TRS Past President Jay R. Parikh, MD, FACR, reflects on the success of an initiative that reinforces providing trainees with education beyond clinical radiology.
CHAPTER CONNECTIONS
From February 2025 until February 2026, I had the honor of serving as president of the Texas Radiological Society (TRS). One of our key accomplishments during that time was implementing the RFS Business of Radiology series. In this article, I share the playbook that we followed for any other ACR chapters that may be interested in doing the same.
The mission of the TRS is to serve, promote and advance the profession of radiology in Texas. Education is a core component of our mission.
The TRS received feedback from the TRS RFS about interest across Texas from trainees to learn about the nonclinical aspects of radiology during their training. However, there were inconsistencies in this type of training across the state. Some of the larger programs had a structured annual series of lectures while others had none.
The TRS received feedback from the TRS RFS about interest across Texas from trainees to learn about the nonclinical aspects of radiology during their training. However, there were inconsistencies in this type of training across the state.
The idea and vision were to create a monthly communal webinar series that would be available free to TRS residents and other trainees. We are fortunate to be in a large state where we can procure expert speakers from across the state — in essence, Texas for Texans.
My vision was first shared with our outstanding executive director, Christy McDonald, CAE, who was supportive. She suggested the name “RFS Business of Radiology” and created a business proposal including projected staff time to execute the vision. This proposal was formally reviewed by the TRS Board of Directors, who were unanimously supportive of implementation and execution. In addition, the RFS Executive Committee embraced the vision and purpose of the webinar series and offered to take an active role in its design.
There are 12 residency programs in Texas, each with a residency program director. There is also a director of education in the division of radiology at The University of Texas (UT) MD Anderson Cancer Center, where multiple fellows are in training across radiology. The TRS formed a quarterly planning meeting with these 13 directors to present the background, rationale and vision for the RFS Business of Radiology webinar series.
They were supportive of the series, and most agreed webinars over the noon hour made the most sense. The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso is in the Mountain time zone, an hour behind the other Texas institutions in Central time, but graciously agreed to support residents to still be able to attend.
One important piece of feedback we received from many of the programs is that they already had scheduled noon conferences on certain days of the month. After some discussion at one planning meeting, the program directors in attendance agreed upon the second Tuesday of every month at noon Central time for the series. The TRS then sent a follow-up email to all program directors, with none of the program directors expressing opposition to that time slot.
Once we got buy-in from all key stakeholders, we approached all of them for content contribution during one of the quarterly planning meetings. Some of the program directors graciously shared topics and speakers with the TRS. The RFS shared whatever topics and speaker lists they had on file. Both TRS staff and the RFS approached other program directors to gain the last few topics and speakers.
Since the intended audience of the webinar series was primarily residents and fellows within Texas, the RFS was tasked with reviewing available content topics and speakers and to generate a program. The TRS RFS chair, Abbey Goodyear, MD, from the UT Southwestern Medical Center, led the development of the series. Although content was initially intended for one year, there were too many relevant and important topics, so a two-year program was initiated.
Ultimately, the RFS decided on seven themes:
The first webinar in the program was on July 8, 2025, followed by eight more sessions during the first year. See Figure 1 for attendance data from the first year of the webinar series as well as topics and presenters. Webinar sessions were also recorded and are available on the TRS website.
The success of the RFS Business of Radiology series reinforces the importance of providing trainees with education beyond clinical radiology alone. Topics such as practice models, contracts, advocacy, reimbursement, leadership and personal finance are critical components of preparing residents and fellows for long-term success in the profession.
TRS is grateful to the many residents, program directors, speakers and staff who contributed to the implementation of this initiative and helped create a truly statewide educational collaboration.
| Figure 1: TRS RFS Business of Radiology Series Attendance Data | |||
| Date | Webinar Title | Speaker | Attendees |
| 7/8/2025 | Light at the End of the Tunnel | Benjamin White, MD, Baylor University Medical Center | 80 |
| 8/12/2025 | Healthcare Economics in Radiology: Insights from the Moorefield Fellowship | Catherine Kinchen, MD, UT Southwestern Medical Center | 72 |
| 9/9/2025 | Toward Practical AI: Development and Integration | Ali Tejani, MD, CIIP, University of California San Francisco Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging | 67 |
| 10/14/2025 | First, Do No Harm: Personal Finance Mistakes and Pitfalls | Benjamin White, MD, Baylor University Medical Center | 87 |
| 11/11/2025 | The Basics of Investment and Retirement Planning | John Heymann, MD, UT Medical Branch | 58 |
| 12/9/2025 | Personal Finance for Radiologists | Kanwal Merchant, MD, UT Southwestern Medical Center | 50 |
| 2/10/2026 | Evaluating a Group Practice | Eric Zeikus, MD, UT Southwestern Medical Center | 48 |
| 3/10/2026 | Radiologist Contracts | Eric Zeikus, MD, UT Southwestern Medical Center | 40 |
| 4/14/2026 | Policy Is Culture | Kurt Schoppe, MD, Radiology Associates of North Texas | 40 |
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