Chair's message
Welcome to the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Rush University.
It is my privilege to lead a department where innovation, collaboration, and compassion converge to shape the future of medical imaging. Every day, our faculty, trainees, researchers, technologists, and staff collaborate across the Rush health system to address medicine's most complex challenges. Through advanced imaging, image-guided therapies, artificial intelligence, and translational research, we are improving diagnostic accuracy, enabling earlier intervention, and delivering more personalized care.
As an academic department, we are committed to educating the next generation of physician leaders. Our learners thrive in an environment that fosters intellectual curiosity, multidisciplinary collaboration, innovation, and lifelong learning.
Innovation has always driven progress in radiology. Today, that means embracing emerging technologies while keeping patients at the center of everything we do. Whether developing new imaging techniques, advancing the responsible use of artificial intelligence, or expanding collaborative research, our focus remains clear: delivering safer, smarter, and more equitable care.
Rush has long been recognized for advancing medicine through collaboration. Our department builds on that legacy by cultivating an inclusive culture in which diverse perspectives fuel creativity, discovery, and excellence.
Our vision is to be a national leader in academic radiology by transforming imaging into an even more powerful catalyst for better health. We will continue to advance discovery, strengthen interdisciplinary partnerships, expand access to advanced imaging, and develop innovative solutions that improve outcomes for every patient and every community we serve.
Whether you are seeking exceptional patient care, considering a career in radiology, pursuing research collaboration, or exploring educational opportunities, I invite you to discover what makes the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Rush University an exceptional place to learn, innovate, and lead.
Thank you for your interest in our department. Together, we are shaping the future of radiology — and, more importantly, the future of patient care.
Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine
Imaging is where a diagnosis usually begins, and at Rush it begins with a subspecialist. Our radiologists don't read everything that comes through the department — each one reads a single region deeply, which is how a small finding gets caught while it's still small.
The Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine reads more than 400,000+ studies a year across Rush University Health System and its partner sites, from a routine chest X-ray to functional MRI of the brain. That volume sits inside an academic mission that has never separated three things: caring for patients, educating the next generation of radiologists, and advancing the field of radiology. The same faculty who interpret your scan on a Tuesday are running a resident conference on Wednesday and publishing on Thursday.
For patients, that means same-day access at locations across Chicagoland, technologists who make the exam as comfortable as they can, and results delivered quickly through MyChart. For referring physicians, it means a radiologist is a phone call away — not a report you wait on.
To learn more about Rush Radiology and its storied history, see the following: Rush Archives: International Day of Radiology (Nov. 8) and Rush's First X-Ray Machines and CT Scanner
Department Divisions
The department is organized into four divisions. Each owns a territory and reads it deeply — and the largest, Body Imaging, is itself split into focused sections so that a chest study and an abdominal study each land with a radiologist who spends their days on exactly that.
Body Imaging
Co-Division Chiefs: Daniel L'Heureux, MD and Stephanie Shors, MD
The most robust division reads the majority of the department's volume across seven sections — abdominal, cardiac, musculoskeletal, nuclear medicine, pediatric, thoracic and ultrasound. It is where most patients meet the department, from a routine chest film to a PET/CT that stages a cancer, and where subspecialty depth is spread across the widest range of the body.
Section Head: Faaiza Mahmoud, MD
Section Head: Keyur Parekh, MD
Section Head: John Meyer, DO
Co-Section Head: Sumeet Virmani, MD
Co-Section Head: Jagadeesh Singh, MD
Section Head: Erica Klein, MD
Section Head: Palmi Shah, MD
Section Head: Meri Chen, MD
Breast Imaging
Division Chief: Lisa Stempel, MD
Rush's breast imaging locations across Chicago, Oak Park, Oak Brook and the Fox Valley are designated Breast Imaging Centers of Excellence by the American College of Radiology. The division reads 3D mammography, ultrasound and MRI and performs image-guided biopsy, with radiologists who look at nothing else all day — the surest way small cancers get found early.
Medical Physics
Division Chief: Mark Supanich, PhD
Behind every image is a physicist. Our board-certified medical physicists tune image quality and keep radiation dose as low as it can safely go across CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, ultrasound and mammography — and, working with the department's Vice-Chair of Physics and AI, they lead how new algorithms are validated before they ever touch a patient's scan. Few departments carry physics as a full division; here it is one of four. Learn more about the Division
Neuroradiology
Division Chief: Miral Jhaveri, MD
The department's flagship imaging service reads more than 30,000 combined CT and MRI studies of the brain, head and spine each year, with dedicated leads for functional MRI, neuro CT/MR and pediatric neuroimaging. Its advanced techniques — MR spectroscopy, MR and CT perfusion, functional MRI — are the tools that separate a stroke that can still be treated from one that can't, and a benign lesion from one that isn't.
Augmented Reality & 3D Laboratory
Imaging at Rush doesn't stop at the scan. Housed within the department and serving the entire Rush health system, our in-house AR3D Laboratory turns CT and MRI data into something a surgeon can hold in their hands or step inside. Through a process called segmentation, flat image slices are rebuilt into three-dimensional anatomy — then 3D-printed as patient-specific anatomical models and surgical guides, or explored in virtual and augmented reality for planning the most complex procedures. It's imaging as a tool for the whole institution, and it has supported teams across orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, ENT, plastic surgery, liver transplant, cardiology and pediatrics.
For more, you can explore: Augmented Reality & 3D Laboratory
Questions & Inquiries
Tiffany T. Rodgers
Tiffany_T_Rodgers@rush.edu
(312) 942- 4184
Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine
Rush University Medical Center
1653 W. Congress Parkway
Chicago, Illinois 60612-3864