In this episode, host Daniel Arnold talks about Elevating Care for Women with Amy Patel, MD, Breast Radiologist, Medical Director of The Breast Care Center at Liberty Hospital, Assistant Professor of Radiology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, the Chair of the American College of Radiology Radiology Advocacy Network and RADPAC and the President of the American Association for Women in Radiology.
Dr. Patel talks about her mission to improve access for women’s health, her unconventional approach to her career, and integrating new technologies and educational initiatives to better serve patients in the community.
Daniel and Dr. Patel also chat about the impetus and importance of building a brand, her passion for political advocacy to help close the gap in breast care disparities, and her relationship with the NFL. Be sure to vote for her for Fan of the Year: https://www.nfl.com/honors/fan-of-the-year/2022/vote
Daniel Arnold:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Radiology Report podcast, where we are having conversations with the leaders transforming radiology today. You can find us on Radiologyreportpodcast.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts. I’m your host, Daniel Arnold.
Today, we are joined by Dr. Amy Patel. Dr. Patel is a Board-Certified Radiologist who specializes in Breast Imaging.
She is a Breast Radiologist, Medical Director of The Breast Care Center at Liberty Hospital, the Assistant Professor of Radiology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, the Chair of the American College of Radiology Advocacy Network and RADPAC and the recent President of the American Association for Women in Radiology.
Dr. Patel is a graduate of the combined BA/MD accelerated program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where she completed her residency at the University of Kansas-Wichita where she also served as the first female chief resident in an all-male program.
She completed her Breast Imaging Fellowship at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology Washington University in Saint Louis. Dr. Patel, welcome to the show!
Dr. Amy Patel
Thanks for having me.
Daniel Arnold
So I would ask you where you grew up. That might be apparent, but tell us a little bit about your background. Where did you grow up and what led you to your career now in radiology?
Dr. Amy Patel
Sure. So I actually grew up in very rural northwest Missouri, a town of 8,000 people. I was born and raised there. After that, you know, as you discussed previously, I was fortunate to get into the accelerated six-year medical program at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. And you know, from there, I thought that maybe I’d go back home and do primary care with an emphasis on women’s health.
Dr. Amy Patel
And women’s health was always in the back of my mind because where I grew up, there are so many disparities for women’s health care. There wasn’t an emphasis placed on women’s health care. We only had one woman physician in the entire town, so that was always hanging in the back of my mind is that how can I help women in this area and elevate care for them?
Then, you know, things changed in medical school and I ended up shadowing; one of my best friends’ moms is a breast radiologist. He’s like, I think you should go, maybe do like a rotation with her and see if you like it. So I did like a one-month elective with her and I completely fell in love with breast radiology.
The procedural aspect, patient interaction, the diagnostic aspect of the workstation and the huge emphasis on women’s health. So that’s sort of the impetus of why I became a breast radiologist. And as you know, I know I did come back to practice to the area in 2018 to try to bridge the gap, particularly to breast care disparities, and to improve access.
Daniel Arnold
That’s incredible. The role and impact of a mentor that can have on the trajectory of one’s life and career. One follow-up question before we dive deep into radiology. You know, was it always clear that you would leave this small town? How did you end up in this small town, and set your sights on going to medical school?
Dr. Amy Patel
Yeah. So my parents actually immigrated to the United States in 1981 from London. Originally, my mom was in India, my dad was in Africa, and then my dad was in England for college and stayed. And then he got arranged to my mom. They got married in India. He brought her back to England and then they immigrated to the U.S. in ‘81 and my uncle was a cardiologist in Des Moines, they went out to Iowa.
My mom really liked it there. And then my dad just started looking for jobs in the area. And for some reason, my mom fell in love with Chillicothe. She grew up in kind of a smaller rural area in India and really liked kind of that feel. And everyone was really friendly and that’s literally how they ended up there.
And they’re still there. They love it there. And, you know, I was born there. My brother and I were raised there. So that’s literally how we ended up. And it’s just such a crazy story to go from all these big cities to my parents ending up in Chillicothe, Missouri. That’s what the town’s called.
Daniel Arnold
Wow. That’s wild. And such a quintessential America story, too. But you stayed in Kansas City, you were not ready to go back to the small town. So tell us a little bit. You fall in love with radiology. You fall in love with breast imaging. So what are the steps that you take after that?
Dr. Amy Patel
Yeah. So, you know, as I said, I did my medical school at UMKC, and then for residency, I still wanted to kind of stay closer to home and had a great opportunity, you know, particularly University of Kansas Wichita, I do call it a diamond in the rough program. It’s an amazing program. Those who overlook it, I say you shouldn’t because they’ve got amazing educators and an amazing program director whom I’m still very close with.
I just had really good training. There’s no fellows there. So we do all the procedures, so I was really proficient when I started fellowship. I already was functioning like a fellow because we had to function basically like that or like mini attendings in residency. And then for fellowship, I still kind of wanted to try to stay closer to home. And that’s, you know, I was fortunate to get a position at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington, St. Louis.
But then after that, I was like, you know, I’ve been in the Midwest all my life. I think, like I want to see what’s out there. And so I actually started my career as a breast radiologist on staff at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. And then I was an instructor of radiology at Harvard Medical School.
So I really got immersed in the Harvard system, teaching medical students, residents, fellows, and really trying to shore up my breast radiology skills as a practicing radiologist. Met a lot of mentors along the way that year that I still keep in touch with, that still guide me, that are very close friends to me. And I had planned to stay out in Boston for 3 to 5 years until maybe a leadership position opened in the Midwest, particularly maybe close to home.
And then an incredible opportunity arose in 2018 to build a comprehensive breast program, particularly in the North Kansas City area, at a hospital called Liberty Hospital about an hour and 15 minutes away from my hometown. It’s like, what are the odds? And I jumped on it and I never looked back. So I was really fortunate I was in the right place at the right time, and I feel like I am able to make an impact and sort of take what I learned in Boston to the Midwest to really elevate care.
Daniel Arnold
A lot in there. One of the things that you said, Oh, my wife, a recurring theme on this podcast is me talking about my wife because she is a fellow at the University of Utah doing Neuroradiology. So a lot of my lived experience of radiology training is through her. But she always mentions that the residents who come from programs that don’t have fellows seem super strong because of what you just mentioned.
You know, we don’t have a fellow, so you’ve got to read it. And, you know, there’s just more volumes for them to see more advanced imaging cases to see. I think it’s something that is a little bit different from some of the larger academic programs, which can have really great teaching, but maybe a little bit less volume to go around for everyone.
So anyway, just an interesting point that you mentioned on there and good plug for the University of Kansas Wichita program. Also, a proud customer of MRI Online, by the way. Shameless, shameless plug. We’ve been partners with them for some time.
So what is the job that you took? What was the structure of it like? What were the goals that they were trying to do and maybe how did it play out versus maybe what you thought early on?
Dr. Amy Patel
Yeah, so my structure is definitely unconventional. I try to tell people that there isn’t a one size fits all approach now in radiology. You can really kind of make it your own as you want. And so for me, being confined just to academics or just to private practice, it’s just not for me. I like to keep busy. I like to have a lot of irons in the fire.
I like to be constantly, intellectually stimulated. That’s just who I am. So I’m actually a managing partner of a private practice called Alliance Radiology. So we’re a mid-sized practice and we cover hospitals all over, particularly Missouri, the eastern side of Missouri, southern Missouri, and western Kansas. Historically, we had been divided into divisions, and our division is called the Liberty Division, where we have been at Liberty Hospital for over 40 years.
So when I came on in 2018, my job was to take over as the Medical Director of Breast Imaging at Liberty. And again, we’ve been there for 40 years. So I’m the Medical Director of our breast program at Liberty, but I am a managing partner with Alliance. But I also wear other hats at Liberty. So I actually chair all the cancer programs at Liberty Hospital too.
So that’s another, you know, tent beyond breast cancer. And then finally, you know, Liberty has a partnership with University of Missouri, Kansas City. So UMKC is not an academic institution where they employ their physicians. They’re affiliated with multiple private practices and Liberty is one of them. So I mean, Assistant Professor of radiology, where I can teach residents, we have a medical student rotation through UMKC for breast imaging.
They rotate through the breast center. I teach a class to the second year medical students called Fundamentals of Medicine. So, yes, my setup is definitely unconventional, but for me, it works and it keeps me interested and it keeps me refreshed. And, although I wear a lot of hats, people talk about, oh, aren’t you burnt out? But I love it.
So I don’t feel burnt out. So I think everybody needs to kind of find their own path and what fits them the best to ensure they have a successful career. Honestly.
Daniel Arnold
Super helpful and overview of the practice there. So what’s the time split like? How much of your time would you say you’re doing clinicals? You know, reading, meeting with patients and doing screening or procedures, things like that?
Dr. Amy Patel
Yeah. I mean, I would say that most of my day is clinical. I mean, I would say, you know, maybe like 7 hours of the day is going to be clinical. I might have a meeting in the middle of the day that’s an hour. We do a lot of meetings because a lot of our med staff are busy.
So we’ll do a meeting before work or after work. So I have a lot of those meetings, like at 7 a.m. or like at 4:00 or something like that. And then when I teach, it’s about an hour commitment. And again, with the residency, usually in the morning before work. For the medical students, the class I teach on campus, it’s like a two-hour time commitment.
So I really try to continue to place an emphasis on the clinical, especially with the hats that I wear at Liberty, being the Medical Director, being the Chair of Cancer. I need to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on. But I’m a very fortunate human because I don’t take calls. I don’t work weekends or holidays.
I get a lot of vacation. So I am really lucky to have that so that I can, you know, if there’s other things outside of what I’m doing that I need to get done, I have the time to do it.
Daniel Arnold
So pretty much a full-time private practice job with a little bit of a teaching mix. But then this healthy no call, vacation schedule enables you to pursue these other interests. What are the big things that you’re doing at the practice? So you take over the practice in 2018. I’m sure you come in with lots of ideas of how to improve patient care.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in the practice and what were some of the initiatives that you’ve been spearheading that you’ve already accomplished or that you’re still working on that you’re excited about? Take us into the practice a little bit.
Dr. Amy Patel
Yeah. So, you know, in addition to taking over as Medical Director of our breast center and the Breast Program at Liberty, our practice also reads for multiple rural critical access care hospitals in northwest Missouri. And we also read for an underserved health center in downtown Casey. So not only was I taking on Liberty, but I was taking on all these other sites.
And that really opened my eyes to the disparities that you see between urban and suburban versus rural radiology, honestly. So, you know, one of my biggest challenges was trying to improve education, particularly for our technologists, not just at our rural sites and this urban health center downtown, but also at Liberty. So a lot of education was needed.
Luckily, I had buy-in across the board. We had incredible technologists who are all amazing. There is a thirst for knowledge, but I was very hands-on anywhere from, giving presentations to showing them, techniques for ultrasound scanning to what needed to be done from, mammographic positioning. I mean, I was very, very hands-on in the beginning, especially because we needed to get to the level that we just weren’t at yet and needed to be to provide that standard of care for breast patients.
So that was my biggest thing. The first six months, I really threw myself into trying to get them caught up to speed, and it’s still ongoing. I mean, we’ve accomplished a lot in a very short period of time. But, you know, learning is lifelong. And learning is lifelong for me, just like them. So, I know this will be a continuous process, but that was one of the biggest challenges.
You know, a lot of people have challenges going in when they’re like young in leadership and getting buy-in from people. I hear it all the time. I have colleagues who reach out and say, “hey, I’m in this leadership position. I’m just not getting through to X, Y, or Z.” I honestly didn’t have that as much. I was fortunate to enter a practice where everyone was like, you build it how you need to build it.
We will back you up. So for the most part, I didn’t really have like a lot of obstruction from my now partners. They just were wanting somebody to guide everybody. And so for me, you know, that was a lot less painful. Yes, there were times where I might go head to head with somebody in the practice saying like, “I don’t want to do this”, but they usually would come around and we could figure out, you know, some sort of compromise.
So I was, you know, a little bit scared coming in, thinking, oh, you know, at the time I was the youngest in the practice by nine years thinking like, are they going to even listen to me? But I mean, they hired me for a reason and they took it seriously. And luckily, it all has definitely worked out.
Daniel Arnold
So training has been a big one. And I’m curious, how has it been retaining techs? Because that’s one of the things you hear a lot about. Have you found the management challenges to be?
Dr. Amy Patel
Yeah, I mean, honestly, I would say that it’s been a challenge, just like a lot of people are experiencing. Fortunately, I would say that we didn’t have as much turnover, I think, as a lot of other places. But if anything, the turnover that we have had is just retirement. I think techs were just burnt out from COVID and they were just done.
You know, I know it’s been hard to recruit technologists to serve at different hospitals, but what we have been doing is finding techs, whether they’re an X-ray or CT or whatever, who want to actually be a Mammographer or be cross-trained in mammo and ultrasound. And we have been supporting them, helping them pass their boards, financially supporting them.
And yes, that is the harder way to do it, because it’s easier if they already know how to do this. But it definitely builds trust and loyalty. And in a way, it’s kind of easier to get somebody in there and going, rather than waiting months and months and months to try to hire. So that’s what we’ve been doing and it’s been working pretty well.
Daniel Arnold
Awesome. Have you made any big investments or planning to do on the technology side?
Dr. Amy Patel
Yeah, so, you know, I’m really fortunate specifically, at Liberty, we really try to push innovation and that’s my facility where we have all the comprehensive breast imaging services from, mammography to MRI, MRI guided biopsy, all these things. In 2019, we adopted artificial intelligence, breast ultrasound, and that’s been really cool. We’re the only adopters in the KC Metro still that is using AI technology for breast ultrasound, which I’m really proud of.
We’ve also introduced, particularly with wireless localization at the time of surgery, there is a new product on the market that involves a magnet and that’s been really cool for patients. There’s no radioactivity. You can obviously place it a few days before surgery, the day of, whatever. We always try to fit a patient’s needs, depending if they’re from driving hours away, you know, from a rural town or whether they’re in the city or what have you.
So we’re really trying to stay on the 8 ball to introduce new technologies that in the end will just only better serve our patients.
Daniel Arnold
Very cool. Well, we’ll switch gears here a bit and talk a little bit more about some of your other interests, but I appreciate you sharing so much about your practice. Think it’s helpful for folks to learn how different practices are doing it and staying competitive and staying at the sort of top of their game in terms of patient care and innovation.
So I talk to doctors all the time, and very few of them, especially radiologists, are sort of out there building a brand. And I’m curious what drove you to say, you know what, I need to spend some time on this and spend some time building my presence, building my brand, building connection out there. So was there a single moment where you, you know, a light bulb went off for you and this is something I need to do?
Dr. Amy Patel
Well, honestly, I think the impetus for building my brand came from when I took this job and moved back to the Metro, KC Metro in 2018. I really wanted to get this program out there and say, hey, there’s a new place in the city that isn’t a part of this city in the state where you will get just as good of care as you would at some other large academic institution.
And so I felt that in order for us to really get ourselves out there, people need to know who the point person is. A lot of times, whether it’s private practice, academic, they will often times like brand someone who’s sort of the figurehead of the program. And that’s sort of what our strategy was. And it wasn’t just me who said, like, I want a brand myself getting out in the Metro.
I have monthly marketing meetings with our marketing team at Liberty. And that was the whole thing too, that, you know, you’re the brand, we’re going to market you, which in turn will market the program and get us out there. And so, you know, a lot of people in Kansas City know me. They come to our breast center just because I work there or they want me to do their biopsy or read their imaging.
And that’s great. We try to accommodate as much as we can, but I do think that it builds patient loyalty. It builds patient satisfaction. They know what they’re getting. So it wasn’t about me per se, building my brand. It was really about the big picture to get the word out about our program and just the exemplary care that we can provide for patients.
Daniel Arnold
Yeah, it’s really great. And I talk to practices all the time and I mean, you still see it, right? Are these private practice websites that look like they were built on Geocities or whatever, and you can’t find the doctors on Google and so then, you know, some marketing firm comes in or marketing person and he’s kind of ambitious into the practices.
We should do this stuff. But so often it’s like that’s marketing’s job and it’s not my job as the radiologist. My job as the radiologist is to do clinical care. And by the way, like we just talked about, all the stuff you have to do on a daily basis, you’re a pretty busy person. Yet you said, this is something I need to engage in.
I can’t just say this is her job. This is, you know, his job over here. And, you know, let me know if you need me to take a headshot or something. It sounds like you kind of dove in and done some research, done some learning, and figured out like, all right, to be a part of this, I actually need to engage.
So, you know, was it all in all at once, or is it like you start to get some momentum, you start to get some positive feedback? You read a book, you had a friend who is a good marketer, you know, how did you keep it rolling?
Dr. Amy Patel
Yeah, well, honestly, whenever I started my job in 2018, I actually sat down with the team and I said, like, these are my goals. This is my vision. And one of them was marketing and PR. And the advice I give to anybody listening is our marketing and PR teams, they’re only as good as the information you give them. Collaboration is so important because they’re not radiologists, they’re not orthopedic surgeons, or whatever. So they really rely on the feedback. And so I often hear from our marketing team, we love working with you because you tell us what you want or you tell us what needs to be out there. And it really helps us craft the messaging strategy so that collaboration is really, really important.
You know, I think I learned a lot of this along the way. We have a close family friend who does a lot of PR in Kansas City. I’ve known him since I was 19 years old, kind of learning from him. I’m also, in addition to all these other hats you mentioned, I’m Associate Editor for Digital Media for the Journal of the American College of Radiology.
So just my experience with the JCR and going to, you know, social media meetings where they talk about branding and marketing, I think just all of these life experiences have helped me better serve where I’m practicing now.
Daniel Arnold
So have you seen an impact from all the hard work on marketing and PR?
Dr. Amy Patel
Oh yes! So we grew out of our breast center pretty fast. At Liberty, we opened a brand new state-of-the-art breast center in June of 2021 with double the space. We’ve added another breast imaging specialist since I started. We are projected to grow out of the current space in four years or now three years. So we’ve really exploded.
We were seeing patients all the way up from the southern Iowa border. I had a woman drive 14 hours recently to see me from Wyoming. So I definitely feel the impact of what has occurred with branding and marketing. You know, I have my own website. A lot of patients will check that out. So it’s definitely been working.
Daniel Arnold
That’s super cool to hear. And more radiologists, listening should follow suit. I think there’s a little bit of a fear of getting out there and radiologists by nature are more comfortable being behind, you know, than out in front. But it’s not more complicated than, you know, reading a mammogram or doing a biopsy.
Dr. Amy Patel
This is the easy stuff!
Daniel Arnold
And generally, the feedback is pretty positive. And the impact, it sounds like can be profound and not just from a business standpoint, but the care you provide is really high quality. Getting people, as you mentioned, to, hey, maybe leave the rural town I’m in to come into a city center where I might be able to get better care is having a real impact.
Dr. Amy Patel
And the cool thing is since our breast center is so close to where I grew up, I do see a ton of patients from my hometown because they’re like, I want to go or Amy that, and it’s not a bad drive for them. So it’s really neat because I do serve a lot of people that played a large role, honestly, in raising me. So it’s kind of cool to see that.
Daniel Arnold
Amazing. So you mentioned at the beginning, one of your motivating passions is women’s health. You sort of stuck with that theme now and have turned into an advocate for women, both their health as well as sort of professionally in radiology. And what are the major things that you’re seeing in terms of inequities for women in radiology? Why is this a cause people should care about?
And what are some of the things that you guys are working on?
Dr. Amy Patel
Well, honestly, we’re still seeing a lot of disparities when it comes to even a woman getting coverage for her 3D mammogram. And, you know, a lot of this breast imaging legislation is occurring at the state level and it’s very, very difficult to pass sweeping federal legislation because at the end of the day, Congress is trying to achieve a budget neutrality, as evidenced by our continued cuts to Medicare.
That is something that, again, we were unable to get it across the finish line. We’re still going to be seeing cuts this year, although they have been mitigated. So just getting any sort of sweeping federal legislation is a very lofty goal. So we really at this time, the only headway you’re going to make is getting this legislation passed in the States.
And I know there was some legislation introduced recently for dense breasts. Again, I think it’s going to be a challenge. We need to be realistic. So that’s why we have really taken it at the state level in Missouri to pass 3D mammography legislation in 2018, which I was involved with, to pass high-risk breast imaging legislation in 2020, which I was involved with.
And another thing that we are facing is women getting coverage for diagnostic mammograms or diagnostic evaluations where a patient feels a lump or pain and needs a workup or we call them back from a screening mammogram. So there’s definitely disparities there. So we’ve just introduced a bill in the Missouri legislature for diagnostic imaging in this legislative session. So we’re trying to do all we can in Missouri, and that’s what I’m trying to impart to breast imagers in other states.
That right now the federal legislation is not looking great. So let’s try to get this passed at the state level one day. I do feel we’ll get there, hopefully at the federal level. But until then, our patients need us now. And the most realistic path is getting this legislation passed at the state level.
Daniel Arnold
It’s critically important. We have a podcast that hasn’t been released yet, but it’s coming out soon with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and she played a pioneering role in getting mammograms covered federally.
Now this was maybe 15, 20 years ago now, but it was paramount. And one of the things that she talked about was that it’s critically important for the Congress people to hear from doctors and that the doctors can play a pretty significant role.
Doctors treat a large volume of patients. They really understand what their patient populations need. They have high leverage in these situations. I think we all can kind of be, you know, maybe I’ll donate $10 to a cause I believe in, but, am I really going to go out of the effort to call my congressperson or spend time at a meeting talking?
And all politics is also local. And so she talked a lot about the need to try and influence state politics. So I think kind of going top and bottom is really important and all radiologists that care about these things, which is all of them, right? I mean, even if you don’t care about the politics of it, you care about the business of it, you care about the patient care of it.
Dr. Amy Patel
And like I say, what we do clinically, radiology at political advocacy is just as important as what we do clinically when you’re practicing. So if your head is in the sand, that’s going to be to your detriment. Representative Wasserman Schultz, she is a dear friend of radiology. I’m Chair of RADPAC. She’s a dear friend of RADPAC.
We actually gave her our highest award just a few years ago because of her championing these efforts for mammography, particularly extending the PALS Act moratorium to mammography screening access. So she’s been amazing. But again, that all happened because we built a solid relationship with her. So building these relationships are important. Having a site visit, so we’ve hosted site visits where we have our state elected officials come and see who we are, the role we play in patient care, what we do in the breast center. And these site visits are very easy low-hanging fruit opportunities that you can do to show these elected officials who we are and how we serve our patients.
Daniel Arnold
Yeah, well, it’s critically important. I think breast imagers in particular are leading the way here because you do have that patient interaction and you see it every day and there’s so much not being covered that needs to be covered that can just save lives tomorrow. We should do it where this is like kind of going off the reservation and waxing poetic a little bit.
But, you know, everyone’s kind of working from home now and just reading volumes up to their eyeballs. And it’s hard to find time in the day or space in your brain for anything else. And so hopefully people heed your advice there.
So, okay, you are also involved in the NFL Crucial Catch campaign. What is that?
Dr. Amy Patel
Yeah. So the NFL Crucial Catch campaign is something that every year the NFL has in the month of October where they not only shine a light on breast cancer, but all cancer. And I’m really fortunate also in the Kansas City metro, I am Chair of the American Cancer Society Kansas City Chairman Circle Board, which is sort of the governing board of the Kansas City metro.
And this crucial catch campaign with the NFL is in partnership with ACS. So it’s really cool to be able to collaborate in the month of October to promote not just breast cancer awareness, but cancer awareness in general. It’s just very special. And I love how the NFL is shining a light on that and partnering with a very out there strong advocate organization for patients.
Daniel Arnold
It’s amazing. You know, I still remember the role that the NFL played in sort of raising awareness for breast cancer, when we were kids, I think is when all that got started. And to see it still playing such a big role is very cool. So the NFL’s theme runs deep for you. It seems like a real passion area.
We don’t have video on. So for those of you listening, I want you to imagine what Dr. Patel looks like here. She’s got her Kansas City Chiefs jacket on and she’s got her fan of the year jacket behind her. So for those of you who have been following along, Dr. Patel is the first physician ever chosen for NFL Fan of the Year.
The Kansas City Chiefs named her fan of the year. So I guess on your days off nights and weekends, you obsess over watching the Kansas City Chiefs games. I personally am a Bengals and Packers fan, so I hope by the time this airs, the Bengals have advanced to the next round of the playoffs and we have a chance to thwart your Super Bowl hopes.
But now you are competing. So I guess there have been these fans of the year chosen from 32 different teams and now you’re in this head-to-head competition for the main title of NFL Fan of the Year. So what is Fan of the Year? Why are you the biggest make your elevator pitch for why you deserve to be Fan of the Year?
Dr. Amy Patel
Yes. So I was really fortunate that the Chiefs chose me as the 2022 Fan of the Year, and it was due to my love of my team, love of the Chiefs, and my community impact, particularly what we’re doing in the realm to close the gap to breast care disparities. And now I’m competing against the other 31 NFL teams and who they’ve chosen for Fan of the Year.
And so a huge part of this campaign is online voting. And you can vote online on the NFL website. You can vote as many times as you want, leading to February 8th, 2023 11:59 p.m. Eastern and the winner will be announced at the NFL Honors Ceremony on February 9th. So, I’m really trying to get the word out.
You know, it’s been a great platform for me to raise awareness for breast cancer, for early detection, for access, and also a great platform to tell the world, you know, who we are as radiologists and the integral role we play in patient care. To be the first physician chosen, I do not take it lightly. So I have been incredibly honored and I’d be so appreciative for everybody’s vote.
The House of Radiology, the House of Medicine has been so supportive during this campaign, but I have a few months or a few weeks to go, rather, and I just need to get past that finish line. So any vote, vote early, vote often. I would really, really appreciate it.
Daniel Arnold
Well, I’m a Bengals fan, but I’ll be voting for Amy Patel for Kansas City Chiefs, NFL Fan of the Year. And if you care about early detection, if you care about radiology, if you’re listening to this podcast, you are definitely one of those people. So further the cause and go on and vote. The link is in the LinkedIn and the show notes and everywhere else.
Well, we’ll plastered everywhere. So Dr. Patel, this was super, super fun. You are total dynamite. It’s a pleasure watching your career evolve. I want to have you on the show again soon to see what else that you’re up to because we’re all big fans of yours.
Dr. Amy Patel
Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. I had a great time.
Daniel Arnold
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Radiology Report podcast. Be sure to visit us at the Radiologyreportpodcast.com or subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. To join us for our next episode, we are always looking for great guests. If you have someone you’d like to hear on the show, please get in touch with us online.
