Dear School of Medicine Community:
I am very pleased to announce that Pamela K. Woodard, MD has accepted our offer to become the next Head of the Department of Radiology and Director of the Mallinckrodt Institute for Radiology, starting on July 1. Dr. Woodard is currently the Hugh Monroe Wilson Professor of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine and is also Professor of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Biomedical Engineering. She brings a wealth of leadership in clinical, educational, and research activities to this position, including her experiences as Senior Vice Chair and Division Director of Radiological Research Facilities, Head of Cardiac MRI/CT, Director of the Center for Clinical Imaging Research, Director of the Radiology Research Track of the Radiology Residency Program and Director of TOP-TIER, a clinician scientist training program for residents and fellows. Our Department of Radiology has a long history of national leadership in the practice and science of Radiology and is a world leader in new innovations in every area of imaging. Pam was unanimously selected by our leadership team from a deep and impressive group of candidates because we believe she can lead us in further defining the career of radiologists and radiology scientists, the role of imaging in personalized medicine, new strategies for diagnosis and treatment through interventional, minimally invasive, and even non-interventional approaches that will advance human health and in collaborative work with other clinical and pre-clinical departments to leverage the virtuous cycle of academic medicine that exemplifies the partnership of WashU Medicine and BJC Healthcare.
Dr. Woodard was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. She received her undergraduate degree, MD, and residency training at Duke University, internship in Internal Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and fellowship in cardiothoracic imaging at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology/Washington University. She joined the faculty at WashU Medicine in 1996, rising to Professor in 2009 and to her endowed professorship in 2019. Her research has had enormous impact on cardiothoracic imaging and therapeutics in multiple different areas. Her work in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during her fellowship and as early faculty led to the translation of cardiac MRI into clinical practice, and included translation of methods to suppress respiratory motion currently in use in pediatric cardiac and congenital heart imaging. Her early work also involved approaches to translate newly developed multi-detector spiral CT imaging for detection of pulmonary emboli. In 2006, she was a senior author on the landmark paper in New England Journal of Medicine showing that multi-detector CT was the definitive test for diagnosis of pulmonary emboli. As a result of this study, multidetector CT replaced the use of ventilation-perfusion nuclear medicine scans for initial diagnosis of pulmonary emboli. Later, her work on cardiac angina led to the definitive imaging approach to direct patients into optimal medical therapy alone or optimal medical therapy with revascularization. Her recent work focuses in several areas including receptor-targeted and physiological PET imaging of atherosclerotic plaque, 64copper radiolabeled PET imaging to detect macrophages that signify progressive atherosclerotic pathology, and use of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) in the emergency room evaluation of acute chest pain. This work has involved a long history of investigator-initiated R01 funding from the NIH and Department of Defense as well as many multi-PI and multi-center initiatives funded by the NIH. She currently holds 3 active R01 grants, is a PI on a grant from the Department of Defense and serves as a Program Director for the T32 grant that funds the TOP-TIER training program. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed original articles with an h-index of 64 and holds numerous patents. She has been a standing member of 3 NIH study sections and has chaired one of them. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and serves on the Board of Chancellors for the American College of Radiology, the Executive Committee of the Board of the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research, and the Board of the Society for Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.
I want to thank the members of the search committee, led by Drs. Gary Silverman and Regis O’Keefe, for the extensive work that led to this recruitment. I also want to take this moment to acknowledge and recognize the work of Dr. Richard Wahl in leading the Department over the past 9 years. His work has continued the strong tradition and legacy of the Mallinckrodt Institute and positioned the Department for even more potential in the future.
Please join me in congratulating and thanking Dr. Woodard for taking on this important leadership role at WashU Medicine.
Sincerely,
David H. Perlmutter, MD
Executive Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs
Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor
George and Carol Bauer Dean