A leadership transition marks a new chapter in the UW/GE HealthCare CT Protocol Collaboration that has spanned over a decade and been a cornerstone to high-quality, value-based CT imaging across the globe. In January 2024, Myron Pozniak, MD stepped down from his role as the team lead and passed the mantle on to Giuseppe Toia, MD.
With the goal of creating CT protocols to ensure that clinicians not only image gently but also image well, the effort combines the expertise of UW radiologists, physicists, and CT technologists with ISO quality consultants, GE HealthCare CT engineers and their application specialists. In his first six months, Dr. Toia has been continually impressed by the amazing collaboration of the protocol team and is grateful to lead it. He finds a sense of pride in working on the team and contributing to the positive impact that it has worldwide.
“When I began my career as a resident, I did not have a clear vision of how my career could make a long-lasting impact, particularly outside the reading room. As I progressed, I realized that an academic career provided an avenue for lifelong learning and discovery but also catalyzed potentially lasting clinical impacts beyond the walls of a hospital. It’s truly a humbling and satisfying feeling to know our program aligns with these goals.”
Bridging the gap between radiology and medical physics has been a longstanding academic interest for Dr. Toia, who eagerly joined the department’s protocol initiative as a physician-CT tech liaison when he was recruited in 2021. In his role as liaison, Dr. Toia ensured CT technologists and radiologists were communicating effectively to adjust and improve protocols from the clinical operations side.
This cooperative spirit was the driving force behind the formation of the protocol team and collaboration with GE HealthCare.
In the early 2000s, Dr. Pozniak and medical physicist Frank Ranallo, PhD teamed up to establish universal CT protocols that would consistently produce clear results while using lower doses to avoid overexposing patients to radiation. Dr. Pozniak likens CT imaging process to shooting photos with a manual camera.
“You can expose the film a certain way and end up with a photo that’s under-exposed or over-exposed. You need to know the f-stop and aperture, and a dozen other things that can affect how the photo comes out. It’s the same thing with CT, but there are even more variables.”
Historically, radiology practices would develop protocols themselves or hire third-party physicists to do so. In some cases, protocols were developed on a patient-by-patient basis.
Dr. Pozniak and Dr. Ranallo recognized that experts at UW–Madison were in a unique position to develop protocols given their ability to bridge the gap between radiology and medical physics. The pair approached GE HealthCare as the company was, and still is, a valued collaborator of the university. They proposed that the UW CT protocols could be shipped with GE HealthCare CT scanners so other institutions could use them in their practices.
Over the course of several years and many discussions, the company and UW–Madison reached an agreement: GE HealthCare would ship the protocols with each new CT scanner, and UW would continue to update and develop clinically validated CT protocols as technology advanced and GE HealthCare released new scanners.
Today, the UW/GE HealthCare CT Protocol Collaboration is thriving with a robust team dedicated not only to updating the protocols but also providing support and guidance to smaller hospitals and institutions. The team includes three full-time technologists whose sole focus is on the CT protocol initiative. Tim Szczykutowicz, PhD leads efforts from the medical physics standpoint, and Dr. Pozniak and Dr. Ranallo continue to consult with the team.
Through the collaboration with GE HealthCare, UW–Madison has made a positive impact in patient care and imaging results worldwide. Dr. Toia emphasized the importance that we share these protocols widely, reinforcing The Wisconsin Idea that the UW Department of Radiology upholds.
“In their finest form, science and medicine are not for closed doors. We embrace data and idea sharing to advance our field. I recognize that not all radiology practices have the same resources and team structure as us. In effect, I see it as our duty to share our knowledge and experience.”