Renaissance Rads: Dr. Supriya Gupta MD

Dr. Supriya Gupta MD is a Radiologist at AMITA Health St. Mary’s Hospital - Kankakee, IL

Tell us about your area of clinical expertise within your practice/organization: 

I am responsible for pretty much all radiology studies except vascular IR, with a focus on neuroradiology and breast imaging, two image-intensive subspecialties. Along with that I look at the IT and dose sub-committee at the local site, advising solutions which benefit us and integrate the best technology with the highest benefit to cost ratio. I am also responsible for supervising quality metrics in the radiology department, with emphasis on mammography. 

Why did you become a radiologist?

Radiology is the only field in this era of subspecialty which is still focused on the human from head to toe, including the normal anatomy, physiology and pathology. I feel so complete looking at the patient and being comfortable looking at any exam for the same reason. We are living in the era of subspecialization and radiology also has a lot of subspecialities, neuroradiology being mine. Despite that, many rads can comfortably look at basic imaging of any body part. My second reason was obviously technology. I mean no other branch of medicine has this much interaction with computers and technology on a daily basis; with a background in programming, I loved that, just spending the whole day in front of a computer...yes I loved it !! This just fueled my passion for always combining medicine with technology.

Where did you train, and what were your favorite memories from residency?  Any advice for current residents and fellows?

My medical school training was in Lady Hardinge Medical College, India, followed by a three year informatics fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. I did my residency at Medical School of Georgia, Augusta, GA and Neuroradiology fellowship at Rush University Medical College, Chicago. So yes I have been all over! If you add my clinical rotations at UCLA and one year surgery program in New York, you would realize I have been to every geographic region in the US, plus the experience outside. It is not easy, never was easy, but I was very very lucky to have strong supporting parents back home -- Mr. Yashpal Gupta and Mrs. Sudesh Gupta. In the US, I had an amazing opportunity to be mentored by amazing people in Boston, which made me believe that whatever I was dreaming of is true and possible. In my residency training, I was again very lucky to be mentored by an amazing faculty who had a very strong clinical program, very high volume of cases and complexity. Their attitude of ‘bring it on’ really rubs on every resident who goes through that. My training at Rush offered a similar experience, again an amazing set of neurorads who are so dedicated and knowledgeable in their field. In my experience, I did find a common theme among these amazing sets of people I trained under - never give up, never stop learning and never say not possible. This is the message I continue to imbibe in my current practice and would love to pass on to the residents in radiology and medical students. 

What are your current active areas of clinical focus?  What is your typical clinical day like? How much of your job is clinical?

Cancer imaging is one of my biggest focuses at work, in addition to other stats and routine cases. I do perform nonvascular IR procedures including all kinds of spinal pain procedures such as Kyphoplasty, in addition to administrative and QA stuff, besides looking at IT aspect. I know that sounds like a lot but due to the overall volume being less than a tertiary care/ academic center, it is manageable. 

What are your current active areas of non-clinical work? 

Besides raising two kids under 3 :), I do extensive review work for some journals, major ones are Journal of Digital Imaging, European Journal of Radiology and Academic Radiology. I am a SIIM education committee member and work on several projects with them. Recently I joined as an adjunct faculty member at Yale University Medical Center, and several projects with the nuclear medicine faculty are under discussion, predominantly related to cancer imaging. 

What do you do outside of clinical work and radiology that you would like to share?  

I have always been interested in writing poems and travelling. Due to kids, the latter is slightly on the backseat now, so when and if I get time, writing is something I like doing. I used to love reading books at a certain point, but now the focus has shifted to more ‘mom’ reading :) Besides that, I am working on creating my own company for IT solutions and developing an enterprise tool, for which the patent is currently pending. 

Contact info: riya10.in@gmail.com