Elizabeth Burnside, MD, MPH, MS, FACR, accepted the prestigious Gold Medal award from the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) at the annual meeting in the first week of December. Dr. Burnside is the first radiologist from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and the 22nd woman, to receive this honor since the award’s inception in 1919. This honor highlights her exceptional impact on the field of radiology.
The Gold Medal is the highest accolade bestowed by RSNA, awarded to individuals who have rendered unusual service to the science of radiology. A widely recognized specialist in breast cancer, Dr. Burnside is engaged at the cutting edge of patient-centered research to improve screening mammography. Her unique contributions to the field include developing innovative approaches at the intersection of breast cancer screening, biomedical informatics, and population health.
Throughout her illustrious career, Dr. Burnside has shown her unwavering commitment to advancing patient care and the medical imaging field through her participation in national organizations and her leadership roles. Currently, Dr. Burnside serves as associate dean of team science and interdisciplinary research at the medical school, as well as the executive co-director of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.
We interviewed Dr. Burnside to discover impactful moments in her career that led to her receipt of the Gold Medal.
Can you share what the receipt of this award means to you?
I am greatly honored and am proud to be the first awardee at UW–Madison to receive this special recognition. Notice that the RSNA Gold Medal is given for “unusual service” to radiology. I do consider myself somewhat unusual, because I have a combination of interests, which include imaging technologies that accurately diagnose disease, public health applied across populations in effective and sustainable ways, and biomedical informatics to enable computers and humans to work together to deliver innovations for the benefit of healthcare and human health in general.
I am the first woman to be tenured in radiology at UW–Madison and I am proud that several other women have followed me since. I have always had an eye toward ensuring that women are represented in radiology and in other areas of health and medicine in which they are underrepresented. Perhaps my elevation of women in the specialty is another contribution that could be characterized as unusual. We are making progress.
Looking back on your career, what are some of the most significant or impactful moments that you’ve faced?
During my residency at University of California San Francisco (UCSF), I realized I was missing a key component of the future when I considered that computer science and machine learning were revolutionizing other important areas like communication and finance.
Thanks to the insightful and empowering mentorship I received from Ron Arenson, MD, then chair at UCSF, I decided to attend Stanford to pursue my master’s degree in biomedical informatics between residency and breast imaging fellowship. This was a landmark move for my career, because it enabled me to harness the potential that biomedical informatics had for both radiology and medicine in general. San Francisco as a leader in this transformation and the academic institutions in the Bay Area leading the computer science revolution were key ingredients to my future career.
My unconventional training and expertise fueled another key moment for me when I was honored to deliver the Monday RSNA Plenary Address in 2023 entitled “Leading Through Technology: Valuing Artificial and Human Intelligence.”
I endeavored to demonstrate why, as we embrace artificial intelligence (AI), we must intentionally preserve core manifestations of human intelligence, especially those at the heart of patient care, including judgment, transparency, trust, and communication. We must foster lifelong learning across the entire radiology workforce to identify and advance the opportunities and recognize and call out the pitfalls of generative AI. We must employ leadership models like functional leadership, servant leadership, and transformational leadership designed to maintain a culture of stakeholder empowerment, collaboration, and continuous learning to reap the benefits of this fast-paced AI-informed phase for which our specialty is poised. Delivering an RSNA plenary on the topic of AI was a career highlight for me.
You were one of the founding members of the Women Professionals in Radiology (formerly Women Physicians in Radiology) group. Can you share what drove you and your co-founders to create the group?
Back then, there were just a few women scattered around the department of radiology. Many of them were working in breast imaging, which is a typical landing place for women. My colleagues and I wanted to support each other across sub-specialties and share networking opportunities. I was grateful that Lynn Broderick, MD and Donna Blankenbaker, MD had similar vision, goals and aspirations. The three of us endeavored to foster a community that included individuals who didn’t automatically have access to conventional, established networks.
When I see the Women Professionals in Radiology meet now, the community has grown, is increasingly diverse, and exudes so much energy. We all still have progress to make to optimize opportunities for all who do not have equal access to networks that advance stellar work. I am encouraged by what has been accomplished, thanks to the leadership and support of many, as we strive to foster and recognize talent equitably.
Earlier this year, you were recognized for your commitment to mentorship by the School of Medicine and Public Health’s Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS) group. Why do you think mentorship is important? Can you share what initially sparked your interest in mentoring others?
The reason I believe so strongly in mentorship is because I have reaped the benefits of outstanding mentorship myself. I count Ron Arenson, who guided me toward biomedical informatics, as one of my first and most influential mentors. Etta Pisano, MD has been another key mentor, and a treasured colleague and collaborator. Both Drs. Arenson and Pisano are not only mentors, but also sponsors, who introduce me to new opportunities and areas to explore and hopefully have an impact.
I also found powerful mentors at UW–Madison, like Molly Carnes, MD, who helped me switch onto the tenure track. Dr. Carnes gave me to understand that my perspectives about radiology, though atypical, were unique and forward-thinking and that I should try to spread my ideas through rigorous research. When I mentor others, it is my intention to pay forward in my turn the career favors that my mentors so generously offered me. In addition, I often learn as much from my mentees as they learn from me!
What advice would you give to young radiologists, or students who are interested in entering the field?
As it happens, radiology was scheduled as my last rotation in the third year of medical school training before the deadline for specialty applications. By the time I began radiology, I had in mind my future would be in a surgical subspecialty for which I had already turned in my applications!
But, as I experienced my radiology rotation, I had the feeling that I had found my future career – largely, because of the people. I immediately felt what I would call professional kinship; I just really liked the people. Since then, I have contemplated: why? Maybe it is because I am fortunate to be a lifelong learner, and I found radiologists to be constantly curious, always striving to understand a disease process and figure out how to diagnose or treat better, faster, and more efficiently. Yes, the imaging was fascinating; yes, I knew I would never know everything; but really, I felt like I had found individuals who I admired, found inspiring, and really liked “hanging around with.”
As an athlete participating in team sports throughout my education, I felt like I was at home on the diagnostic radiology team, which was constantly expanding to include members from other specialties to take care of patients. So as far as advice goes, I would emphasize finding an area to pursue in which you are surrounded by people who you like and who drive and inspire you to be your best.
Besides your clinical work in breast imaging, much of your career is focused on public health and grant writing – was there a defining moment in the past that sparked these interests?
As an undergraduate I co-founded “Responsible AIDS Information at Dartmouth” (RAID), which raised awareness about AIDS through a series of presentations on college campuses and other venues around the country, including at the American College Health Association convention in Denver and the National Conference on AIDS in New York City.
Our RAID team had both faculty support and grant funding, so I guess RAID taught me early on about finding resources for public health initiatives. Our RAID “road shows” included frank discussions about sexuality, and one of our specific goals was to dispel myths about condom use. So, we attracted controversy. The New York Times ran a story about RAID that appeared around the country. We stuck to our guns, and I feel proud of what we accomplished.
Another experience that influenced my interest in public health, data science, and research was when, between my second and third year in medical school, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. When I talked to her doctors or came to her clinic visits, it seemed like it was the first time they had seen someone like her. I asked myself, hadn’t they treated hundreds of women pretty much like her? Wasn’t there a huge amount of data to reason about her and treat her unique combination of circumstances? Couldn’t we use some of that experience, some of that data (real world data!), to help her make these important decisions about this common disease? I was just naïve enough at that juncture of my training to think these questions might be reasonable and the experience inspired me to mix my affinity for radiology with public health and computer science.
Is there anything else that you’d like to share?
I firmly believe that an “unusual” career is often what a specialty needs to advance in unique, important, and sustainable ways. I have been grateful for those who have recognized that the combination of imaging, public health, and data science (informatics, computer science, biostatistics) will help the powerful tools that diagnostic imaging brings to adapt to the future of healthcare.
I also am grateful to those who perpetuate the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, an underpinning value of diagnostic radiology. In many ways, radiologists are specialists who create bridges between other specialties (e.g., medicine and surgery). This role is an important one as we strive to see patients in a holistic way and not as a collection of organ systems or a series of interventional procedures.
I hope and believe we all can continue to keep these values of interdisciplinarity, teamwork, and patient-centered care at the forefront of our specialty so we advance the health of individual patients and the population as a whole.