RSNA 2023 Outstanding Researcher Award: Bradford J. Wood, MD
Outstanding Researcher Award recipients have made significant contributions to radiology research over the last 15 years that have fundamentally changed the future of the field.
A trailblazer of interventional approaches to deliver lifesaving treatments to patients with cancer, Bradford J. Wood, MD, exemplifies the character of a translational scientist who applies investigative techniques to real-world clinical practice.
“Brad Wood is the tip of the spear when it comes to innovative research in the field of interventional radiology,” said RSNA President Matthew A. Mauro, MD. “I have admired him and his work for many years as he had dedicated himself to the advancement of this growing specialty.”
Dr. Wood is the founding Director of the NIH Center for Interventional Oncology, leading a diverse multi-disciplinary team that develops and translates devices, software, and navigation approaches for cancer patients via public-private-academic partnerships to address unmet clinical needs. He also serves as Chief of Interventional Radiology at the NIH Clinical Center, and also holds appointments in NCI, NIBIB, as well the University of Maryland as Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering.
His team pioneered the first and “first-in-human” applications for technologies including 1st percutaneous RFA for monotherapy of kidney cancer, pheochromocytoma, and adrenal cancer, MR/transrectal ultrasound fusion biopsy and ablation for prostate cancer, image-able drug-eluting beads for chemoembolization of cancer, electromagnetic tracking for fusion of ultrasound to CT, MR and PET for biopsy and ablation, prostate interventions totally outside of the rectum, as well as the 1st ablation or embolization with checkpoint inhibition for immunomodulation in hepatocellular cancer.
He earned his medical degree in 1991 from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Dr. Wood then completed fellowships in vascular and interventional radiology and in abdominal and interventional radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School, in Boston.
Dr. Wood held clinical and teaching positions at MGH/ Harvard, and Georgetown University in Washington, DC, before he was recruited to NIH. From 2006 to 2008, he served as Acting Co-Chief of Radiology.
Dr. Wood’s multidisciplinary investigative teams, partnering with both public and private entities, have brought to light an arsenal of technologies and techniques that improve outcomes for patients with cancer and other conditions. A mentor to hundreds of trainees, scientists, physician scientists and engineers at the world’s largest hospital devoted exclusively to clinical research, Dr. Wood has overseen the authorship of several books and more than 600 peer-reviewed manuscripts in publications including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Nature Medicine, Science, Lancet, Cancer, Radiology and Medical Physics. He holds more than 50 patents for advanced systems and techniques to target disease. His papers have been cited over 40,000 times, with an H-Index of 102.
He has been the principal investigator for funded research developing devices and exploring applications in image guided therapy, including fusion interventions, MRI/US fusion for prostate cancer, drug + device approaches, AI applications in cancer and COVID, smartphone augmented reality for device navigation, and immune-modulation of cancer with ablation. Dr. Wood has received the NIH Director’s Award, NIH Clinical Center Director’s Award, NIH CC CEO Award, NIH Bench to Bedside Award, NIH Director’s Honor Award, and the NCI Research Award. During his tenure as an investigator, Dr. Wood has mentored scores of outstanding physicians, who have in turn gone on to hold professorships, patents and research endowments.