Hedvig Hricak, MD, PhD

2008-2009 BCRF Project:
(made possible by generous support from The Estée Lauder Field)

Breast cancer incidence in South East Europe (SEE) is the third highest in the world. As a result of the funding from the BCRF program and global teamwork efforts, Croatia began breast cancer screening in October 2006 and Serbia will begin breast cancer screening in January 2009. The translation of the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) into Russian will be complete by September 2008; this is critical as it is a requirement for the initiation of clinical breast cancer imaging research and data collection in Russia.

Over the coming year, Dr. Hricak and her colleagues plan to continue their work in South East Europe and to expand the program to include other areas of the world; they are piloting this concept by training a visiting radiologist from China. The researchers believe that by working together with BCRF they can make a global impact on clinical breast cancer imaging research and data collection.

Bio:
Hedvig Hricak is Chairman of the Department of Radiology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She holds a senior position within the Program of Molecular and Pharmacology Therapeutics at the Sloan-Kettering Institute and is Professor of Radiology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. She earned her MD degree from the University of Zagreb and her Dr. Med. Sc. from the Karolinska Institute. She was a professor of radiology, radiation oncology, urology and gynecology at the University of California at San Francisco and was the chief of the abdominal section of the Department of Radiology at the UCSF Medical Center.

Dr. Hricak served as President of the Society for Advancement of Women's Imaging (1997-1999), President of the California Academy of Medicine (1999), and President of the Society of Uroradiology (2000-2003). She was a member of the board of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and now serves on the Executive board of the Academy of Radiology Research, the RSNA Board of Directors, and the National Cancer Institute's Board of Scientific Advisors. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and is Executive Board Member and President of the New York Roentgen Ray Society (2004-2005). She is a fellow of the American College of Radiology, the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and the Society of Uroradiology.

Dr. Hricak has authored or co-authored 21 books, 275 peer-reviewed papers, 139 review/ editorial papers, and more than 135 book chapters. She has given 19 named lectures and has been a visiting professor at more than 30 institutions worldwide. In recognition of her career accomplishments, she has received the Marie Curie Award from the Society of Women in Radiology (2002), the gold medal of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2003), and the gold medal of the Association of University Radiologists (2007). She was named Honorary Professor, University of Zagreb, Croatia (1997) and is an honorary member of the British Institute of Radiology (2004), the Croatian Academy of Science and Art (2004), the German Radiological Society (2005), and the Austrian Roentgen Society (2006). In addition, she holds an honorary doctorate from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2005).