Biography / Gary Jay Becker, M.D. / Represents Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)
Education:
Dr. Becker earned his B.A. with high distinction in Biological Sciences in 1974 and his M.D. from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis in 1977.
Achievements:
Dr. Becker has authored or co-authored one text, 210 articles, 36 book chapters, and 175 published abstracts. He has delivered more than 300 lectures and scientific presentations, including more than 100 invited lectures.
Dr. Becker is a Chicago native who grew up in Indianapolis and completed his education and training at Indiana University. He earned his B.A. with high distinction in Biological Sciences in 1974 and his M.D. from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis in 1977. After an Internal Medicine internship and Diagnostic Radiology residency at Indiana, he joined the faculty in 1981 and rose to the rank of Professor and Chief of the Vascular Section. In 1990, after 20 consecutive years at Indiana, he moved to the Baptist Cardiac & Vascular Institute of Miami (then Miami Vascular Institute) as Medical Director of Interventional Radiology. He subsequently assumed the position of Assistant Medical Director of the Institute and Medical Director of the Research & Outcomes Division. The division, which grew to 15 people under Dr. Becker's leadership, managed as many as 50 clinical trials at a time.
While at the Institute, Dr. Becker also held a Voluntary Professorship in Radiology, University of Miami School of Medicine and a Courtesy Professorship at the Biomedical Engineering Institute of Florida International University's College of Engineering. In May of 2004, Dr. Becker moved to the Washington, D.C. area to become Branch Chief of Image-Guided Intervention in the Cancer Imaging Program of the National Cancer Institute. In 2005, he moved to the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, where he joined the faculty as a professor in the interventional section of the Department of Radiology. Beginning in January of 2006, he spent one-third of his time as Associate Executive Director for Diagnostic Radiology and Subspecialties at the American Board of Radiology (ABR) in Tucson. In January of 2008, he assumed the full-time role of Executive Director of the ABR.
Dr. Becker has had an active research career. His early work focused on development of transcatheter thrombolytic therapies. He later turned his laboratory and clinical interests to invention and development of new metallic stents for the treatment of coronary, peripheral, and carotid arterial disease, a field in which he holds 10 patents. He was also an active clinical investigator of endografting for aortic aneurysms. He has held two investigator-initiated IDEs with the FDA for study of endografts in thoracic and abdominal aortic diseases. In the laboratory, Dr. Becker has mentored many students and residents and helped them to produce award-winning papers and exhibits. In 1988, he and his co-investigators received the Stauffer Award from the Association of University Radiologists for the outstanding laboratory research paper of the year published in Investigative Radiology on the topic of radiofrequency balloon angioplasty. Dr. Becker has been an investigator and principal investigator for numerous clinical trials in the field of Vascular and Interventional Radiology. He served on the American Heart Association (AHA), Indiana Affiliate Research Review Committee and the Veteran's Administration Extramural Cardiology Merit Review Board. He has served as a grant reviewer for the Radiological Society of North America's (RSNA) Research and Education (R&E) Foundation, the Office of Research Development of the RSNA, the Research Committee of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), and the Board of Directors of the Cardiovascular & Interventional Radiology Research and Education Foundation (CIRREF; now SIR Foundation), an organization he served as president from 1994-1997. He completed his service on the Board of Trustees of RSNA's Research & Education Foundation in 2009.
Dr. Becker has authored or co-authored one text, 210 articles, 36 book chapters, and 175 published abstracts. He has delivered more than 300 lectures and scientific presentations, including more than 100 invited lectures in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America. He delivered the 15th Annual Dotter Lecture at the 24th Annual Scientific Meeting of the SIR (1999) and the Annual Oration in Diagnostic Radiology at the Eighty-Sixth Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the RSNA (2000), the world's largest medical gathering.
Dr. Becker devoted much of his career to teaching medical students, residents, and fellows. After 10 years as director of the fellowship training program in Vascular and Interventional Radiology at BCVI in Miami, he stepped down, but continued to serve as full-time faculty member until 2004. He has also served the scientific programs of the SIR, RSNA, the ARRS, and the AHA in various capacities.
Dr. Becker's editorial service as manuscript reviewer, editorial board member, associate editor, and editor has spanned 22 journals and one Website. Until mid-1995 he served as founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, which he helped to shape into the world's most widely read and respected journal in the field. In 1995, in recognition of this unique contribution and nine years' service on its Executive Council, the SIR re-named its award for the outstanding paper presentation by a young investigator at the Annual Meeting the "Dr. Gary J. Becker Young Investigator Award".
Dr. Becker is a fellow of the SIR, the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American College of Radiology (ACR), and the Cardiovascular Radiology Council of the AHA, and a member of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), and the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH).
His extensive service to the subspecialty of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (VIR) and to the American Board of Radiology (ABR) provides additional evidence of his commitment to quality in the field. Dr. Becker served as SIR's Education Councilor and as chairman of the training committee that drafted the original special requirements for subspecialty training in VIR. In the American Board of Radiology, after many years of service on the written examination committee and as an oral examiner, he was elected to the ABR Board of Trustees in May of 2000. Until January of 2006, he served as chair of the following committees: VIR sub-certification exam, VIR Maintenance of Certification (MOC) exam, Strategic Planning, and the DIRECT (Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Enhanced Clinical Training and certification) Pilot Pathway Oversight. He was also a member of the Maintenance of Certification Coordinating Committee. From January of 2006 through December of 2007, he served as ABR Associate Executive Director for Diagnostic Radiology and Subspecialties and an ABR voting representative to the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). In January of 2008, he began full-time as ABR Executive Director, where he is overseeing both the growth of the board's MOC services and the transformation of ABR's diagnostic radiology certifying examinations from oral to computer-based. He continues to serve ABMS as a member of the Committee on Certification, Subcertification, Recertification, and Maintenance of Certification (COCERT), as well as numerous additional task forces. He now serves as a member of the ABMS Board of Directors. He also serves on a National Quality Forum Advisory Committee on Enhancing Physician Performance.
In the RSNA, Dr. Becker served on the Roster of Distinguished Scientific Reviewers of research grant proposals to the R&E Foundation, the Refresher Course Committee as cardiovascular sub-committee chair, as member of the Public Information Advisory Board and the Office of Research Development. He has also served as distinguished manuscript reviewer, associate editor, and consultant to the editor of Radiology. He has delivered Opening Session presentations at two annual meetings of the RSNA and served one year on the panel of the unknown Film Interpretation Session. In 2000, he delivered his RSNA Annual Oration on the Future of Interventional Radiology. In November of 2001, he was elected to the Board of Directors. Having completed his service as the organization's first Board Liaison for Science in 2006, he chaired the RSNA Board of Directors in 2007, served as Secretary and President-Elect in 2008, and as President in 2009. During his presidential year, Dr. Becker continued working to help develop, guide, and champion new and bold initiatives in quantitative imaging and biomarkers, and to encourage radiologists worldwide to embrace quality improvement and performance measurement.
