New Editor Named for Prestigious Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology

Society of Interventional Radiology Member Ziv J Haskal, M.D., FSIR, Begins Transition Process, Will Replace Albert A. Nemcek Jr., M.D., FSIR, in January 2011

FAIRFAX, Va., Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ziv J Haskal, M.D., FSIR, has been named editor of the Society of Interventional Radiology's flagship publication—the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR)—for a five-year term beginning in January 2011. The monthly, peer-reviewed scientific journal—published since 1989—focuses on the critical and cutting-edge medical, minimally invasive, radiological, pathological and socioeconomic issues of importance to vascular and interventional radiologists.

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"The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology is the jewel of interventional journals. Becoming its editor is an extraordinary personal honor," said Haskal, professor of radiology and surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and vice chair of strategic development and chief of vascular and interventional radiology, image-guided therapy and interventional oncology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, both in Baltimore, Md. "Among many goals, I intend to strengthen JVIR's role as the international hub—the nexus of interventional scholarship—bridging research and education across the globe," he added.

Effective with the January 2010 issue, Haskal will serve as incoming editor to editor Albert A. Nemcek Jr., M.D., FSIR, who will complete his five-year term at the end of 2010. "I have always been interested in innovating forms of scientific education and communication to combine rigor with interactivity in order to overcome passive learning—be they in print, online or at meetings," noted Haskal. In 1997, he created and edited the SIR Case Club—SIR's first online journal and early bulletin board. During its four-year monthly run, SIR published more than 400 member-discussed cases. "I hope that SIR can explore such novel online concepts within JVIR as well," he said.

"The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology continues to be the premier forum for valuable scientific research that pioneers advances in image-guided treatments, providing patients with the best possible health care," said SIR President Brian F. Stainken, M.D., FSIR, who represents the national organization of nearly 4,500 doctors, scientists and allied health professionals dedicated to improving health care through minimally invasive treatments. "Dr. Haskal is an internationally known scholar with the depth and breadth of knowledge to appreciate and evaluate the wide variety of interventional radiology research," added Stainken, an interventional radiologist who is an adjunct professor at Boston University and the chair of the diagnostic imaging department at Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence, R.I.

Haskal received his undergraduate and medical degrees through the six-year program at Boston University, Boston, Mass., in 1986. He completed his fellowship and residency at the University of California, San Francisco. He joined the radiology department at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia as an assistant professor in 1992. In 1999, he moved to Columbia University, New York City, as a full professor and director of the Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Since the fall of 2008, he has been at University of Maryland Medical Center.

Since 1994, Haskal has chaired or served on many SIR, American Heart Association, Radiological Society of North America and American College of Radiology committees. In 2007, he chaired the SIR Annual Scientific Meeting in Seattle, Wash. He is a co-founder and co-director of the Global Embolization Symposium and Technologies (GEST) scientific meeting. He has held a long-standing role as editor and then deputy editor-in-chief of CardioVascular and Interventional Radiology as well as editorial board and reviewer positions for more than 10 other peer-reviewed journals. During his editorial tenure, the impact factor of CVIR has nearly doubled.

Haskal has authored more than 165 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, books, reviews and editorials and has published more than 120 scientific abstracts. He has delivered more than 450 invited national and international scientific lectures and has led or participated in more than 30 externally sponsored clinical or animal research trials.

Since Nemcek, an interventional radiologist and professor of radiology and surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Ill., became editor in 2005, JVIR has achieved international recognition as a leading interventional radiology journal. JVIR was recently ranked in the top half of 90 journals in radiology, nuclear medicine and medical imaging and in the top half of 56 journals in peripheral arterial disease, according to results from the Thomson Reuters Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Journal Citation Report, demonstrating the exceptional quality and influence of the journal as an academic and professional resource. Under Nemcek's leadership, JVIR began to publish articles online ahead of print and continued to attract a growing number of submissions from researchers at prestigious organizations throughout the world.

The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, can be viewed online at www.jvir.org. For more information, contact Noemi C. Arthur, SIR director of publications and JVIR managing editor, by sending an e-mail to [email protected] or by calling (703) 460-5593. A yearly subscription to the journal is $404 for individuals and $561 for institutions. A free journal subscription is a benefit of SIR membership.

More information about the Society of Interventional Radiology and the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology can be found online at www.SIRweb.org.

About the Society of Interventional Radiology

Interventional radiologists are physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted treatments. They offer the most in-depth knowledge of the least invasive treatments available coupled with diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. They use X-ray, MRI and other imaging to advance a catheter in the body, such as in an artery, to treat at the source of the disease internally. As the inventors of angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral arterial disease, interventional radiologists pioneered minimally invasive modern medicine. Today, interventional oncology is a growing specialty area of interventional radiology. Interventional radiologists can deliver treatments for cancer directly to the tumor without significant side effects or damage to nearby normal tissue.

Many conditions that once required surgery can be treated less invasively by interventional radiologists. Interventional radiology treatments offer less risk, less pain and less recovery time compared to open surgery. Visit www.SIRweb.org.

SOURCE Society of Interventional Radiology