Six SIIM Leaders Reflect on the Life and Legacy of Ruth E. Dayhoff, MD
Ruth E. Dayhoff, MD
May 16, 1952 – July 29, 2025
The Dr. Ruth E. Dayhoff Award for the Advancement of Women in Medical Imaging Informatics was established through a generous restricted gift of $100,000 to the SIIMfund from her husband, Vincent Brannigan, in 2019. This award honors Dr. Dayhoff’s pioneering contributions to the field and continues her commitment to empowering women in medical imaging informatics.
“I became the inaugural recipient of SIIM’s Dr. Ruth Dayhoff Award during SIIM 2020: the first virtual annual meeting courtesy of the pandemic. Sitting in my basement, watching the livecast, missing my friends, I felt the weight of the moment but knew fairly little on that day about the legend for whom the award was named.
Only towards the end of more than a decade as an attending radiologist at our local VA hospital did I learn that we still used a system that Dr. Dayhoff had envisioned and designed decades earlier. You might hear that and think, wasn’t it antiquated? But it still worked: we couldn’t see images from the hospital across the street, but we could see studies from a VA across the country!
At SIIM 2024, her close colleague Peter Kuzmak shared that a conversation with me in 2019 had led to the development of the award, which I was humbled to hear even though I don’t remember what I’d said. Dr. Dayhoff’s vision, tenacity (as told of by Peter Kuzmak, her husband Vincent Brannigan, and her daughters, who were able to attend the meeting last year), and determination remain an inspiration to those of us mentoring the next generation of women in imaging informatics. As the only woman in the space at the time, she pretty much had to go it alone; we’re lucky to have each other and the allies that promote and sponsor us. Rest in peace, Dr. Dayhoff; thank you for blazing the trail for us.
Tessa Cook, MD, PhD, CIIP, FSIIM
Teri Sippel Schmidt, MS, FSIIM
“I was very young, a newly minted biomedical engineer, when I walked down into the basement at McCormick Place where the posters used to be at RSNA. DICOM had recently been published; it was probably 1993. As I walked along, I met two people, Dr. Ruth Dayhoff and Peter Kuzmak. The next 2 hours spent discussing their poster would have a huge impact on my life. Dr. Dayhoff, one of the few other women on the entire floor, went on to tell me about their idea for a PACS system which was VistA Imaging. She described how they were going to store all of these images, and they would be accessible from anywhere at any time, wherever they were needed. Film was going to go away.
Being very naive about how difficult this was, I thought it seemed like an obvious answer. I had no idea at that time how much of a visionary Dr. Dayhoff was and how VistA Imaging would result as a massive proof of concept, then full blown clinical system with billions of images, and a demonstration of intelligence and tenacity. She pushed the envelope. We would stay in touch and later work on DICOM Modality Worklist and CD/DVD import together. Dr. Dayhoff’s insistence of DMWL on modalities, with the purchasing power of the VA, drove adoption across the industry. It just did. This was before “data integrity” was understood.
Although it was never overly discussed, we were both aware that we were usually the only two women in the room, and we were good with that. But I will never forget watching Dr. Dayhoff stand up for her technical ideas. She was usually correct.
Years later, upon winning the “Dr. Ruth Dayhoff Award” for women in informatics, I would reflect back to that first chance meeting at RSNA. I can only wonder how many projects that Dr. Dayhoff pushed forward, how many young women she influenced and quietly led, and how significant the changes to radiology practice because she was part of our team and our colleague!
“Honored to Uphold a Legacy: Receiving the Dr. Ruth Dayhoff Award and Advancing Women in STEM
I was deeply humbled and honored to be named the 2022 recipient of the Dr. Ruth Dayhoff Award for the Advancement of Women in Medical Imaging Informatics. This award holds great significance for me and represents one of the highest honors I have received in my career.
The designation is made even more meaningful by the pioneering legacy of Dr. Ruth Dayhoff herself. Her work has left an indelible mark on the field of medical imaging and informatics, and I am grateful for the opportunity to carry her vision forward.
I share this recognition with five other exceptional women, all of whom are among the brightest minds in our field. Together, we are committed to representing and amplifying Dr. Dayhoff’s groundbreaking contributions. We are proud to uphold her legacy and continue the vital work of advancing women in imaging and computer science.
This recognition would not be possible without the generosity of Dr. Dayhoff and her family. I extend my deepest sympathies to her family and friends for their recent loss. Dr. Dayhoff was an amazing woman whose body of work and trailblazing spirit will continue to inspire generations to come. I am dedicated to honoring her memory by continuing to push the boundaries of what’s possible and supporting the next generation of women in STEM.
Nikki Fennell, CIIP
Mindy L. Yang, MD
“Representation matters. My journey to embracing imaging informatics and furthermore, to grow as a leader within imaging informatics in my career, has been vitally impacted by many amazing women in the field. I have been fortunate to have rockstar women mentors, remarkable allies who support women, and many women who have simply (or not so simply!) led by example in their brilliance and passion. Despite many strong initiatives over the recent years to include and promote women, there remain many challenges to the glass ceilings we strive to break.
The Dr. Ruth Dayhoff Award remains one of my most cherished achievements. I have unspeakable joy in contributing to the next generation of women imaging informaticists, particularly as so many have done this for me and I deeply desire paying it forward. I am proud to honor the legacy of Dr. Ruth Dayhoff and her family who are aligned with promoting such important values to our society. I hope we can continue to make significant advancements in her name and ever increase the presence of women in imaging informatics as well as within medicine.
“A Moment I Will Never Forget – Receiving the Dr. Ruth Dayhoff Award
June 2024 will always hold a special place in my heart. That’s when I stood on stage to receive the Dr. Ruth Dayhoff Award – an experience that was both humbling and inspiring.
Dr. Ruth Dayhoff was a brilliant innovator in the medical imaging community as well as a pioneer who saw possibilities beyond what most saw in her era. Her groundbreaking work was extraordinarily impactful to Imaging Informatics and patient care. Her enduring legacy is defined by her leadership, vision, generosity, and unwavering commitment to inclusion, all of which showed that compassion is essential to true innovation.
What made this moment especially meaningful was that her daughters personally presented me with the award. Knowing that Dr. Dayhoff faced early-onset Alzheimer’s – the same disease that touched my own mother – gave the moment a profound personal resonance. I could almost feel my mother’s smile, knowing she would be so proud. It was a reminder that behind every professional achievement, there are human stories of resilience, love, and loss that connect us in unexpected ways.
Receiving this prestigious award not only brings honor, but also a sense of responsibility to carry forward the values Dr. Dayhoff stood for: excellence, collaboration, and making a difference for the patients we care for. There are not enough words to express my sincerest gratitude to Dr. Dayhoff and to all the colleagues, mentors, and friends who carry on her legacy every day.
Sylvia Devlin, MS, RT(R)(M)(QM), CIIP, FSIIM
Nina Kottler, MD, FSIIM
“At SIIM 2025, I was deeply honored to receive the Dr. Ruth Dayhoff Award for the Advancement of Women in Medical Imaging Informatics. This recognition carries special meaning for me, not only because of Dr. Dayhoff’s extraordinary contributions to our field, but because of the values she embodied and advanced.
Dr. Dayhoff was a visionary leader whose pioneering work transformed how we capture, store, and share medical images, laying the groundwork for some of the largest digital medical image repositories in the world. Just as inspiring as her technical achievements was her role as a trailblazer for women in medical imaging informatics, a space where representation has long been limited.
Promoting the advancement of women in our field is both a professional commitment and a personal passion for me. I believe that our industry thrives when we foster diversity of thought, experience, and perspective, and that requires not just opening the door for women and underrepresented voices but actively building a culture where everyone belongs and is empowered to lead.
This award is a reminder of the responsibility we share to carry forward Dr. Dayhoff’s legacy: to innovate fearlessly, mentor generously, and work toward a future in which women in imaging informatics are not the exception, but a visible and vital part of every room where decisions are made.
I’m grateful to the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine for this recognition, to the colleagues and mentors who have supported me along the way, and to the women who will come after us whose paths we can make just a little bit smoother.