Disaster Radiology: Ready or Not? Lessons from the Boston Marathon Bombing
- Kevin M. Rice, MD
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
An Interactive Roundtable with Karen S. Lee, MD FACR
If a mass casualty event happened at your hospital tomorrow, would your radiology department be ready? Mass casualty events are rare—but when they happen, they can overwhelm a hospital in minutes. For radiologists, the challenge is not simply interpreting images. It is knowing how to keep imaging moving when the emergency department is suddenly flooded with critically injured patients, resources are stretched, and the usual workflow no longer applies.
Disaster Radiology: Ready or Not? is an interactive roundtable led by Karen S. Lee, MD, FACR, who was involved in the radiologic response to the Boston Marathon bombing. Rather than a traditional lecture, the session will put participants into the middle of mass casualty scenarios and ask a simple question: What would you do?
How do you prioritize imaging when dozens of patients arrive simultaneously? Who decides which studies get performed first? How do you adapt CT, MRI, ultrasound, and radiography operations when demand suddenly exceeds capacity? And how does the radiology department communicate effectively with the emergency department, trauma teams, and hospital leadership?
Most radiologists will never experience a disaster on the scale of the Boston Marathon bombing. But that is precisely why preparedness matters. You cannot develop disaster experience by waiting for a disaster to happen.
This roundtable offers an opportunity to learn from someone who has been there—and to think through how your own department would respond before the moment arrives.
About Karen Lee
Karen S. Lee, MD is an Assistant Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and a radiologist specializing in Emergency Radiology and Body MRI at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). She serves as Associate Chief of the Emergency Radiology section, Director of Radiology Fellowship Training Programs, and Program Director for both the Body MRI and Cross-Sectional Imaging Fellowships. Dr. Lee earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed her radiology residency at BIDMC, where she served as Chief Resident. She remained at BIDMC to complete a fellowship in Body MRI.
Her research interests include imaging of acute abdominal pain in pregnancy, evaluating cognitive biases in emergency radiology, and reducing redundant imaging in the emergent setting. She has authored numerous scientific articles, review publications, and book chapters, and has been invited to speak nationally and internationally on abdominal MRI and gastrointestinal and genitourinary emergency imaging.
Dr. Lee is an active member of several professional societies, including the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS), American College of Radiology (ACR), American Society of Emergency Radiology (ASER), and Society of Abdominal Radiology (SAR). She serves on the Scientific Program Committees for RSNA and ASER, and is a member of both the RSNA Multisystem Subcommittee and the RadioGraphics General Imaging Panel.
A dedicated educator and mentor, Dr. Lee is a peer reviewer for several journals, including Abdominal Imaging, Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, RadioGraphics, and The New England Journal of Medicine. She has received multiple consecutive teaching and mentorship awards at BIDMC, and her educational and scientific exhibits have been recognized with honors by RSNA, ARRS, and ASER. Dr. Lee is a Fellow of both the American College of Radiology and the Society of Abdominal Radiology.
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