2006 was renamed SIIM) to develop Radiology Information Systems (RIS) with a commercial partner. He is recognized for evaluating early teleradiology systems and designing the digital image network projects which were precursors to the Medical Diagnostic Imaging Support (MDIS) Program of US military facilities. In 1992, Joe was involved in the first public demonstration of the prototype standard to support communication among disparate modalities and different manufacturers’ equipment (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM)). Joe was responsible for numerous advancements in medical imaging technologies and information systems, was in the inaugural class of SCAR-SIIM Fellows and was an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Radiology. Outside of work, he was a member of the Wheaton Woods Civic Organization, organized the Colesville Boys Baseball Association, was a leader in the Boy Scouts of America, and an avid tennis player.

The Dr. Ruth Dayhoff Award for the Advancement of Women in Medical Imaging Informatics will be presented annually in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of imaging informatics by a woman and/or to a woman dedicated to the advancement and promotion of women in imaging informatics.

Ruth E. Dayhoff, MD (Fig. 2) was born in 1952 and went to medical school at Georgetown University School Medicine where she worked on several informatics projects, graduating in 1977. In 1977, she was the co-founder of SCAMC (Symposium of Computer Applications in Medicine–renamed AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association)). During residency, she worked with automated instruments in pathology laboratories in clinical pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1980 where she had a special emphasis on laboratory information systems working with her mentor H. K. (Bernie) Huang, PhD. Ruth evaluated the digital workstation created by another long-time SIIM member Sam Dwyer (after whom the SIIM Sam Dwyer Lecture is named), Harold Rutherford, and Michael Gray.

Fig. 2.

Ruth E. Dayhoff, MD

She co-authored a user’s manual for the MUMPS hospital records language (also known as “M language,” a computer language, database, and operating system that forms the basis of many commercial medical information systems). Dr. Dayhoff was the director of the VistA Imaging Project for the Department of Veterans Affairs and as the national project manager oversaw the integration of a multimedia patient record system with the VA’s computerized patient record system, which won a number of awards.

The Imaging Informatics Innovator Award will be presented annually for extraordinary achievements in informatics technology development that show strong promise or potential impact in imaging and/or medicine.

The Early Career Achievement Award will be presented in recognition of significant and innovative technical contributions in imaging informatics to someone whose last training position (fellow for MD/DO; post-doc for PhD) has been within 10 years of the date of nomination. Two awards will be available for presentation each year recognizing excellence in (1) academia and (2) industry/government.

The Educator Award will be given annually in recognition of outstanding contributions to imaging informatics education by a SIIM instructor or educator in the field.

Award Selection Process

Nomination materials and descriptions of the awards will be posted on the SIIM website for those wishing to nominate someone. Self-nominations are permitted. The committee will also solicit nominations and/or make recommendations for the respective awards. Candidates need not be a SIIM member, but membership in and contributions to SIIM may be included as criteria in the review process. Once nominations have been submitted and the deadline for submission has passed (February 1st of each year), the committee will review the nominations and select a winning candidate for each award. A candidate must receive a majority of favorable votes from the committee in order to receive an award. If there are no suitable nominations, a given award does not have to be awarded. Once the committee has reviewed the nominations, the evaluation process taken place, and the nominee has been selected, the Committee Chair will forward the name of the candidates to the SIIM Chair and Board of Directors for final approval. Once an award recipient has been confirmed by the Board of Directors, a notice will be sent to the winner(s) and to those who submitted and/or supported the nominee. Awards will be given at the annual meeting.

Nomination Process

Any member of the imaging informatics community may nominate a candidate meeting the eligibility requirements. Nomination packets shall consist of

• Completed award nomination form

• Brief summary stating the accomplishments that make the nominee deserving of a particular award

• Curriculum vitae listing educational background, positions held, publications, awards, honors, activities, and offices held within the Society.

• A minimum of two (2) letters of support from other than the nominator. One of the letters may be from the nominator unless it is a self-nomination in which case both must be from someone other than the nominator. Diversity of support is preferred—not all letters of recommendation should come from nominee’s organization. Letters must be received within two weeks of the nomination deadline.

I encourage everyone to visit the SIIM website for nomination details and materials and nominate your colleagues (or yourself) who are deserving of the new SIIM awards! All too often, we fail to honor those who contribute so much to the foundations, growth, and future of our fields. The SIIM awards offer us the opportunity to do so and to let the world know about the innovative, exciting, and dedicated people devoted to Imaging Informatics in Medicine.