Eric J. Russell, M.D., F.A.C.R.
Radiata: What percentage of your time, as Chairman, do you spend in turf wars?
EJR: (Heavy sigh) This is obviously very much on the mind of any radiology department Chair. At my institution, we do our best to focus on optimizing patient care; we don’t want to be continually distracted by internecine fighting. Our group practice structure is an advantage in this regard. My approach is to be collaborative with the other departments, and it seems to be working in our approach to neurointerventional procedures and cardiac imaging. If we can maintain our mutual focus on growing the business together, everyone can win. On some issues my approach is to be involved but not to insist on absolute control. For the most part radiology is in a better position within the institution than other departments to manage some of the ‘hot zones.’ We direct modalities such as CT and MRI, and we can develop key clinical and research relationships with vendors, which benefit the hospitals we work in. We must continue to innovate, develop new programs, train the necessary people and manage our technical facilities to provide quality service to maintain our key role in the long-term.
Radiata: What is your most significant professional disappointment?
EJR: When I arrived at Northwestern after my fellowship I was very excited about establishing an academic neuroradiology section. However within that first two years the Chairmen of both the departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery left. I was stranded without the clinical and research collaborators I had been counting on. I got very frustrated and wanted to leave myself. I was trying to start a neurointerventional service during a time when the equipment we take for granted today wasn’t commercially available. It was a most difficult time but I persevered. It has all worked out, although not on my original time table.
Radiata: What is the professional achievement of which you are most proud?
EJR: Working for and then serving as President of the American Society of Neuroradiology. I was able to contribute to the specialty that I love in an important way through this service. I am also very proud to have been the Neuroradiology Scientific Program Chair for the RSNA annual meeting for several years. On a more fundamental level I am proud to have been able to balance a career in diagnostic neuroradiology and interventional neuroradiology.
Radiata: What is your signature dish?
EJR: (laughing) Do I have a signature dish? Crepes, I guess, dessert crepes. I used to be good at those but that was a long time ago. You had better not say anything, because my wife will kill me if I imply I help out with the cooking, which I don’t. May I add that my wife is a phenomenal cook?
Radiata: You may. What does your wife do when she isn’t cooking?
EJR: She is an academic pediatric radiologist. She now practices at Evanston Northwestern Hospital, an academic affiliate of our medical school, although prior to that she spent many years at Children’s Memorial Hospital. Since I became Chair, she is now one of my faculty, which is an interesting development in the family dynamic.....We actually met as residents at Montefiore. I was a year ahead of her in the program, and we decided to take jobs in the same city after completing our fellowship training. I followed her to Chicago without a clear commitment to marry at the time, a move some would consider risky. But this is a noteworthy example of my good fortune in decision making, leading me again to the absolutely right decision. We have been happily married for 23 years.
Radiata: How many children do you have?
EJR: We have a 22 year old daughter, a magna cum laude English literature graduate at NYU. My younger daughter is a senior in high school, currently applying to college.
Radiata: What is the last book that you read?
EJR: Chronicles, Volume One, by Bob Dylan. Perhaps not a great piece of literature, but the guy was really an icon, an unwilling herald for the times, and I was interested to learn his insights. A truly terrific book I read before that, although it’s been around for a while, is Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, which I strongly recommend. It’s an amazingly erudite study of global and human history by a biologist, with significant social implications.
Radiata: What would you be if you weren’t a doctor?
EJR: I can see myself as a sports broadcaster. I used to be a highly competitive squash player. I have always liked baseball. I am proud to have influenced my younger daughter to get involved in sports; she is currently the varsity catcher on the Latin School of Chicago’s softball team. Golf is my addiction, a habit I picked up while a fellow at NYU. While living in Manhattan, I needed to escape from the “concrete jungle.” My close friend Robert D. Zimmerman, now a neuroradiologist at Cornell, had been a resident with me at Montefiore. He satisfied my need for greenery by pushing me to take up golf more seriously and driving me to central New Jersey to play many rounds with him. Bob was also a critical role model for me, and is the individual most responsible for me seeking a career in Neuroradiology.
Radiata: Do you have funny memories of NYU?
EJR: The read-out sessions with Dr. Norman Chase, then the Chair at NYU, are particularly entertaining as remembered from my current position as Chairman. It was a big deal to read-out with the chairman. Norman would arrive, and spend 55 minutes of the hour talking politics and the fate of human civilization, amongst other equally weighty non-radiologic topics. Then he would leave. We, the fellows and residents, would spend the next 2 hours scrambling to figure out what the cases were all about. Another memory stems from my friendship with Ajax George, who was a key mentor for me at NYU while working on scientific projects developed from his insightful observations. One of his ideas for a project, imaging of white matter buckling on CT scans of the brain, led to our publication in the first issue of the American Journal of Neuroradiology in 1980. We played chess together frequently, usually followed by dinner at the only Hunan Chinese restaurant in New York. We thought we were getting pretty good at chess, so one day, we decided to test our skill at the Marshall Chess Club, an august institution made famous by an affiliation with Bobby Fisher. Imagine my embarrassment when an eleven year old boy thoroughly thrashed me within 5 minutes in a timed game to evaluate my skill level. I never returned.
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