Robert J. Optican, MD, MHA, FACR

It’s not uncommon for physicians to run in the family, nor apparently is the desire to give back. Robert J. Optican, MD, MHA, FACR, can claim both. In addition to having a radiologist in the family (his uncle), he has also established a new kind of legacy in the form of a scholarship that will continue to create engaged advocates for the specialty.

Supporting More Than Clinical Skills

“Residents need more hands-on experience with what the ACR is and does,” says Optican, cardiothoracic imaging specialist at Duke Health and associate professor of radiology at Duke University School of Medicine. “Residents here really had no exposure to the part of the ACR related to advocacy and economics. I teach them a little bit about health policy, and I teach them a little bit about economics, so that’s been my niche since I’ve been at Duke.”

To support residents’ knowledge, Optican found a new path. In addition to the North Carolina Radiological Society’s (NCRS) stipend through the ACR that helps to send members-in-training to the ACR annual meeting from residency programs in the state, Optican established a scholarship. 

This fund, the Optican Family ACR Scholarship, sends one resident to the ACR annual meeting. In 2024, seven residents from North Carolina attended the annual meeting, and two were from Duke, Parth Patel, MD, and Lloyd D. Border, MD (one through the scholarship and one through the NCRS/ACR stipend). The NCRS is not the only chapter to take advantage of ACR stipends to attend ACR annual meetings. In 2024, 45 other chapters sent a total of 333 members-in-training to the meeting.

Upon return from this year’s annual meeting, Patel and Border presented their experience to the other Duke residents alongside Optican in grand rounds. “The biggest takeaway from attending the ACR meeting was the sheer vastness of the ACR’s mission,” says Patel. “The ACR plays such a huge role in so many different aspects of our specialty, ranging from the Appropriateness Criteria^® to advocacy and research.” 

The biggest takeaway from attending the ACR meeting was the sheer vastness of the ACR's mission.

“It generated more interest,” says Optican. “I got a lot of texts and phone calls, and residents stopped me in the hallway with ‘Hey, can I do that next year?’”

Optican’s generosity has precedence. In his hometown of St. Joseph, Missouri, his parents set up a scholarship at Optican’s former high school that annually sends one teacher to a master’s level course. “They set this up 30 years ago,” says Optican. And though they are not here to see it come to fruition, the scholarship he began at Duke was inspired by his parents’ beneficence. “A lot of teachers over the years have benefited. I just thought it was a really cool idea,” he adds. 

Increasing Exposure to the ACR

As a former president of the Tennessee Radiological Society, Optican recognizes the importance of understanding the landscape of reimbursement, billing and advocacy. 

“The residents tend to really want this knowledge, but they just haven’t had it offered to them,” notes Optican. “I want to increase exposure to these issues. We are beginning to create a little bit of a buzz that the ACR is not only important but sort of cool, and it’s something that the residents would get a lot out of.” 

Perhaps following in his parents’ philanthropic footsteps, Optican’s scholarship fund is the result of an inherent drive to give back to the profession and to share the value of volunteering at the ACR and in chapters. “The ACR touches every bit of what we do on a day-to-day basis as radiologists, and it improves every bit of what we do, whether it be new scientific advances, organizing knowledge, or advocating for the specialty in both national and state regulatory and governmental forums,” Optican says. “There is nothing that can substitute for what the ACR does. This is it. There is no plan B.”

Finding Advocates Along the Way

Optican has also had ACR and Duke leadership supporting his advocacy efforts, including Erik K. Paulson, chair of the department of radiology at Duke. “Erik is really, really supportive of what we’re doing to try to increase exposure [to the ACR],” says Optican. “He helped me put together the scholarship and make sure that the I’s were dotted and the T’s were crossed. He’s fantastic.” Meanwhile, he notes that ACR BOC Member Lauren P. Nicola, MD, FACR, radiologist and CEO of Triad Radiology Associates in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and immediate past president of the NCRS, was instrumental in getting him “plugged into the chapter leadership.” 

“I’m able to communicate initiatives such as fundraising or regulatory issues to North Carolina leadership that are appropriate and important for North Carolina to deal with, and vice versa. And the North Carolina folks are just fantastic,” says Optican. 

Of his future in advocacy, Optican says, “Folks like ACR Council Speaker Timothy A. Crummy, MD, MHA, FACR, have been wanting me to get more involved in national ACR-related work, so I am. As long as I have gas in the tank to do it, I’ll continue to do it.”