Dear Colleague,
On behalf of the Massachusetts Radiological Society (MRS) officers and executive committee, I would like to thank you for your continued membership. The MRS is the state chapter of the American College of Radiology (ACR), whose members and leaders represent diagnostic and interventional radiology, radiation oncology and medical physicists in our state.
Our society advocates on behalf of our members with the goal of ensuring the best radiological care for our patients. We are committed to advocating for our profession and our patients at the local and state level, paying attention to active legislation, and when necessary, educating and informing all stakeholders about issues related to imaging, medical physics and radiation oncology. Below is a summary of the current legislation affecting our profession as well as upcoming events. We encourage the involvement of all MRS members in our efforts and programming.
Current Legislation
This summer the MRS with aid of our new Legislative Consultant, Ronna Wallace, have been advocating in our state legislation on several proposed bills before them. Along with Ronna, we continue to monitor healthcare related bills put forth in both the state house and senate and will advocate for the best care for our patients and for policies that help support our members as they deliver that care.
- Medical Physics: In July, H.2425, “An Act Relative to Medical Physics,” was heard before the Committee on Public Health. This legislation will create a Board of Registration in Medical Physics within the Department of Public Health and require the licensure of medical physicists practicing in Massachusetts. State licensure will ensure that medical physicists in the Commonwealth are highly qualified, ensuring the utmost standards in patient treatment and care. Members of our Medical Physics Committee aided in drafting our organization’s support of this bill and I would like to send a special thanks to Dr. Martin Fraser who provided oral testimony on our behalf during the hearing.
- Physician Assistants scope of Practice: In July, the MRS went on record voicing opposition on behalf of our membership against identical bills proposed in the Massachusetts state house and senate, 2371/S.1502, “An Act Removing Barriers to Care for Physician Assistants.” These bills would remove the current statutory requirements for physician supervision of PAs, thus granting them the authority to practice independently, including prescriptive authority and the ordering of tests and therapeutics. The bill if signed into law, it would remove oversight by the Board of Medicine, yet still maintain that the employing physician, hospital or group would be legally responsible for the PA.
- Physical Therapists Scope of Practice: Also in July, the MRS went on record voicing opposition on behalf of our membership against a bill proposed in the Massachusetts state senate, S.215, “An Act Relative to Physical Therapy.” This bill was before the Committee on Public Health on July 14th. Beyond the expanded scope of practice for physical therapists to include evaluation, prevention, treatment, management, and education related to neurological, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, integumentary, and respiratory functions, this bill would allow physical therapists to administer and interpret diagnostic imaging and tests.
- Prior Authorization Process Reform: This summer we have again voiced support for legislation proposed to reform the Prior Authorization Process. House bill H.1136, “An Act Improving the Health Insurance Prior Authorization Process,” was heard by the Committee on Financial Services on July 15th. It would put in place comprehensive legislative protections for patients and providers to reduce and streamline prior authorization (PA) processes uniformly across all commercial insurance carriers in Massachusetts, reducing administrative burden and promoting access to quality, timely care.
Past and Upcoming Events and Opportunities
Residents/Fellows Activities: Our resident fellow section (RFS) remains very active. They recently organized and hosted a Harbor Cruise Dinner in September, as a social networking event for our local resident and fellow members. The successful Communities Crushing Cancer initiative will continue this Fall and is scheduled for Wednesday October 29, 2025.
This spring, the RFS section in collaboration with Dr. James Rawson from BIDMC and Dr. Neel Madan from Tufts succeeded in creating a new series of interactive zoom sessions prior to the ACR annual meeting, geared to demystifying organized radiology and introducing some of the healthcare economic topics that are discussed at the meeting. This series was provided for those attending the meeting as well as all residents and medical students in our state.
MRS continues to support the tuition of three trainees to attend the annual Radiology Leadership Institute (RLI) Leadership Summit, which was just held in September in Boston. The MRS again sponsored the Thursday evening session of the RLI, geared towards the resident and early career attendees at the meeting. The MRS also continues to offer a scholarship to a resident to support their attendance as a Rutherford Lavanty Fellow with the ACR’s government relations department in DC. This year’s selected awardee is Dr. Zoha Huda of BMC.
Additional events held this year included a Call Prep Series, spring Fellowship Prep
Session and a Career Panel for current trainees.Educational Events and Webinars: Our organization remains committed to education. This year we continue the efforts of our Committee on Health Equity and Community Engagement under new leadership from Dr. Ilse Castro-Aragon. She and Dr. Emily Calabria, who serves as the Health Equity officer of our RFS, are working to create a new Health Equity initiative, with a lead off lecture and then a challenge to create a local resource or initiative to address health disparities in your local community. This initiative will include sharing what was created locally with a prize to the most impactful. We believe that by engaging with patients and community organizations and understanding their needs, radiologists are able to make better decisions that lead to a patient-centered approach. We welcome participation of our members in this committee.
Committees: The MRS committees with opportunities in areas of economics, education, breast imaging, Healthy Equity/Community Engagement and Quality & Safety, are a great way for members to become involved. If anyone is interested in learning more about or becoming involved with one of the committees, please reach out to myself or our chapter administrator, Lina.
Our annual meeting this past year, was held online on March 12, 2025. This session featured a lecture on “The Radiology Workforce: Addressing the Mismatch between Supply and Demand” by ACR CEO, Dr. Dana Smetherman. Our MRS 2026 Annual Meeting will be held in March with the speaker and topic to be announced shortly.
ACR Annual Meeting: The ACR Annual Meeting will be held in Washington DC from May 2 – May 5, 2026. Join the MRS councilors, alternate councilors, new fellows, members, and trainees and stay for Capitol Hill Day on Wednesday May 6th, to advocate for issues that are critical to our members and affect our profession.
The MRS is an organization that runs on volunteers. I would like to express my gratitude to the Officers and Executive Committee for their contributions. I am indebted to Dr. Scott Cameron, our past president for his leadership and service to our Society. I would also like to thank our past secretary and current Vice President Dr. Lauren Ferrara, our past treasurer and current Vice-President, Dr. Monica Wood, our secretary, Dr. Alyssa Simeone, and our new treasurer, Dr. Arnold Cheung for their time and dedication to our organization. Thank you also to the chairs and co-chairs of the various MRS committees and the members of our Resident and Fellow Section. I am very grateful for the excellent support of our chapter administrator Mrs. Lina Szymkowski. It is an honor to serve our membership, and this endeavor would not be possible without all of your support.
Sincerely,
Amy Oliveira, MD
2025-2026 President, Massachusetts Radiological Society