Dr. Jason Poff discusses the unique opportunities and supportive environment at Radiology Partners that foster personal and professional growth and how RP is helping shape the future of radiology.
Dr. Jason Poff is a body radiologist based in Greensboro, North Carolina. As director of innovation deployment at Radiology Partners (RP), he works with RP’s clinical artificial intelligence (AI) team to identify and deploy the latest clinical AI models and other innovative technology to support RP radiologists in providing high-quality patient care. Outside of work, he enjoys being involved with his sons’ sports, spending time with family, long-distance jogging and reading. He joined RP in 2019.
We talked to Dr. Poff about the unique opportunities and supportive environment at Radiology Partners that foster personal and professional growth and how RP is helping shape the future of radiology.
What inspired you to become a radiologist?
I studied engineering as an undergraduate, and I still think of engineers as “my people” to this day. That’s how I process the world—I think like an engineer. When I was in college, I had an influential person in my life who was a physician. I was in chemical engineering specifically, which is all about building oil refineries and factories, and while I appreciated the problem-solving nature of it, it wasn’t as inspiring to me as taking care of people. It became clear to me in the middle of college that I wanted to go to medical school. I knew I wanted to pursue the field of radiology quickly, because it’s so adjacent to technology. Radiology feels like a frontier that’s moving the practice of medicine forward. It’s a dynamic field that’s always changing, and there’s always an opportunity to do something novel. I also really like the breadth of radiology and the fact that it touches every part of medicine – it’s not just one organ or just one type of malady. You need to be flexible with your knowledge and be able to have conversations with so many different types of physicians and patients.
What drew you to your subspecialty?
I did an abdominal imaging fellowship, but colloquially I say I’m a body radiologist. During training, my favorite thing about abdominal imaging was that I interacted with many different types of specialists. For me, I love to preserve flexibility in my career and have optionality. I appreciated that I could work with GI specialists, urologists or general surgeons. There are so many different directions, and I like the challenging aspect of having to master a variety of conditions. When I joined Greensboro Radiology, they actually hired me as a thoracic chest specialist, but they gave me the opportunity to learn on the job in an almost mini-fellowship with a former academic thoracic radiologist, Dr. Dan Entrikin, at Greensboro. I was fortunate in the kind of position I had at the time and the support I had to grow my specialty area.
How did you connect with RP?
I joined Greensboro Radiology in 2016, and Greensboro Radiology partnered with RP in 2019. We’ve had a lot of wonderful leaders in our practice who have been involved in RP from the beginning, and I’ve been able to learn from and see how their participation in RP benefited them and their careers. I am so appreciative of the personal growth I’ve experienced by becoming a leader at RP. RP has truly invested in me in a way that has allowed me to get out of my comfort zone. I love being a radiologist, but one of the things I really value at RP is being part of this team of people with a lot of different backgrounds. In addition to radiology, I work with people in creative branding, data scientists, IT experts, project management and people on the business and strategy side. It’s such a unique environment to be able to learn from all those people.
What’s most fulfilling about working as a radiologist at RP?
Number one, I’ve always felt RP was in a unique position to invest in the future for radiologists in a way that not many organizations or practices can do. With the expansive network of practices and the number of different domain experts RP invests in, that is difficult to find elsewhere in medicine, and the fact that it’s Radiology Partners—not just your hospital where you have to collaborate with many different stakeholders to make decisions about how to get new technology in your workflow—we’re just focused on radiology. That is such a unique position to be in, and it allows you to cut through red tape a lot of others face. We see that when we’re speaking with representatives from other institutions. Being at RP is just so unique, with its network, ability and intent to invest in transforming radiology. I see it as a once-in-a-career opportunity for me.
I also really value RP’s continued investment in physicians. I’ve benefited, but I’ve seen many people benefit, and it’s a huge range of opportunities. It’s one of the things I love to tell people about. RP will support you with everything from how to balance your career work-life balance to how to fight against burnout, and there are so many wonderful leaders who you can model yourself after. I think personally about Dr. Nina Kottler, associate chief medical officer for clinical AI, but also many people in leadership positions who you can emulate and grow with and from. When you’re drawing from a pool of talented people from the entire country, you are connected with some outstanding people to learn from.
What do you share with trainees when they ask you about working at RP?
It’s important to have the desire to seek out opportunities for growth as one of your primary career objectives. You’re always supposed to be one percent better than the person you were yesterday, right? To achieve that, you need opportunities, and RP provides so many ways to seek out those growth opportunities. It can be anywhere from the subspecialty leads to the culture and radiologist experience side; the business and strategy side to the sales side; the technology side. You can literally pursue anything that excites you or interests you in your career. It’s a special practice, and I’ve been able to learn from a lot of people with different expertise.
Talk about your role as director of innovation deployment at RP and how that applies to what you’re passionate about.
I feel fortunate in my role as a director in the AI space at RP. I was in the right place at the right time and found a wonderful mentor in Dr. Kottler and the other colleagues on my team. I don’t have a background in informatics. I’m just an engineer who loves radiology, and I’m persistent and keep showing up. I call myself an “AI junkie.”
But how does AI tie into abdominal imaging?
To me, AI is just an opportunity or a tool we arm ourselves with to be a better version of ourselves. That’s how I fundamentally think about AI. A lot of people have this fear of AI taking away our jobs, or they fear what it could potentially represent, but I see it differently. Just like we used the PACS system to move into the digital realm or like we used the dictaphone and voice recognition to get away from analog and move to digital, AI is another tool that levels us up as radiologists. It’s enabling us to take better care of our patients but also to do so in a way that makes the practice of medicine more sustainable and more enjoyable in an environment where we’re all extremely busy and have a lot of people who need our help.
What does the future of radiology look like, and how will RP contribute to that?
I am excited about the future of radiology because I think we’re at a pivot point now, in this place where there are many people who need our care. Imaging is helpful to people, and that’s why the demand increases every day. That’s not going to change, because in this environment where resources are limited, not just in radiology but in every medical specialty and throughout society, there’s a limitation on expertise and people who are well trained. Imaging is just going to grow in importance. That’s the reality, but there’s an opportunity now to shake up the paradigm. Personally, I think it’s a call to action. If we don’t define what the future of radiology is and carve that path through the challenges, someone else will. I see this as a huge opportunity. It’s a time where we need to apply ourselves, be creative and think about how technology can help us solve the challenges we face now.
What would you say to radiology trainees with that pivot point in mind?
I’d tell somebody who has 30-40 years of their career ahead of them to be thoughtful about joining an organization, practice or group of people that is committed to investing in the future. They need to be explicitly looking at addressing these challenges with unique solutions, and that’s going to involve technology and novel approaches to workflow and clinical solutions. Also, look for places that are dynamic and have a nimble mission statement. One of the things I love about Radiology Partners is that right up front, at the very top, they say they’re going to transform radiology. That is meaningful, because it’s literally setting the precedent that you should expect change, and that change is going to be essential to providing a high level of patient care and remaining a successful practice in the future. I like how it’s the very essence of the practice and the core theme. Change is not just an idea; it’s essential, and I think that’s only becoming more evident as we enter this dynamic where there’s this imbalance between capacity and demand of radiology services. In my opinion, the organizations committed to a culture of change are going to thrive.
With burnout being such a prevalent topic in medicine at large, do you have any observations on how do we confront burnout in the radiology space?
To me, burnout means you are lacking inspiration, so look for ways to feel inspired. Maybe inspiration is related to a sense of control over your environment. If you’re doing the same thing day in and out, that work just gets harder, and if you feel like you didn’t participate or aren’t connected to the decision-making process, that can manifest as burnout. Also, I would encourage you to seek new challenges or shake up your career in some way. Look for something different or for a new group of colleagues. They will help you to explore your interests and help you to understand why you were in that position that was leading to those feelings of burnout. Personally, this has given me a lot more energy in my career.
Anything else you’d like to share about your experience at RP?
I’m just thankful. RP is a unique practice. I’ve never been in a place where I could access people with such different backgrounds and grow as a person from it. I don’t have a business or strategy bone in my body, but I’ve been able to pick up things by being around others who work in those areas. It makes you look at the world in a way that makes you more creative and more flexible when challenges arise. Being able to connect with so many types of people is a real strength of RP.
Dr. Jason Poff earned his medical degree from Columbia University; completed his residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; and completed his fellowship in abdominal imaging at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Radiology Partners, through its owned and affiliated practices, is a leading physician-led and physician-owned radiology practice in the U.S. Learn more about our mission, values and practice principles at RadPartners.com. For the latest news from RP, follow along on our blog and on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. Interested in learning about career opportunities? Visit our careers page.