Ihab Kamel, MD, PhD, professor of radiology and oncology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has been named the next chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, effective Sept. 5, 2023.
Kamel is an accomplished clinician, productive researcher, and active mentor who has been on the Johns Hopkins faculty for more than two decades. He is an internationally recognized expert in using functional MRI to quantify early tumor response to therapy. He is also an authority in hepatobiliary and pancreatic imaging.
“Dr. Kamel will be a valuable member of our Anschutz Medical Campus community and we are pleased to welcome him to the University of Colorado School of Medicine,” said Dean John J. Reilly, Jr., MD. “He has had remarkable success building clinical programs that attract new patients and provide exceptional teaching and research opportunities. We look forward to his continued success building such programs here in Colorado.”
“I am excited to join the CU School of Medicine and the Anschutz Medical Campus, where we will have many opportunities to work together to build programs and improve patient care,” Kamel said. “I am confident that working together we can offer outstanding clinical care and excellent training experiences that are based on innovative research.”
Kamel joined Johns Hopkins Radiology in 2000 and served as Clinical Director of MRI from 2008 until 2019. During his tenure, he significantly expanded MRI operations across the Johns Hopkins Health System. He served as chair of imaging at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center from November 2018 through July 2021.
At Johns Hopkins, he developed a multidisciplinary clinic that includes liver surgery, transplant surgery, hepatology, interventional radiology, and oncology to discuss complex liver cases’ diagnosis and management. These activities have attracted new patients, generated new clinical revenue, and fostered interdepartmental teaching and research collaboration.
In partnership with other services and departments, Kamel assembled a diverse and inclusive research team focusing on hepatobiliary and pancreatic imaging, particularly the oncologic application of functional MRI. He has also recruited research teams that have specialized in using image analysis to assess the response of oncology patients to treatment. Kamel has a successful, sustained, and impactful track record on mentorship. He mentored numerous researchers, trainees, and junior faculty who have become leaders in their chosen specialties.
Kamel has an expansive research portfolio, with over 360 peer-reviewed publications and 20 book chapters. He also has received substantial grant funding from the National Institutes of Health for a range of studies, such as using functional imaging to achieve a new personalized medicine approach to cancer, intercepting pancreatic cancer in high-risk cohorts, and investigating body fat distribution to consider ancestry-specific indicators of disease.
Kamel has been active in professional associations, including the American College of Radiology, Radiological Society of North America, the American Roentgen Ray Society, and the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. He is vice chair of the American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria Committee and will be chair in 2024. He also serves as secretary of Society for Advance Body Imaging and will be future President of the society.
Kamel earned his medical degree with honors from the Cairo University School of Medicine in 1983. He completed a PhD in radiological health from the University of Michigan in 1993. He completed residencies in diagnostic radiology at the Theodore Bilharz Research Institute in Egypt and at New York Medical College. He was also a clinical fellow in abdominal imaging at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.
Kamel succeeds Gerald Dodd, MD, who joined the School of Medicine as chair and professor of radiology in 2008.
