Global IR Survey Responses by Continent


North America 187


Europe 399


Africa 189


South America 43


Oceania 14


Asia–Pacifi c at the Japanese Society of Interventional Radiology meeting in Tokyo. We have similarly analyzed data for countries in Africa and Europe. It is important to understand that this data is only the fi rst step in recognizing disparities in IR care. The next steps would then be to work with global societies to fi gure out ways to address these discrepancies.


From your perspective, what are the most effective ways IRs can promote patient and physician awareness in underrepresented regions? JG: There are many ways to promote awareness of IR, whether through media, community outreach programs or practice building presentations to other specialties. These eff orts have been tried with great success in various local communities, but we need to team up as one global IR community to apply these eff orts on a much larger scale.


CS: I would also add targeted eff orts to disease-specifi c patient groups.


Signifi cant disparities in IR training programs were identifi ed outside North America. Can you share your thoughts on how international collaboration or digital learning platforms might help bridge those educational gaps? JG: Online educational resources was one item that was ranked high by our respondents as a way to mitigate disparities in other regions. A hot topic right now is creating standardized learning resources for trainees and


making them available via interhospital collaboration in the United States. Standardized learning resources, along with international collaboration, are defi nitely ways we can help make IR education easier. Apart from online or electronic educational resources, as a procedure-based specialty, in-person training in clinically evaluating and managing patients and doing the procedures are important as well. So, we will need to work with regional IR societies and local governments to help establish IR training opportunities for communities.


The fi ndings mentioned competition with other specialties as a barrier to IR development. Have you experienced this in your practice, and what strategies do you think could foster more interdisciplinary support for IR? JG: The issue of turf-wars is something I think most medical specialties struggle with. The diffi culty for IR in the past is that as a subspecialty of radiology we had been delegated to a consultant service role where the referring physicians ask us to complete a procedure, but they control the management of these patients. But as Dr. Dotter said many decades ago, what stops these referring providers from ceasing their referrals to us and taking on the procedures as their own? Not being known for a specifi c organ system also makes it hard for IR to be understood by the public.


Asia 413


This is the main reason IR in the US has now established itself as a primary medical specialty. As such, we have the potential of owning and managing our own patients. But we need to, as a community, take full advantage of this ability. Establishing outpatient clinics and providing full longitudinal patient care, having dedicated IR fl oors with admission privileges, and having a face that patients are directly exposed to when they contact their hospital or search for treatment options online for particular diseases will help.


CS: Another issue is that IR covers all subspecialties, similar to surgery; but unlike surgery we do not have the manpower to cover all needs of image guided intervention.


Safety and eff ectiveness of sharp recanalization for thoracic central venous occlusion: A systematic review and pooled analysis


Nader A, et all. 2025. JVIR.


Inside Access provides interviews and behind-the-scenes on open access articles from the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology. Read the full article on JVIR.


Tell us about you, your team, and your institution. Nader Ashraf, MBBS: I am a graduate research assistant at Alfaisal University, Saudi Arabia, and upcoming radiology resident at the Cleveland Clinic. This work was led in collaboration with Behnam Shaygi, MD, MS, senior author and consultant interventional radiologist at London North West


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