Biography / Etta D. Pisano, M.D. / Represents American Association for Women Radiologists (AAWR)
Education:
Dr. Pisano's undergraduate degree in Philosophy is from Dartmouth College. Her medical degree is from Duke University. She completed her radiology residency at Beth Israel Hospital of Harvard Medical School.
Achievements:
She has been named by Diagnostic Imaging magazine as one of the 20 most influential people in radiology. She was recently awarded one of the first Ladies' Home Journal Health Breakthrough Awards.
Dr. Etta Pisano is Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at the UNC School of Medicine, Kenan Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, Director of the UNC Biomedical Research Imaging Center, and Director of the N.C. Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute. She is an expert in breast cancer imaging and, from 1989 to 2005, she served as the Chief of Breast Imaging at UNC Hospitals. Her undergraduate degree in Philosophy is from Dartmouth College. Her medical degree is from Duke University. Her professional interests center around the development, application and testing of imaging technology for the early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer and other breast problems. Etta was born in New York City and was raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. After completing a rotating internship in a community-based program in Pensacola, Florida, she completed her radiology residency at Beth Israel Hospital of Harvard Medical School.
After her residency, she spent a year as Chief of Breast Imaging and Instructor in Radiology at the same institution. She is a Past President of the Association of University Radiologists and the American Association for Women Radiologists, and has been named by Diagnostic Imaging magazine as one of the 20 most influential people in radiology. Recently, she served as the Principal Investigator of the largest clinical trial ever run by a radiologist, the Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST), which enrolled 49,528 women in a study comparing digital to film mammography. She was recently awarded one of the first Ladies' Home Journal Health Breakthrough Awards.
In 2003, she was appointed the first Director of the UNC Biomedical Research Imaging Center, a core facility that develops and commercializes new imaging technologies. She has successfully raised over $20 million from private donors, industry and the university to support its activities. In 2008 she was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Recently she co-founded her own company, NextRay, Inc, which will commercialize a device she and the other cofounders invented. This technology will create medical images using x-rays at a dose that is substantially lower than is currently available. This is most important to children and young adults, and young women undergoing breast cancer screening.
Her husband, Jan Kylstra, is an ophthalmologist with a subspecialty in retina, working in private practice in Chapel Hill and Burlington, NC. He grew up in Durham, North Carolina. They have four children, two girls and two boys, ranging in age from 24 to 15, and they spend the majority of their free time with them and attending their activities. Their hobbies are hiking, reading and travel. Etta is also quite active in the local community, having served in a leadership capacity in numerous organizations involving the local public schools.
