Dr. Kambiz Motamedi

Would you please start with your background and current positions?

I always like to go back and talk about my youth. I left Iran when I was in the tenth grade; I was only 15 years old. I went to Med School in Germany after completing High School there. And then, I moved to the United States to pursue my future carrier. Back then, I matched to a preliminary internship in Medicine without matching into any residency positions at first, but I was lucky enough later to score a spot in the radiology residency program at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, so I could smoothly move from internship to continue on with radiology residency. Well, it was a time that radiology was not as popular as it is right now. I decided early on to become a Musculoskeletal radiologist, as I had always liked the anatomy of the bones, joints, muscles and I started focusing on this old passion early on my residency. So, I applied for musculoskeletal radiology fellowships and I was lucky enough to find a spot at AIRP, Washington DC (called AFIP back then) right after my residency. I had a wonderful year in AIRP and I enjoyed the experience a lot. Afterward, I moved to California and started working at UCLA, the job that I have kept for seventeen years now. I went through the different levels of academia, performing clinical, educational and research works altogether, and four years ago, I was fortunate enough to become a full professor. Currently, I am the medical director of one of our busiest outpatient centers. So, I still do clinical and educational work, but recently, I have been getting more and more involved in the administrative works of the department and the University as well. I also work with several well-known international societies such as International Skeletal Society, ACR, RSNA, ARRS and so on. One of the most exciting examples of this collaboration is working in the “appropriateness panel of ACR for MSK imaging”.

How did you decide to become a radiologist?

As for many medical students, radiology was not on my radar, unfortunately, and sadly. I would say that I always wanted to become an ENT surgeon and I dedicated all my focus in medical school on that. I did my dissertation in Germany on an ENT project and I worked for a year and a half in Germany in an ENT section before moving to the US. When I arrived in the United States, I continued my research in a non-accredited program for head and neck surgery, which was really good, but it further opened my eye that ENT surgery might not be what I really want to do. Besides, getting into ENT surgery was really hard for a foreign medical graduate back then. Later, I realized that radiology might be the other great option that I can choose as my specialty. I was always amazed at how the head and neck radiologists know exactly what I saw in the operating room. Fortunately, I switched gears and I went to radiology and I wish I had known about radiology much earlier in medical school. So, that’s how I became a radiologist basically.

How did you become involved with NAIRS? What roles have you had in the Society?

I heard about NAIRS through Dr. Bonakdarpour, who was one of the founding fathers of NAIRS. Dr. Bonakdarpour is a well-known Iranian-American MSK radiologist from Philadelphia, the city that I did my residency in. Therefore, as a young radiology resident, I attended the NAIRS meeting on RSNA. That was when I met Dr. Yaghmai and other Iranian radiologists as well. It was such a great idea to bring together Iranian radiologists from around the world and from North America to work together. So, I basically started going there from my early years in radiology and in the recent decade, I became an officer. I started as a treasurer first, rotated through several committees, I was the chair of the membership committee and then I was the treasurer again for several years. Afterward, I became the president and now I am one of the past-presidents. This is the scope of my involvement.

How has NAIRS grown in the past few years?

I think NAIRS’s main growth is the fact that it has been shifting from a get-together meeting to online networking. It has always been there to provide a networking environment for Iranian radiologists, to make an environment where the older, the middle and the younger generations can communicate. However, I think the reason for NAIRS’s huge progress in the past few years would be the switch on to the use of social media and online communication which enables us to reach out to many more people with the same interest.

What opportunities and challenges has NAIRS had?

I think the opportunity is the potentially vast and growing networking possibilities that are out there in the radiology community with people of Iranian background. I think that is also its main challenge to sort of attract those people to come to the meetings, to contribute to the Society and to be more actively involved. Because radiologists are usually super busy and they may not have enough time or they may not be interested, so we need to attract and recruit more and more people.

How can being involved with NAIRS help members in training in their career?

I think the most important thing is to share our own experiences as the more senior folks with the members-in-training. As a matter of fact, I told you about my own background, I came to this country as an international medical graduate and I was flexible enough to switch my area of interest and I was willing to do research as well. I am in MSK radiology at UCLA, my section is not research-oriented, but UCLA is, and I think I can refer trainees to other sections that need research assistance. So, I think we can do a lot of help by networking through attending the NAIRS meeting and it can be hugely helpful. As a matter of fact, after my fellowship, I was looking for jobs and I had a great interview with Dr. Tehranzadeh, who was the section chief of MSK Imaging at UC Irvine, back then. He has been one of my most valuable mentors for me, has always given me a lot of good advice for my carrier, and also helped me a lot to get the interview at UC Irvine back then. So, I think by networking, by knowing people through the Society and asking advice, the young trainees would benefit from the Society.

How do you see the future of NAIRS and its members?

I hope that by the fact that the Society has more online presence, social networking and digital communications, it will stay as a valuable resource for the radiologists with Iranian heritage. I would like to see even more activities from NAIRS on social media, maybe even on Facebook, and, I think that would be really important. Because of the increasing amount of the number of Iranian radiologists in the United States and also the growing number of Iranian radiologists coming to RSNA from all over the world, I believe that RSNA would be a great forum to bring them together to exchange ideas.

How do you think we can improve NAIRS?

I think we can improve the Society by sharing our stories. Basically announcing awards as we do in the newsletter and the social platforms is great but we can extend this. For example, many NAIRS members are research fellows who are applying for residency. We can announce the residency match results each year and ask our successful members to share their experience about it. It will be really encouraging for other young radiologists and research fellows to join the Society, as they see other members were able to get into these residency and clinical fellowship programs. Also, I think sharing other success stories, providing links for research, for job positions, altogether these can really improve the role of the Society.

Any final words?

I wish further success for the Society. I think with positive attitude, we as a group can create changes as we have made. I mean the Society has changed my life, has helped me in my career and has provided a forum to find good colleagues, mentors, friends and, I am hoping that this will be the same for future generations. Thank you so much for your time.