Happy National Radiologic Technologist Week, November 5-11, 2023

Left Image: Back Row L - R: Erick Byorwango, Les Limogan, Kristian Goranov, Matt Westcott, CCSF Radiology Student, Misook Seong, Elijah Chan, Tiffany Wang, Jane Chen, Rishi Subedi, Samson He, Christina Shay, Jeffrey Chee Front Row L - R: Jack Tien, Stephanie Voong, Abe Carillo, Toni Nguyen, Jose Montemayor. Right Image: NRTW theme

Each year, during the first week of November, we observe National Radiologic Technology Week (NRTW) to recognize and celebrate our imaging technologists. This event showcases the important contributions that medical imaging and radiation therapy professionals make to patient care and safety, and raises public understanding of the integral roles that technologists play within the healthcare delivery system.

The NRTW theme this year is Patients are our Passion. Safety is our priority. The first NRTW celebration was held in July 1979.  The date was later changed to November to pay tribute to Professor Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s discovery of the x-ray on November 8, 1895.

At UCSF, technologists are crucial to ensuring a positive patient experience. They do this in many ways, always focused on safety and empathy. Technologists must understand the spectrum of disease and injury to accurately position patients to deliver precise and high-quality diagnostic images. In this way, technologists play a crucial role in ensuring that radiologists can review and note subtle findings for diagnosis and treatment.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to our dedicated and hard-working teams of diagnostic and interventional technologists. Our technologist managers are Alpana Camilli Patel, body interventional and neuroendovascular surgery; Tosca Bridges, diagnostic radiology; Chelsy Coco, ultrasound; Craig Devincent, MRI; Jeff Geiger, diagnostic imaging at Mission Bay; Jessica Pfannenstiel, CT; Amy Vincent, mammography; and Michelle Swenson, molecular imaging (nuclear medicine).

To learn more about some of the technologists who work at UCSF Radiology & Biomedical Imaging, please see these Spotlights—

• George Glover, RDMS
• Erick Byorwango, RT
• Abraham Carillo, RT
• Jessica A. Pfannenstiel, BSRT (R)(CT)
• Erika Padilla-Morales, CNMT

By David Poon, BSMDI, CRT, RT (R), ARRT
Principal Radiologic Technologist, Supervisor (Eve)