ACR 2025 President’s Address: When Worlds Collide

Pamela K. Woodard, MD, FACR, outgoing American College of Radiology® (ACR®) President, gave a personal and sometimes emotional President’s Address to a packed audience at ACR 2025, the College’s annual meeting. “We all know the core purpose of the ACR — to serve patients and society by empowering members to advance the practice, science and professions of radiological care,” she opened.

“We should all know that the ACR is indispensable to members and potential members. But every now and then, something happens that puts things into a new perspective,” she said. Dr. Woodard then posted a single image on the massive screens of the ballroom — CPT Code 75574.

“I want to talk to you about a CPT® [Current Procedural Terminology] code that means a lot to me. It’s the code (75574) for coronary CT angiography, or CCTA, and is integral to what I do for a living,” she said. “The College works diligently with CMS [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] and Congress to make sure our CPT codes are accurately valued, and physicians and hospitals are fairly reimbursed. There are times when we hear something over and over and yet it really doesn't sink in until something happens that makes it uniquely your own,” she said.

“A couple of months ago, something happened to me that made me want to search my emails to reminisce,” Woodard said. Back in 2008, she worked with a highly skilled team to present the cardiac CT codes, including 75574, to the AMA/Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee, and prior to that provided information to CMS that continuing evidence was not needed for coronary CT angiography. “I remember thinking as I presented that the weight of all the radiology and cardiovascular world was on my shoulders to get this right so we could bring this wonderful technology to people,” Woodard said. “But as I mentioned, sometimes something happens that makes you look at things in a different way and appreciate things in a different way.”

On Friday, Feb. 7, Dr. Woodard experienced what she thought was an esophageal spasm. “I didn’t feel well and went to bed, but what I thought was a spasm continued on and off for several days — it kept happening and was getting worse,” she explained. “I went to the emergency department, where I found my ECG and echo were normal, then we went for a coronary CTA.”

“Now because this is what I do for a living, I walked off the table to the control room and I looked at the images,” Woodard told a chuckling audience. She showed her coronary CTA image onscreen to the audience. “Some of you know what this is. The CCTA showed an 80% basically non-calcified stenosis of my coronary artery. I knew I was headed to the cath lab after being diagnosed by CPT code 75574.”

Dr. Woodard’s story is just one of many patient stories whose outcomes were impacted by the work of the College and its efforts to ensure safe, effective and potentially life-saving care. CCTA is now increasingly recognized as the first-line test for chest pain evaluation and coronary artery disease, she said. Dr. Woodard also showed attendees an ACR Bulletin article about the doubling of CCTA technical reimbursement, which she said ironically was published on the day she was “cathed.”

“ACR continues to facilitate new and helpful technology — and get it into clinical use,” Woodard said. “Think about joining ACR or volunteering. In doing so, the life you save may be your own, or the life of someone you love.”

By Chad Hudnall, senior writer, ACR Press

Listen to recordings of other sessions and presentations from ACR 2025 and read Woodard’s recap of individual and chapter award recipients.

Woodard serves as the Elizabeth E. Mallinckrodt Professor of Radiology and director of Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Timothy L. Swan, MD, FACR, was elected ACR President during ACR 2025.