UNC Department of Radiology is pleased to announce Associate Professor of Radiology Kyung Kim, MD, FSIR, has been named a Fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR). Fellowship designation (FSIR) is bestowed on less than 10 percent of the Society’s members. The honor confirms a Fellow’s exceptional leadership, expertise, teaching ability, and dedication to clinical research toward advancing the development of the IR subspecialty.
In 2009, Dr. Kim’s arrival at UNC added liver cancer interventional expertise to the clinical services offered by the Vascular-Interventional Radiology (VIR) division. Over a decade, Dr. Kim’s IR procedural skills have enabled UNC Health to improve cancer patient outcomes in interventional oncology, hepatobiliary interventions, and GI interventions. Dr. Kim has additionally treated challenging vascular malformation cases involving complex disorders such as Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome, Parkes Weber syndrome and CLOVES syndrome. He publishes extensively on the complex disorders he treats, contributing significantly to the pediatric IR community’s development of protocols, procedures and evaluative techniques that shape pediatric IR practice.
Kim – Front row, center
At a point his pediatric IR caseload had markedly increased, Dr. Kim spent a fellowship year (2018 – 2019) at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) learning innovative pediatric IR procedural techniques he could replicate back at UNC. The high-level technical skills Dr. Kim acquired at a large-volume, top-tier national children’s hospital have expanded what UNC VIR offers in advanced pediatric IR procedural care at UNC Health. Unsurprisingly, Dr. Kim’s integration of innovative procedural and evaluative techniques into pediatric IR patient care has earned him several leadership appointments. In 2016, he was appointed Co-Director of Vascular Anomalies Clinic. Mid-2020. In 2020, he was named UNC’s Director of Pediatric Interventional Radiology.
UNC Professor of Radiology and neurointerventional radiologist Hortensia Alvarez, MD, works closely with Dr. Kim at UNC’s Vascular Anomalies Clinic, providing UNC Radiology’s imaging-guided interventional care among 15+ School of Medicine disciplines at the VAC. She noted of her colleague’s honor:
“I congratulate Dr. Kim for his SIR Fellowship award. Although we work in different areas of the body, I appreciate his dedication and commitment to his specialty. The year that he spent at Boston Children’s Hospital gave him a special expertise in pediatric cases that is well recognized by our pediatric community. His involvement in our Vascular Anomalies Clinic, where radiology is essential, helps us to attract new patients and extend the scope of lesions we treat.”
UNC Radiology Chair and Professor of Radiology Maureen Kohi, MD, FSIR, FCIRSE, FAHA earned the SIR’s Fellowship designation during her years leading VIR patient care, education and research at the University of California at San Francisco UNC (UCSF). She stated of Dr. Kim’s recent honor:
“I’m extremely proud of Dr. Kim, who has worked tirelessly with incredible dedication and passion to build the Pediatric IR program at UNC. His selection to join the Fellows of the Society of Interventional Radiology is a tremendous and well-deserved honor for a rising star and future leader in the field of Interventional Radiology.”
Each year, the SIR Fellows’ Affairs Committee elects new Fellows based on outstanding credentials, achievements and community contributions to interventional radiology, SIR and the SIR Foundation. Inducted annually at the Society’s Annual Scientific Meeting, Dr. Kim and other new Fellows announced in February 2021 will be inducted at the 2021 SIR 47th Annual Scientific Meeting (virtual).