RSNA Press Release

CHICAGO— Robert R. Hattery, M.D., today was named chairman of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Board of Directors at the organization's 89th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Dr. Hattery, who was elected to the RSNA Board of Directors in 1998, is the executive director of the American Board of Radiology (ABR), a position he assumed in July 2002.

Dr. Hattery has been a familiar face at national meetings, with numerous presentations of papers and education exhibits. He has made many contributions to peer-reviewed literature, book chapters and syllabi, focusing on urography, computed tomography, ultrasound and diseases of the urinary tract.

"I finished my residency training in 1970 and had several excellent mentors," Dr. Hattery recalls. "I was advised repeatedly to get involved in organized radiology at the national level to learn, to contribute to the specialty, to share knowledge through investigation, to meet current and future leaders, and to network with other radiologists who shared my passion for uroradiology."

For more than three decades, Dr. Hattery taught, administrated and served at Mayo Clinic, Mayo Medical School and Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Rochester, Minn. Dr. Hattery advanced from an instructor in 1973 to professor of diagnostic radiology in 1982. From 1981 to 1986, he was chairman of the Department of Diagnostic Radiology. Before accepting the position at ABR, he held more than a dozen administrative positions at Mayo, including serving as a member of the Mayo Foundation Board of Trustees, and was chairman of the Board of Governors and CEO from 1994 to 1998.

"Although I am a diagnostic radiologist by training and experience, I am first a physician," Dr. Hattery notes. "I believe strongly in radiology by radiologists, not for the sake of our specialty or us as individuals, but for the needs of our patients. In the final balance, the needs of our patients come first."

Dr. Hattery was the RSNA Board's Liaison for Publications and Communications, a position that includes ex-officio membership to the society's Public Information Advisors Network, and which oversees the Public Information Committee and the Public Information Web Site Committee, a joint effort with ACR (www.radiologyinfo.org). He also has served on the editorial board for RSNA's journal RadioGraphics and was a scientific reviewer for the journal Radiology.

"The opportunity to be involved with the RSNA leadership has allowed me to gain a broader perspective of radiology, experience first-hand the wisdom of my mentors and reinforce the opinion that I'm lucky to have chosen this specialty for a career," Dr. Hattery said. "I have the desire to give back to radiology some measure of payment for what I have been given. RSNA has helped me do that."

Dr. Hattery received his bachelor's and medical degrees from Indiana University. He interned at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and was subsequently a fellow in diagnostic radiology at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Rochester, Minn. In 1970, he was the chief resident in diagnostic radiology at Mayo.

RSNA is an association of more than 35,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists and related scientists committed to promoting excellence in radiology through education and by fostering research, with the ultimate goal of improving patient care. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill.

Robert R. Hattery, M.D.