Many leaders in radiology make their mark early career playing key roles in the advancement of their field. In the 1980s, UNC Department of Radiology Immediate Past Chair Dr. Joseph K.T. Lee became the most recognized radiologist in applications of CT as lead editor of the first comprehensive textbook on computed body tomography. That same decade, Department Chair Dr. Matthew A. Mauro was amongst a handful of surgery-trained radiologists who innovated image-guided interventional devices and technology to establish interventional radiology as an emerging subspecialty.
For UNC Diagnostic Radiology alumnus (1982-1985) Dr. Jeffrey Creasy, lucky timing at the outset of residency became his early career opportunity to help others in his department pioneer a breakthrough in radiology informatics. As Creasy started residency, he was invited to assist several Department faculty (Drs. Randy Perry, Dr. Gene Johnston, Denise Parrish and Beverly “Bob” Thompson) to test newly published standards for launching a point-to-point system that could interconnect, transmit and store medical imaging data from and between disparate hardware.
For years, proprietary protocols and data-sets had made it almost impossible for images generated on separate and/or disparate hardware to be exchanged, displayed and archived. Federal oversight of healthcare imaging data loomed imminent, and UNC faculty scrambled with radiologists nationwide to roll out a sustained, open-systems interconnection of imaging equipment over standard networks.
Contributing as a resident to imaging informatics innovation alongside UNC faculty was not lost on Creasy. Over his six years as a resident, Neuroradiology fellow and faculty member, he engrossed himself in the efforts to facilitate UNC’s late-1980s ACR-NEMA test bed for examining the first point-to-point image transmission standards (ACR-NEMA Version 1), published jointly by the American College of Radiology (ACR) and National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). By the early 1990s, Creasy was involved in efforts to test ACR-NEMA Version 3 standards at UNC, also known as DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine). The successful DICOM/ACR-NEMA Version 3 standards became the universal format for modern-day digital picture archiving and communication system (PACS) image storage and transfer. Healthcare institutions nationwide quickly adopted both to integrate across their facilities.
Creasy noted: “I had just started residency when five UNC faculty members were finishing their draft request for proposal to submit to the federal government for a Digital Imaging Network-Picture Archiving Communications System [DIN-PACS], the precursor to modern-day PACS. Once DICOM was launched, we spent a lot of time thinking about integrating PACS with the Radiology Information System [RIS] and eventually the hospital information system [HIS], the predecessor to the modern standard, electronic health records [EHRs].”
“UNC had one of the earliest open-systems research networks and electronic archives supporting the ACR-NEMA test bed that helped contribute to DICOM’s release. That early work at UNC by many faculty and key informatics personnel helped turn a quirky research topic into what eventually became an indispensable part of everyday radiology practice.”
UNC offered Creasy six years to learn from and work alongside long-time faculty who consistently instill positive associations with alumni and colleagues alike. On the Department’s exemplary teacher and long-time Chairman: “Dr. Scatliff was always the perfect example of a kind, knowledgeable gentleman who was genuinely excited every day to teach his beloved radiology.”
On having favorable memories of old colleagues, Creasy noted: “[Long-time Cardiothoracic Imaging faculty member] Dr. Al Parker was my closest friend during my UNC years, starting in medical school. His love of radiology convinced me to switch from training in orthopaedics. It is something to celebrate that within a few years before and after my time in residency, multiple UNC alumni – Drs. Jordan Renner, Al Parker, Marcia Koomen, Paul Molina, [University of Virginia Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging Chair] Alan and Julie Matsumoto and Matt Mauro – all went on to successful careers in academic radiology.”
After arriving mid-1988 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Creasy continued to lead in PACS advancement. There, his oversight of planning groups, technology assessments and standardizing PACS successfully connected all CT and MR scanners in 1998 at the institution. In the field, Creasy served as President of the Society of Computer Applications in Radiology in 1993.
An established leader in radiology informatics, Creasy unsurprisingly has become an institutional and academic leader as well. Over his 20 years at Vanderbilt, he has served as Interim Section Head, Associate Section Head and Section Head of Neuroradiology. He’s had time to establish what matters most for his clinical section within a major academic medical center with a large case volume.
“The first priority of a section head at an academic institution is providing excellent patient care through the interpretative and interventional services of my group of neuroradiologists. Secondly, training radiology residents and neuroradiology fellows is of utmost importance, because they will one day replace those of us who are currently in practice. Thirdly, I prioritize sustaining an environment that fosters research and innovation that expresses itself to different degrees in different faculty members.”
To balance the professional milestones he’s reached, beyond career, Creasy finds himself approaching 40 years of marriage with three grown children, five grandchildren and a tight group of close friends self-dubbed “Holy Smokes” who occasionally gather on Creasy’s back porch to smoke cigars, have various libations, and watch a good, a thought-provoking movie together.
“I often reflect on my years spent in Chapel Hill, as a foundational aspect of everything I do now on a daily basis. Outside of radiology, it’s nice to have a range of pursuits to round out what’s been a long-fulfilling career. I enjoy playing guitar and mandolin and am trying to learn to play bluegrass fiddle, which is proving to be more difficult than I expected. I frequently travel to North Carolina to visit my brother and sister and attend the International Bluegrass Music Association Conference in Raleigh each year. I also have two science fiction novels in different degrees of completion. It seems to be enough to keep my life busy, interesting and full.”