Nabile Safdar, MD, MPH, FSIIM

What is your current imaging informaticist role?

I am the Vice Chair of Imaging Informatics at the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Emory University and the Associate Chief Medical Imaging Officer for Emory Healthcare.

What do you love most about imaging informatics?

I just like this stuff. Informatics is broad in scope. It informs strategy and big ideas like the future of health care and artificial intelligence at the same time it informs critical, practical concerns like how to prevent adverse patient safety events or worker injury through ergonomics. There are few fields which allow one to serve in so many ways from the C-Suite to plugging in cables under a desk, but informatics does. And the people are the best!.

What one thing, either industry-related or not, did you learn in the last month?

I learned the data we collect reveals a lot about our culture, values, and history. In the U.S. for example, the government collects racial and ethnic data, but in some European countries collecting racial and ethnic data would be considered illegal. This got me thinking about the data we collect in our own places of work and what it says about our own histories, priorities, and values, especially as data and the intelligence it informs increasingly takes center stage in the marketplace of ideas.

How do you define success?

I have no one definition of success, but I do know if I don’t positively impact the lives of other people, including family, friends, co-workers, patients, and community members, that would constitute failure. To me, informatics is more about positively impacting people than technology. As Muhammad Ali said, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.”

What’s the last book you read or TV series you binged?

My last full book was Range, by David Epstein. I have a few books in progress right now. I’m looking forward to the next installation of Stranger Things, which is a family favorite and more importantly allows me to enlighten my children of the virtues of 80’s lifestyle, even as much eye-rolling ensues.