From the early days of computed tomography to artificial intelligence, Dr. Elliot Fishman’s career has been defined by an enduring question: How can imaging help us see disease better and earlier?
One privilege of working in continuing medical education for many years is the opportunity to learn from physicians whose careers have helped shape their fields.
Dr. Elliot K. Fishman is one of those physicians.
For decades, Elliot has been at the forefront of computed tomography, continually exploring how advances in imaging technology can help radiologists better understand disease, make more confident diagnoses, and ultimately improve patient care.
What I find particularly remarkable about his career, however, is not simply its longevity. It is how consistently he has looked toward what comes next.
From the Early Days of CT
To appreciate that perspective, it helps to remember how dramatically medical imaging has changed during Elliot’s career.
His teaching record stretches back to 1980, and by the early 1980s he was lecturing on CT of the chest, abdomen, spleen, gastrointestinal tract, and other applications of a rapidly developing technology.
Pancreatic imaging was already part of that work. In 1983, his publications included papers addressing the difficult distinction between pancreatic carcinoma and focal pancreatitis, as well as the use of CT in pancreatic carcinoma. The following year, he was teaching body CT of the pancreas, liver, and spleen as well as the use of CT in patients with cancer.
That was more than four decades ago.
Since then, imaging technology has advanced at a pace that would have been difficult to imagine in those early years. Yet throughout those changes, Elliot has continued to explore what each new generation of technology might allow radiologists to see that they could not see before.
Innovation as a Constant
Three-dimensional imaging provides an early example.
By the late 1980s, Elliot was teaching and publishing extensively on three-dimensional CT imaging and its clinical applications. His scientific exhibits from this period addressed volumetric 3D rendering, interactive two- and three-dimensional imaging, and increasingly sophisticated approaches to visualizing anatomy and pathology. Looking back, it is striking how familiar the underlying question sounds today.
What can we do with imaging data beyond simply looking at the images in the way we always have?
Technology has changed. The question has not.
Today, that same spirit of exploration extends to radiomics and artificial intelligence. Elliot’s more recent academic work includes contributions on radiomics-based classification of pancreatic cystic neoplasms and artificial intelligence in the detection and surveillance of cystic pancreatic neoplasms.
His work in pancreatic imaging has also continued across successive generations of technology, including CT, MRI, multidetector CT, and advanced approaches to pancreatic cancer diagnosis and staging.
A remarkable continuity runs through that body of work: new technology is valuable not simply because it is new, but because it may allow us to recognize, characterize, or diagnose more effectively.
An Educator as Well as an Innovator
Another side of Elliot’s career deserves equal attention.
He has always been a teacher.
Long before digital learning became an everyday part of medical education, he experimented with how computers could teach radiology.
In 1990, his work included an educational program called “CT: The Game.” By 1991, his scientific exhibits included computer-based radiology teaching files and an interactive multimedia version of CT: The Game.
Think about how forward-looking that was.
Today we talk constantly about digital education, interactive learning, artificial intelligence, and how technology can improve continuing medical education. Elliot was exploring computer-based approaches to radiology education more than 30 years ago.
For those of us involved in CME, that part of his career is especially meaningful.
Expertise alone does not make someone an exceptional educator. Great teachers can take what they have learned through years of scholarship and clinical experience and make it useful to someone else.
That has been one of Elliot’s enduring contributions to radiology.
From Better Images to Earlier Answers
Perhaps nowhere is the potential of imaging technology more meaningful than in diseases in which earlier diagnosis can profoundly affect what happens next.
Pancreatic cancer is one of those diseases.
It is therefore fitting that a physician who was writing about CT diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma in 1983 has continued to explore how increasingly sophisticated imaging tools might improve our ability to identify and characterize pancreatic disease decades later. His academic work now spans pancreatic cancer diagnosis and staging, pancreatic cystic neoplasms, radiomics, and artificial intelligence.
That progression is inspiring.
It reminds us that innovation in medicine rarely happens in a single dramatic moment. More often, it comes from clinicians and researchers asking better questions year after year, adopting new technologies as they emerge, and never assuming today’s best approach is the end of the story.
The Value of Faculty Excellence
At World Class CME, we are fortunate to work with faculty who bring extraordinary clinical and academic expertise to our educational programs.
But when I think about Faculty Excellence, I think about something more than credentials or the number of publications on a CV.
I think about curiosity.
I think about the willingness to continue learning even after becoming an expert.
I think about physicians who embrace innovation without losing sight of why the innovation matters.
And I think about educators who understand that knowledge becomes more powerful when it is shared.
Elliot Fishman’s career embodies all of those qualities.
From the early days of computed tomography to three-dimensional imaging, digital education, advanced pancreatic imaging, radiomics, and artificial intelligence, he has spent more than four decades exploring how technology can help physicians see more clearly.
And just as importantly, he has spent those decades teaching others what he has learned.
Elliot, thank you for your extraordinary contributions to radiology and for the knowledge, curiosity, and enthusiasm you continue to share with the physicians who have the opportunity to learn from you. We are proud to have you as part of the World Class CME faculty.