From the Kinked Wire By Thomas Tullius, MD, and Brian Funaki, MD, FSIR


Episode 71: Early career reflections with Brian Funaki, MD, FSIR


Thomas Tullius, MD: What initially drew you to interventional radiology? Brian Funaki, MD, FSIR: Back in those days, IR was certainly established but more of a fledgling sort of subspecialty within DR. It was very niche, and IR didn't really exist as a community the way it does now.


On this episode of the Kinked Wire, Thomas Tullius, Jr., MD, vice-chair of the Early Career Section speaks with his former attending, Brian Funaki, MD, FSIR as part of a series featuring conversations with experienced and preeminent IRs in the field.


Dr. Funaki is a professor of radiology and chair of the Vascular Interventional Radiology section at the University of Chicago. Dr. Funaki has served in several leadership positions within SIR, including past chair of the Annual Scientific Meeting, co-chair of the SIR EDGE meeting and the new co-editor of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.


This transcript has been condensed.


In fact, even within the hospital, I would say there were a lot of physicians that didn't know what IR was. I went into my residency intending to be a diagnostic radiologist. Once I started my training and got a taste of the patient contact, I became a lot more interested. It was a natural fit for me.


And, honestly, IR was probably the most fun section. It was always a place where people congregated, and where people enjoyed rotating through. There were interesting cases and fun people to work with. So, I think I was drawn to the people before I was even drawn to specialty a little bit.


Dr. Tullius: Do you think that early career IRs face different challenges now than when you were at that stage of your career? Or do you think it's just the same problems, different time? Dr. Funaki: No, I think it's definitely different now.


I think the field has changed dramatically since I went into it 25-odd years ago. At that time, you were trying to establish value more than anything else. Visibility is probably still, and always will be a little bit of a problem for us as a field, because we're relatively small.


Listen to the full episode on The Kinked Wire.


34 IRQ | WINTER 2026


But when I started, you could ask many doctors in the hospital, and they wouldn't know what an IR did. Whereas now, I would say every single physician


in the hospital knows what IR is and what we do, and realizes you can't really run a hospital without IR. So, some of the challenges that I faced probably don't exist anymore in that regard.


Visibility is probably still, and always will be a little bit of a problem for us as a field, because we’re relatively small.


At the same time, there's different challenges because I think we're held to a very high standard now in terms of taking care of patients, being visible and following patients longitudinally. And that's just a whole set of problems that we didn't really deal with in the early days. When I started, having your own clinic and seeing patients was sort of a radical idea, right? And now that's basically everybody. The field has certainly evolved, I think, for the better in that regard. So it's a different set of issues, but I don't think any more difficult or easier.


Dr. Tullius: I agree. Though, I've had some of that trouble. We have an older practice style at my hospital, and it's been difficult to get a clinic going. Dr. Funaki: Yeah, that’s something that you’re still going to face in a smaller practice, because you don't have the time to do it, and it's hard to show the value. It's much easier in an academic practice or a larger practice to do those sorts of things.


It's still challenging at times, and you still have to find a way to show value. But the clinical side and longitudinal


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