The UAMS College of Medicine Department of Radiology and the Arkansas Children’s Interventional Radiology team will have a strong presence at the 10th International Meeting of the Society for Pediatric Interventional Radiology (SPIR) in Galway, Ireland, Sept. 26-28.
Charles James, M.D., a professor in the Division of Pediatric Radiology, will receive the Gold Medal Award, SPIR’s top honor. After his fellowship training in interventional radiology (IR) at UAMS in 1990-1991, Dr. James joined the UAMS faculty and worked closely with Pediatric Radiology colleagues Janice Murphy, M.D., and Mary Moore, M.D., in collaboration with numerous pediatric service lines, to establish a high-quality pediatric IR service at Arkansas Children’s that is recognized across Arkansas and beyond. The team has developed the full scope of pediatric IR services, with highly specialized expertise in vascular anomalies, percutaneous cecostomy, chest tube fibrinolysis for parapneumonic effusion and bone ablative therapies. (Read more about Dr. James in his Gold Medal Recipient Bio below.)
Scientific session talks at the SPIR conference will include UAMS College of Medicine senior Mallory Heft presenting “Establishing an Inpatient Interventional Radiology Consult Service,” and Dr. James presenting “Percutaneous Cecostomy: 25-year Multi-Institution Experience.” Kevin Wong, D.O., will present an invited lecture, “Innovative Vascular Access Methods.”
Society for Pediatric Interventional Radiology | Gold Medal Recipient
Charles A. James, M.D., FACR
Following medical school at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, Charles James completed Radiology residency training at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University in St Louis. It was late in his final year of residency that he rotated on a newly established “Interventional Radiology” rotation.
In 1990 “CJ” began his Pediatric Radiology fellowship at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH). As only rare pediatric image guided procedures were being offered at that time, he sought adult IR training from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), passed the VIR CAQ board exam and began the slow process of building a pediatric IR service. In 1999, after CJ and his colleague Janice Murphy built the case volume to 400/year, the first Pediatric IR fellowship trained staff (Mary Beth Moore) was recruited to ACH from Jim Donaldson’s program. New procedures were offered and Pediatric IR became a distinct workday assignment. In these early growth years, CJ benefitted greatly from visiting fellowships at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto learning about percutaneous cecostomy and Pediatric IR team building from Peter Chait and Bairbre Connolly.
From 2004-2007 CJ was the SPR Vascular/Interventional Radiology committee chair when the vision of several leaders to form a Pediatric IR society was being led by Manrita Sidhu at Seattle Children’s Hospital. CJ was selected to serve on the inaugural board of the new SPIR society in 2008 and served as the society’s third president in 2012. He developed American Board of Radiology approved SAM educational content for the first 3 SPIR meetings. CJ, Manrita and David Lord collaborated to capture the society’s origin and early milestones by publishing SPIR: the 1st Decade (Shutterfly, 2019).
Significant educational projects achieved by CJ include editing two Casebase books in Pediatric Radiology, RSNA workshops on vascular anomalies and Pediatric IR test question writing for the ABR MOC exam. Awards include Best Doctors in America, ACH Teamwork Award, UAMS Radiology Residents Award of Distinction and UAMS Red Sash Outstanding Faculty Award. When serving as Arkansas Children’s Radiology Chief, CJ was the inaugural chairholder of Lee Roy and Melba T. Beasley Endowed Chair in Pediatric Radiology.
CJ has received significant support from his pediatrician wife, Laura James and his children, Luke, Grace and Elizabeth. Outside the hospital, CJ likes to paddleboard on lakes and rivers across Arkansas.