Nina Kottler, MD, MS

What is your current imaging informaticist role?

Associate Chief Medical Officer, A.I.

What is your SIIM Persona?

Clinician.

What do you love most about imaging informatics?

technology is the only way to improve both quality and cost and informatics is the basis for enabling innovative technology.

If you could choose anyone as a mentor, who would you choose?

I am lucky to have Dr. Geraldine McGinty as a mentor and advocate. She is a strong advocate for female radiologists, especially those with an interest in informatics. I couldn’t ask for anyone better!

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

I learned about an innovative way to consider AI accuracy metrics from my colleague Dr. Jason Poff – “the pain to gain ratio.” He showed me an intriguing graph with AI false positives (FP) on the y-axis and the enhanced detection rate (EDR) on the x-axis for a specific pathology. [note: EDR = (# adjudicated AI TP and rad FN) / (# rad TP)].

How do you define success?

Success is the achievement of a desired outcome or attainment of a goal that is meaningful. However, accomplishment in any field is born from a sequence of failures and lessons learned, navigated by individuals with the determination to persist despite obstacles. Hence, success is achieved by those willing to put in the effort, rather than limited to those with expertise.

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

I’m binge listening to Spark, by John Ratey MD, a scientific exploration of how exercise affects the brain. I’ve long been fascinated with how the brain works and some of my favorite books, especially David Rock’s Your Brain At Work have evolved how I live, work, and lead.

People love the networking at SIIM. Do you have a networking story?

I didn’t know much about informatics when I attended my first SIIM meeting 10 years ago. I attended SIIM in 2013 when I was tasked with creating a deconstructed PACS. I didn’t expect to meet or network since I didn’t think I had anything valuable to provide to others, but after a fascinating session, I stayed back and asked questions to the speakers. The session moderator for that event was Raym Geiss, the SIIM chair. He took the time to learn about my practice and advise me (an informatics peon) and we have been friends ever since. I haven’t missed a SIIM meeting since that first year.