Philip D. Orons, DO
Chief, Interventional Radiology, Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC
Interventional radiology is a dedicated subspecialty of diagnostic radiology.
Interventional radiologists treat a wide range of problems, from benign to malignant conditions. These include things like peripheral vascular disease where not enough blood is getting to the extremities; tumors, benign tumors like uterine fibroids or malignant tumors like liver cancer; kidney cancer or lung cancer.
Interventional radiologists are also specifically trained and actually develop the techniques used to treat blocked arteries using balloon angioplasty and intravascular stent placement.
Diagnostic and therapeutic expertise
Interventional radiologists are board-certified physicians who use minimally invasive therapies to treat a broad range of problems.
The advantage of going to an interventional radiologist is that interventional radiologists are the only people who are fully trained in both the diagnostic and therapeutic modalities we practice every day.
Every interventional radiologist is fully trained not only in the procedural aspect of treating patients’ conditions but also the diagnostic therapies which lead to those conditions, things like CT, MRI, ultrasound, fluoroscopy, and plain film radiography.
It takes a long time to become an interventional radiologist. First of all you have to go through four years of medical school because all interventional radiologists are fully trained physicians not just technicians who do procedures alone or just take x-rays. Then after four years of medical school you have to do a year of clinical training followed by four years of training in a residency in diagnostic radiology and then subsequently one to two years of fellowship training in interventional radiology where you learn to treat a wide variety of both benign and malignant conditions using minimally invasive therapy.
Big enough to be close
The Interventional Radiology Division of UPMC is the largest in the region. This allows us to place interventional radiologists at multiple facilities throughout the region and allows patients to easily find board certified interventional radiologists near them.
For more information, call 412-647-5050.