RSNA 2024 Gold Medalist: Elizabeth S. Burnside, MD, MPH
Burnside
A champion for leveraging innovation to improve clinical care, Elizabeth S. Burnside, MD, MPH, is a professor of radiology specializing in breast imaging at the University of Wisconsin (UW), Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, where she also serves as associate dean for team science and interdisciplinary research.
“Dr. Burnside is a consummate scientist and innovator,” said RSNA President, Curtis P. Langlotz, MD, PhD. “Her work provides essential new insights into medical decision making, leadership development, and clinical breast imaging.“
A career-defining personal chapter was written when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer during Dr. Burnside’s second year of medical school. Dr. Burnside thus came to understand the impact of this disease and how she could make a difference in radiology. Her mother, Suzette, now 85, is a survivor and lifelong learner. She joins Dr. Burnside’s two brothers, father, husband and two sons as tireless supporters.
Dr. Burnside combined her medical training with her interests in public health and computer science—areas of expertise that converge in her development and use of computational methods to improve decision-making in breast imaging. She holds affiliate appointments in UW’s departments of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Biostatistics and Medical Informatics and Population Health Sciences, facilitating her pursuit of improving the population-based screening and diagnosis of breast cancer.
Dr. Burnside has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles. Her research has secured continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health since 2006. She is a multiple principal investigator (PI) of the NIH Clinical and Translational Sciences Award that supports the UW Institute of Clinical and Translational Research, where she is executive co-director. Previously, Dr. Burnside served UW’s Department of Radiology as vice chair of health services and outcomes and vice chair of research. She was honored by UW’s Group on Women in Medicine and Science with the 2023 Advancing Women in Medicine and Science Award.
A respected educator, Dr. Burnside has mentored fellow clinician-scientists and trainees from varied disciplines. As a long serving PI of the UW Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health, an institutional K12 award, she helped support and mentor a generation of researchers. She knows the power of mentorship because two prior RSNA gold medalists, Drs. Ron Arenson and Etta Pisano, remain influential career mentors.
Inspired by her own family of teachers, Dr. Burnside established the UW clinical and health informatics master’s degree program, which has graduated 28 students and has 28 active students. Dr. Burnside is a fellow of the Society of Breast Imaging, the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2021 Dr. Burnside was named Distinguished Guest Speaker for her discussion on the Frontiers of Translational Science at UT Health Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science in San Antonio. She delivered an RSNA 2023 plenary session focusing on the integration of artificial and human intelligence in imaging.
An avid student of effective leadership principles and professional development, Dr. Burnside has completed the UW Physician Leadership Development Program, Drexel University Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine, and UW Joseph F. Kauffman Administrative Development Program (The Kauffman Seminar).
Dr. Burnside earned her combined MD/MPH degrees at Tufts University in Boston. She completed her radiology residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she was elected co-chief resident, and she completed her fellowship in breast imaging at UCSF. Prior to her fellowship, Dr. Burnside earned a master’s degree in biomedical informatics at the nearby Stanford University.
“Dr. Burnside is a consummate scientist and innovator,” said RSNA President, Curtis P. Langlotz, MD, PhD. “Her work provides essential new insights into medical decision making, leadership development, and clinical breast imaging.“
A career-defining personal chapter was written when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer during Dr. Burnside’s second year of medical school. Dr. Burnside thus came to understand the impact of this disease and how she could make a difference in radiology. Her mother, Suzette, now 85, is a survivor and lifelong learner. She joins Dr. Burnside’s two brothers, father, husband and two sons as tireless supporters.
Dr. Burnside combined her medical training with her interests in public health and computer science—areas of expertise that converge in her development and use of computational methods to improve decision-making in breast imaging. She holds affiliate appointments in UW’s departments of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Biostatistics and Medical Informatics and Population Health Sciences, facilitating her pursuit of improving the population-based screening and diagnosis of breast cancer.
Dr. Burnside has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles. Her research has secured continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health since 2006. She is a multiple principal investigator (PI) of the NIH Clinical and Translational Sciences Award that supports the UW Institute of Clinical and Translational Research, where she is executive co-director. Previously, Dr. Burnside served UW’s Department of Radiology as vice chair of health services and outcomes and vice chair of research. She was honored by UW’s Group on Women in Medicine and Science with the 2023 Advancing Women in Medicine and Science Award.
A respected educator, Dr. Burnside has mentored fellow clinician-scientists and trainees from varied disciplines. As a long serving PI of the UW Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health, an institutional K12 award, she helped support and mentor a generation of researchers. She knows the power of mentorship because two prior RSNA gold medalists, Drs. Ron Arenson and Etta Pisano, remain influential career mentors.
Inspired by her own family of teachers, Dr. Burnside established the UW clinical and health informatics master’s degree program, which has graduated 28 students and has 28 active students. Dr. Burnside is a fellow of the Society of Breast Imaging, the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2021 Dr. Burnside was named Distinguished Guest Speaker for her discussion on the Frontiers of Translational Science at UT Health Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science in San Antonio. She delivered an RSNA 2023 plenary session focusing on the integration of artificial and human intelligence in imaging.
An avid student of effective leadership principles and professional development, Dr. Burnside has completed the UW Physician Leadership Development Program, Drexel University Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine, and UW Joseph F. Kauffman Administrative Development Program (The Kauffman Seminar).
Dr. Burnside earned her combined MD/MPH degrees at Tufts University in Boston. She completed her radiology residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she was elected co-chief resident, and she completed her fellowship in breast imaging at UCSF. Prior to her fellowship, Dr. Burnside earned a master’s degree in biomedical informatics at the nearby Stanford University.