Alumni Notes

2018

Gregory, Julie, Jake and Lia Goldstein

"Wow, I can’t believe that it’s been 17 years since I left good ‘ol U of M! I am currently living in Chicago with my wife Julie, son Jake (11), daughter Lia (10), and two dogs, Bo and Jojo. We absolutely love living in Chicago and frequently escape to our lake house in Grand Beach, Michigan. About 13 years ago I started an outpatient radiology practice, MetisMD (www.metismd.com), which has grown into a nationwide radiology services company. We provide a combination of teleradiology, onsite coverage, consulting, and second opinions. I love what I do and feel extremely fortunate, thanks in part to the incredible program at U of M!"

Gregory Goldstein, MD, Resident, 1997-2001
 

 

"I was a fellow for 2 years at UM, then a faculty member in nuclear medicine for 18 years. For nearly 14 years now, I have been at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. I have had the pleasure of serving as chairman of the American Board of Nuclear Medicine, and more recently, serving on the Nuclear Medicine Residency Review Committee of the American College of Graduate Medical Education, along with the chief of nuclear medicine at UM, Kirk A. Frey, MD, PhD. I enjoy return visits to AA and the yearly UM get-togethers at the Society of Nuclear Medicine. We have one son who is a sophomore at UM and another who is a sophomore at Memphis University High School. We have been fortunate to have participated in scouting as an adult with camping and two week long sailing trips in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys. We are enthusiastic Elvis fans and particularly like to attend the multiple Elvis contests and concerts in August. I am not far from retirement and I try to keep up with the latest happenings in AA and UM."

Barry L. Shulkin, MD, Fellow, 1985-1986; Faculty, 1986-2004; Adjunct Professor 2004-present

 

 
The Minoshima / Anzai family enjoying a walk on the beach

"It has been 18 years since we left UM Radiology. We still feel that Ann Arbor is our home. The University of Michigan gave us a strong foundation for our academic careers. We’ve followed the tremendous growth of UM Radiology over the past decade. Wonderful faculty members, academic excellence, and clinical expansion. So proud to be a part of the UM Radiology alumni! We have a significant number of UM alumni in our healthcare leadership at the University of Utah. UM is everywhere. Go Blue!"

Satoshi Minoshima, MD, PhD, and Yoshimi Anzai, MD, MPH, Faculty 1990-2000

2017

 
Robin and wife, Denise in the Scottish Highlands

“I completed my residency at Michigan in 1990, one of the infamous “nine men”. During my fourth year as a resident, I spent almost the entire year in breast imaging. One of the breast imaging fellows de-committed and I helped fill the gap. I then followed Dr. Gross to Henry Ford for a year to complete a body imaging fellowship while he was chairman.

I have since then been in TRA (“U of M South”) with many other Michigan grads in Toledo, and working within the large ProMedica HealthSystem as Medical Director of ProMedica Breast Care at The Toledo Hospital. I believe part of my professional success has been the result of the excellent training I had at Michigan that gave me the confidence to “keep moving forward.”

Outside of work, I enjoy gardening, cooking, travel, reading and spending time with my wife (Denise) of almost 30 years who I met at U of M as a resident (she was a mammography tech). Two recent amazing trips included Scotland (and drinking Scotch, of course!) as well as the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky. (Drs) Dan Dessner (pediatric fellowship at Michigan) and his wife Jonna were along for the experience. We have two wonderful children, Paige (who in entering Berkeley Optometry school this fall in California—where I was born) and Nick who is finishing his third year at Miami, OH. I enjoy my periodic trips to Ann Arbor and hope to get up there again soon!”

Robin Shermis, MD, MPH, FACR, Resident, Class of 1990

 

 
Eric remer
Erica, Alex, Scott, and Erick Remer at the Alhambra, Granada, Spain

“Since finishing my fellowship in 1994, I have been a member of the Abdominal Imaging Section at the Cleveland Clinic. I am currently Professor of Radiology and Director of Abdominal Imaging Research. I have focused my research on the GU tract and investigated issues such as renal tumor ablation, adrenal disorders, and CT dose reduction. I have been actively involved in committee work for the SAR, RSNA, ARRS and am currently GU Panel Chair for the ACR Appropriateness Criteria. My family enjoys the many cultural and outdoor activities that Cleveland has to offer and has been energized by the resurgence of (some of) our sports teams. My wife, Erica, has given up clinical Emergency Medicine practice and serves as a consultant on physician documentation, ICD10, and Quality. My older son, Scott, graduated from Yale and is currently completing a Masters in Political Thought and Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge. My old younger son, Alex, is busy choosing the Aerospace Engineering program he will attend after finishing his senior year of high school. It’s great that the Michigan Abdominal Group is so active in academic radiology; I’m always happy to run into old colleagues virtually any meeting that I attend. I still haven’t given up my Michigan football tickets, so be on the lookout for me at games!”

Erick M. Remer, MD, FACR, FSAR, Fellow, 1994
 

"I landed a position as an assistant professor at National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu, Taiwan in 2013, working in biomedical engineering. I am mainly examining the effects of ultrasound on nanoparticles and vice versa - earlier studies show that nanoparticle presence during sonication improves the ability of moderate intensity ultrasound to kill cancerous cells relative to normal ones. Two masters students that I advised have just graduated, and their work forms a manuscript that I’m writing up - basically we show that polystyrene nanoparticle presence has no detectable effect on net inertial cavitation levels. The reaction assay was unfortunately unsuitable for measuring inertial cavitation in the presence of gold or silver nanoparticles.

Another item that has been published (Mol. Divers. 2016; 20(3): 741-745) relates to an accidental discovery I made with randomly generated molecular fingerprints. A manuscript that I am revising shows that ultrasonically generated water mists have the potential for being a decent substitute for flammable colored powders that tragically resulted in the explosion June 27, 2015. Here, my hope is that I’d be able to secure funding from businesses willing to develop the idea further.”

Nelson Chen, PhD, Researcher, 2001-2008

 

 
Dorit Adler

“After 29 years in UM Radiology, I retired in 2009, continuing my work in Breast Imaging on a per diem basis during half the year, spending the other half similarly in private practice in Tucson, AZ, as well as my ongoing involvement with the ABR, also based in Tucson. Per diem worked was terminated at UM Radiology and eventually in Tucson so full retirement occurred a bit sooner than expected. Since I loved my clinical work, it was an adjustment but I am happy to say that I now fully enjoy the benefits of retirement.

I continue to split my time between Ann Arbor and Tucson with occasional trips to my home town of LA. Having also completed my work with the ABR, I was honored to receive a Lifetime Service Award in 2015. I keep busy with volunteering, taking classes, swimming, tennis, yoga, Pilates, traveling, seeing old friends, making new ones, and many walks with “Mr. Mischief,” our 9 year-old rescue dog, Simba. A bonus this year is having my daughter, Michelle, and her boyfriend, Stephen, working in Tucson and living nearby. After attending UW Madison and UM for her MPH, Michelle will start the Master of Science in Physician Assistant (PA) Studies at Rush University in Chicago to become a PA. I feel fortunate to have such a wonderful life and always enjoy seeing my old colleagues and friends at U of M!”

Dorit D. Adler, MD, MPH, FACR, Faculty 1984-2009

2016

 
Wang Family

“We are now a family of five and have lived in Miami Beach and Seattle since fellowship. We are moving to Los Angeles next and taking a road trip down there, stopping by Davis, California, to see Peggy Wu. I’ve been working for AltaVista Radiology with many U-M alumni.”

Page Wang, MD; Resident, Class of 2012; Neuroradiology Fellow, 2012-2013; Pediatric Fellow, 2013-2014

“Since leaving my fellowship at the University of Michigan in 2014 I have been busy establishing myself as an assistant professor and neuroradiologist at the University of Toledo. I have been able to incorporate some of the advanced imaging techniques I learned in fellowship including MR perfusion, functional MRI, and diffusion tensor imaging. My current interests include incorporating arterial spin labeling into clinical practice with our stroke and neurosurgery programs as well as neuromodulation with spinal cord stimulators. I have been fortunate to be able to have Dr. Ashok Srinivasan and Dr. Gaurang Shah visit and give lectures to our Northwest Ohio Radiologic Society during our monthly meetings. It is always great to have such dedicated colleagues come share their knowledge with us. Outside of being a radiologist, I have been busy helping my incredibly patient and talented wife raise our five children. Their ages are 8, 6, and 3 (triplets). This has been an exciting and challenging venture and has offered distraction from a busy work life. We enjoy working in our vegetable garden, going camping, and occasionally fishing in some of our local ponds. We have also had the pleasure of being a part our church’s outreach programs as well as mentoring young people at our youth camp. It has been a great pleasure to be able to give back to the community here where we grew up.”

Mark Buehler, MD, Neuroradiology Fellow, 2014
 

“After finishing residency in 2001 and subsequent fellowship at Duke University, we ventured out west. Eventually we settled in Las Vegas, Nevada where I joined former resident and IR fellow Michael Schunk, MD, in private practice. During those training days, I never thought I would say, “I moved to Vegas!” Living here has been a pleasant surprise. Most days, Manisha and I enjoy chasing after our two young boys including running between sports and band practice. They provide us their own adventure. I am fortunate enough to still have time for academic pursuits including sitting on the ACR Economics committee and the ABR Core exam GI section committee. Life does always surprise and I am grateful for the experiences and the relationships I made during my Michigan days to aid me along the journey.”

Ashok Gupta, MD, Resident, Class 2001

2015

 
Radiology Alumni Caroline Blane Book

"I have published my first book, An Apartment in Paris. While conducting research projects on sabbatical in Paris with our then-5-year-old son, my husband and I managed to locate, buy and furnish a tiny pied-à-terre in the City of Lights. This true story has all the ups and downs that so often make real life much more entertaining than fiction. The book is available at Amazon and Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor."

Professor Emeritus Caroline Blane, MD, Faculty 1980-2012
 

"I keep myself very entertained working full-time at a very busy radiology practice, focusing mainly on breast and body imaging and intervention. I am the medical director of a very successful breast center, which I am very proud of! Our radiology services have increased tremendously during the last few years due to a very large new emergency center built at our hospital. This year, we are hiring two new radiologists. My oldest daughter is in college majoring in motion design, and my two other kids, ages 13 and 16, would like to become doctors!"

Claudia Bundschu, MD, Resident Class of 2001
 
Mural at the University of Arizona
Mural at the University of Arizona

“Outside of golf twice a week and a men’s book club, I have been active in the University of Arizona’s Galileo Circle, a science scholarship support group. Last September, I was able to go with 24 others on a trip to Switzerland and France, primarily to visit CERN in Geneva. I have also been asked to be on the advisory board for the university’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, which is the primary oversight and development group for the NASA asteroid mission OSIRIS-REx that will launch in 2016.”

Norm Komar, MD, 1961, Resident Class of 1967
 

“I am currently involved in initiatives to develop high-resolution, 3D CT technology as an important tool in the non-invasive investigation of ancient art and artifacts. Sadly, I still have to hold down a daytime job, where the CT scans I report on are not nearly as aesthetically pleasing.”

Barry Daly, MD, Visiting Faculty 1992

Alumni Notes

 
Radiology Alumni at SAR - Aya Kamaya
Society of Abdominal Radiology

"I was recently at the Society of Abdominal Radiology meeting in San Diego where I faced my worst nightmare: I was on the Unknown Film Panel in front of a large audience. It turned out to be fun (sort of) because some familiar faces from Michigan were on the panel with me including Carolyn Wang and Jim Ellis. The meeting was extra special because I got to reconnect with many other University of Michigan people. U of M Radiology is an amazing department and it's a true honor to have been part of the Michigan tradition. I miss you all! Go Blue!"

Aya Kamaya, MD, Resident Class of 2004
 

Edward C. Spitler (RTR), Faculty

"I started working for the University in 1974 when I was 16 years old. I was working at the Michigan League and continued to work there until I got my associates degree in radiology in 1983. While I was a student technologist I did my rotations here and one day I was asked to do a portable exam in the ER. One of the senior technologists asked who was the radiologist that was reading the ER cases that day the answer was Dr. Rapp. That name meant nothing to me but it was clear by the solemn look on the faces of the technologists it meant something important. My curiosity was peaked at that point and I could not wait to meet this man who's name apparently drove fear into the hearts of x-ray technologists. From that day I grew to admire and love this man. It is not he was a perfectionists (to me that is a mental disorder) it is that he had the ability to see suttlties in the images that in many cases noone else could see. He was in his early 60's when I met him and had already retired from the VA. He was simply working 3 days a week more as a public service more than anything else. He told me once how much he was being paid and it was not much even for back than. I worked with him until he completely retired in 2001 at age eighty. This man taught me how to take good images. He would many times ask me to go back to a patient and explain to them we would like to take another image to view something better. At first I hated to tell patients stuff like that because it is scary. One day it hit me that it was all for the good. I began to look forward to doing these extra images because we were first and foremost serving the patient. Secondly I learned a lot from this guy!  The story I want to relate to you about Dr. Rapp is something that happened on his very last day of work. I was quite sad that he was leaving because he was still an excellent radiologist and I wanted something meaningful to happen but I did not know what it might be. Around noon time I did a chest xray and as I looked at the image I could began to notice a small round circular shadow in the lung field. I suddenly got all excited and realized this was the kind of thing Dr. Rapp was really good at interpreting and maybe just maybe he might want one more image of this patientto see this thing in a different angle. I showed him the image and ( I did not know this at that time but it was only 3 hours before he would walk out of the department for the last time) than he slowly says to me with just a little energy in his voice. " If you want to go ahead and get a decub and we will be able to tell if that is a fluid we are looking at or something denser."   I could not wait to do this image because I knew this was going to be the last time he and I would work together on a case. Sure enough it was a fluid and it did flatten out when we did the decub. I made a copy of the image and I have the date and time on it. It is for me a great memory of a great man. As of the time of this story April 3rd, 2014 Dr. Rapp and his wife are still doing well and still living in the same place they have lived at since 1950!"

Barry H. Gross, MD, Faculty 1982-present - How Careers are Made

"My wife and I received our undergraduate education at Michigan, and I graduated from Michigan Medical School in 1977. We left for my internal medicine residency in Cincinnati, our future guided by 2 vague ideas:
1. I loved tutoring other medical students, and thought I might want to incorporate teaching into my career, and
2. We both loved Ann Arbor, and thought it might be a good place for us long term (close to family, but not TOO close!)

I had no idea whether I could do (or would enjoy) the research necessary to be a faculty member, and I had no idea whether there would be available faculty jobs in internal medicine, but those issues could be addressed down the road.

I quickly learned that some decisions were not going to stand the test of time. Internal medicine, which attracted me because it was where diagnoses were made, turned out to be much more about chronic care for diseases that often involved an element of self-abuse like drinking and smoking. I switched to radiology; in an era when ultrasound and CT were just gearing up, and MR was still in the future, I did not realize that I was just moving to the department where most future diagnoses were going to be made.

As a first-year resident I started working on a required radiologic display. Because one of my internship patients had succumbed to unsuspected amyloidosis, something I only learned 4 months into my first year of radiology when the autopsy report came to my mailbox, I decided to do a display on the various manifestations of amyloidosis. I had a big head start, because many people sent unusual cases to Ben Felson, but I decided to look for more material when we came back to Michigan to visit our families. I wrote ahead, asking permission to look through the Michigan Radiology teaching file, and received permission to do so.

In the spring of 1979, I found myself in the Michigan Radiology administrative wing, when it was located below the front entrance of “Old Main.” I had found a few helpful radiographs, and was getting ready to copy them when the Chairman of Michigan Radiology, Walter Whitehouse, popped his head in and asked me to come into his office. From my experience in Cincinnati, when Chairman Jerry Wiot wanted to see you, it was a much hotter seat than if you were being shown multiple neuroangiographic cases in noon conference!

Instead, Dr. Whitehouse asked me about myself, told me a little about Michigan Radiology, and then suggested that when I finished my training, I should contact him about working in the department! I could not even fathom the idea of a chairman talking to an unknown first-year resident from a different department, but to walk away with the possibility of an academic job in Ann Arbor was even more mind-boggling. To add to this good fortune, my radiologic display was accepted for presentation at RSNA, and the amyloidosis material formed the basis for my first two first-author papers, both written and published while I was still a resident.

So my advice is, plan all you want, but make sure you are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time—and try to make sure someone as unbelievably nice as Walt Whitehouse is there with you!"

Kate Klein, MD, Fellow 1999, Faculty

"I remember when we would receive a page that the requisition bin is empty in the CT body reading room and Dr. Jim Ellis is having a party! It would be 3 cookies, one bottle of soda and music from the computer! All you need is good company for a great party."

Michael DiPietro, Faculty 1982-present - “How much history can be carried in your pocket?”

"If you were to travel to Houston, Texas today and ask Dr. Edward Singleton that question, he would provide an exact answer, 62 years. Ed completed his Radiology Residency at U of M in 1951. Look at the card below from the Pretzel Bell, a former popular Ann Arbor establishment and tradition which was located on the southwest corner of 4th and Liberty. You will read a message from the manager, “To Ed, a steady customer.” On the back side you will note the signatures of Ed’s resident classmates who were with him at the Pretzel Bell that evening to celebrate having passed their oral boards. Although Ed came from Texas, returned to Texas, and became a Legend at the University of Texas, Ed has literally “carried” a love for Michigan with him, in the form of that card, continually since that evening at Pretzel Bell 62 years ago. Even though I had seen and heard Ed at meetings, it was when he came to Michigan as the 1982 Walter Whitehouse Lecturer that I had the privilege and pleasure of meeting Ed. This was soon after some of us had joined the faculty in 1982 (see below). Behind Ed’s Texas drawl is an intellect, a sense of humor, and a deep love for U of M. That was probably the first time I saw the card. The card was younger then, only 31 years old. I was re-introduced to the card on several occasions over the ensuing years. The names on that card reflect many years of Michigan Radiology’s influence throughout the nation and the world.

This is part of a special story about a Residency class that went on to great accomplishments and carried an abiding love of Alma Mater. It is one of many Michigan stories. Others are yet to happen. These stories and memories are not to dwell on but serve to remind us that we are a part of something greater than ourselves.

As Ed will say if you visit him and he learns you are from Michigan, “Go Blue” and “have a look at this card.”

Pretzel Bell Card (front)
Pretzel Bell (back)
Pretzel Bell Building
Pretzel Bell Building
Invitation