RSNA Member Spotlight: Harry Agress Jr., MD
Learn more about a fellow RSNA Member
Harry Agress Jr., MD, is a retired radiologist with over 40 years of clinical and teaching experience. To assist professionals navigating their post-career transition, Dr. Agress authored Next Years Best Years: Taking Your Retirement to the Next Level.
Dr. Agress earned his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. He completed his fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, followed by a diagnostic radiology residency at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.
He practiced radiology and nuclear medicine for more than three decades at Hackensack University Medical Center (Hackensack) in New Jersey, where he held several leaderships positions.
Dr. Agress currently holds the titles of chairman emeritus of the Department of Radiology and director emeritus of the PET/CT Center and Division of Nuclear Medicine at Hackensack. He has presented over 100 lectures on PET/CT, including numerous presentations at RSNA annual meetings.
Dr. Agress has also dedicated more than 35 years to teaching and mentoring radiology residents at Columbia-Presbyterian, Hackensack and Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. In retirement, he continues to shape the next generation of radiologists through volunteer teaching at Columbia-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell.
What or who sparked your interest in radiology?
It was a college summer apprenticeship in the Departments of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where I was mainly doing biomedical computer applications. I loved working with the radiologists who were smart, enthusiastic, innovative and happy.
I also had great “Introduction to Radiology” lectures at Tufts University School of Medicine with Dr. Alice Ettinger who was an inspirational legend.
What has been your best professional accomplishment?
There are two that are related. I got very involved with PET/CT from its inception and ultimately gave lectures at many RSNA annual meetings and at other major radiology organizations.
This led to research on the unexpected findings and follow-up in PET, which was published in Radiology.
I found that personally following up on interesting cases was the single best learning tool I used throughout my years in practice and teaching. The extension of that was creating an ongoing personal follow-up educational program for radiology residents with Dr. Andrew Schweitzer, the program director of the diagnostic radiology residency in the Department of Radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine.
This is now a standing program in which each resident personally follows up on cases of interest to them to the point of pathologic confirmation. These are then collectively presented to the entire training program during three scheduled sessions, each lasting an hour and a half, held two to three times per year.
Hopefully, this habit of personal follow-up will carry over into their careers.
What RSNA resources did you enjoy using?
Throughout my entire career I have used Radiology and RadioGraphics as must-read learning tools. I have also learned a great deal from both attending and participating in many RSNA annual meetings, which I found to be one of the best ways to stay up to date.
What advice do you have for radiologists as they transition into retirement?
Definitely plan ahead in terms of getting involved with interests outside of radiology. Start pursuing your curiosities and new hobbies with both online and in person classes. You don’t have to go whole hog. Just start by dipping your toes in the water.
My main interest was fine-tuning my photography and ultimately donating my prints to health care facilities to make them more welcoming and warmer for patients, their families and the medical staff in charge of their care.
Start to set up a plan to teach radiology voluntarily part-time or occasionally after retiring, if interested. Your knowledge is a wonderful gift to share with the next generation whether you were in academics or private practice.
Fill out the three worksheets in my book “Next Years Best Years” to get the creative and self-reflective juices flowing.
For More Information
Visit Dr. Agress’s website.
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