Zoom On: Professor Lorenzo Bonomo, ESR President, 2015

We asked Professor Bonomo our seven questions.

1. What are your key areas of interest and research?

I graduated in Medicine in 1970 with a thesis on the role of chest radiography in patients with chronic renal failure. Since then, the chest has been my main field of interest.

My early research focused on the possibilities of the chest x-ray (in those years it was the only radiological investigation available) in the evaluation of changes in the pulmonary circulation in various lung and heart pathological conditions.

The advent of CT in the mid 1970s allowed me to further develop the interest in thoracic radiology, focusing on imaging of lung tumours, and deepening research on pulmonary circulation with CT.

Thanks to my interest in thoracic radiology I came in contact - also developing important friendships - with many Italian and international colleagues who shared my interest in thoracic radiology. Along with Italian colleagues, I participated in the founding and later development of the Section of Thoracic Radiology of the Italian Society of Medical Radiology (SIRM). With foreign colleagues I was one of the founders of ESTI (European Society of Thoracic Imaging) that I had the pleasure of chairing in 2001. In 2005 I chaired the first World Congress of Thoracic Imaging organised in Florence. The congress has since been held every four years in different continents. Therefore, I can say that the chest was my first professional passion and continues to be so today.

 

2. What are the major challenges in your field?

There are many challenges to face: some internal to our discipline and others external.

Among the first, to emphasise the need to be increasingly clinical radiologists, competent and updated, capable of being valid consultants for our clinical colleagues, and specialists helping in patient management, providing more accurate diagnosis and able to make accurate therapeutic decisions.

Among the external challenges that will certainly be exciting in the next few years, there are those that radiology will face in the development of molecular imaging and personalised medicine.

So the coming years will certainly be as exciting as the 1970s were, when our discipline experienced its first real revolution with the advent of CT and MRI soon after.

 

3. What is your top management tip?
When you have the responsibility of managing an extremely complex structure such as the one that I currently chair - namely the Department of Radiological Sciences of the Catholic University of Rome - where disciplines such as Radiology, Radiotherapy, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Physics live side by side, all with a common denominator but each with its own specific professional,  I deem it very important for the management to have a vision and share it with all employees in order to develop a strategy and motivate people. These are the recommendations I would give to those who are about to take on management responsibilities similar to mine.

4. What would you single out as a career highlight?

I consider myself a person who has received a lot from life both personally and professionally. As for my career, the current position of Professor of Radiology of one of the most prestigious Italian Medical schools and President of the largest Radiological Society of the world are certainly my career highlights.

 

5. If you had not chosen this career path you would have become a.?
I love music and I wanted to be a singer, but I sing so out of tune that I do not even dare to sing in the shower.

6. What are your personal interests outside of work?
Besides music, I like going to the movies, and when I have time and the weather is nice I love organising long mountain walks with friends. As a young man, I played soccer and tennis and now, knees permitting, I like skiing.

 

7. Your favourite quote?
There are two quotes that I like to say to my children and to my young fellows and residents:

·       “It’s not the place that makes the person, it’s the person that makes the place.”

and the second one:

·       “People come and go, but institutions stay.”

These two quotes continue to inspire me in my professional and personal life.

Prof. Bonomo graduated from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. In 1990 he became Professor and Chairman of the Department of Radiology at the University of Chieti. He joined Policlinico A. Gemelli as Director of the Department of Bioimaging and Radiological Sciences in 2003.

Prof. Bonomo has authored over 350 scientific publications. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including honorary membership of the Argentinean, French, Italian, and Romanian radiological societies. He has served the radiology profession in many roles, including President of the Italian Radiology Society (SIRM) from 2002 to 2004, member of the Education Committee of the European Association of Radiology and Treasurer from 2005 to 2007. He was the ECR Congress President in 2012.

Links

Interview with ECR Today

President. Bonomo is interviewed (in English) at Röntgenkongress 2014