Radiology Rising Star 2016: C. Matthew Hawkins, MD

This year, Diagnostic Imaging sought a currently practicing radiologist or radiology professional in the early phase of his or her career who has already accomplished much and made an impact on the specialty. This year, the honor goes to C. Matthew Hawkins, MD, director of pediatric interventional radiology at Emory University School of Medicine. Through this role, and his position as the medical director of the telemedicine division and vascular anomalies clinic at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Hawkins has already left his mark on patient care and service quality.

Here, we asked him about his career to-date and what he sees in the future.

DI: What’s your biggest accomplishment?

Hawkins: To date, it’s been getting the pediatric interventional radiology program here off the ground at Emory. There was a practice existing, but I was really able to build it up and put it on the trajectory. It now, over the last 2.5 years, has been my biggest accomplishment, for sure. A lot of it was working to build relationships with the doctors here – not just referring physicians, but radiologists, as well. Trust takes time to earn, and you have to build it by working, being reliable, and being available. That only takes time.[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_crop","fid":"55275","attributes":{"alt":"C. Matthew Hawkins, MD","class":"media-image media-image-right","id":"media_crop_4540440874189","media_crop_h":"0","media_crop_image_style":"-1","media_crop_instance":"6918","media_crop_rotate":"0","media_crop_scale_h":"0","media_crop_scale_w":"0","media_crop_w":"0","media_crop_x":"0","media_crop_y":"0","style":"height: 237px; width: 170px; float: right;","title":"C. Matthew Hawkins, MD","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]

DI: What has been your biggest challenge?

Hawkins: The biggest challenge to date has probably been doing what I do, but not having a lot of places to do it. I’ve moved my family multiple times to get to this stage. It hasn’t been easy on us. We’ve had big moves between Cincinnati, Seattle, and now here in Atlanta. It’s taken a certain amount of time, but now we’re starting to feel like we’re settled and have a home.

DI: What is one of your existing goals?

Hawkins: I think, as for extracurricular stuff I’m doing outside my clinical practice, it would be some of the activity centers on patient centeredness, social media, and practice building. If there’s a goal I have, any way I can influence just a bit of the general, overall culture of radiology and the individual radiologist to really embrace the patient-centered movement – that would be it.

DI: What would like to see happen in radiology within the next decade?

Hawkins: I would love to see more integration with other specialties. We’re in silos because of the economics with episodes of care and billing mechanisms. I’d love to see a situation where radiology functions in multispecialty groups whether it’s with pathology or other diagnostic specialties or other medical and surgical specialists. We need to continue to branch out into multispecialty groups. The more we integrate, the more we’ll be in the care cycle, and the better we’ll be able to provide higher quality care to patients overall.