In recognition of his extraordinary service to the field of cardiovascular magnetic resonance, David Bluemke, MD, PhD received the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance’s (SCMR) highest honor, the Gold Medal Award, at the group’s annual conference. Dr. Bluemke traveled to London in January to accept the award.
Upon acceptance of the award, Dr. Bluemke shared “This is truly a huge honor for me, coming from this society that’s meant so much to me over a long period of time, over 25 years.” He went on to thank his colleagues and mentors that have supported him through his journey and shared an anecdote from his career.
“In the mid 1990s I was more of a cancer imaging physician, and then for unknown reasons I somehow got drafted on team cardiac MRI and it somehow stuck!” Whatever the reason may be, the field would not be the same had it not stuck. Through his educational endeavors, service in leadership roles, and research efforts; there is no area in cardiovascular magnetic resonance that has not benefited from Dr. Bluemke’s expertise.
As a professor of thoracic imaging and cardiovascular imaging in the radiology department at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Dr. Bluemke has had a profound impact on radiology education. The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) recognized Dr. Bluemke for providing high-quality education content by naming him an Honored Educator for the past three consecutive years.
Throughout his career, Dr. Bluemke demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the field through his leadership roles in societies. This included serving on the board of trustees and as treasurer for the Internal Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM); as president of the North American Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (NASCI); on the board of the SCMR; and as chair of the American College of Radiology (ACR) Cardiac Accreditation Commitee. He has also helped set standards in the field through his appointment to the ACR Committee on Standards for Body MRI and the ACR Committee on Standards and Accreditation for Magnetic Resonance.
Dr. Bluemke’s impressive contributions to the field of cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging include more than 800 peer-reviewed publications with an h-index of 150, over 300 national and international presentations, and training more than 30 U.S. and international post-graduates. He was the Principal Investigator of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s first multi-center population study using cardiovascular MRI (the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis), and developed standards used worldwide for MRI diagnosis of a rare cardiomyopathy. He is a fellow of the ACR, NASCI, ISMRM, and the American Heart Association (AHA) and has served on the editorial board for multiple journals. He is the past Editor of the field’s leading journal in the field, Radiology.