Dr. Gilles Soulez Promoted to Top Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Position at CHUM

As Head of the Department, Dr. Soulez will oversee the largest Radiology and Nuclear Medicine departments in Quebec. The Radiology department employs over 300 people, including 41 radiologists, 45 residents, and 15 fellows. In terms of technology and services, the department has 22 ultrasound machines, six MRIs, six CTs, and seven interventional angiography rooms and performed more than 27,000 exams in 2023. The Nuclear Medicine department has 100 employees including 12 nuclear scientists, 12 residents, and maintains seven SPEC-CT cameras (including the first ever CZT 3D SPEC-CT camera installed in Canada) and two PET-CT cameras. More than 30,000 exams are performed annually by the Nuclear Medicine department.

"It is truly an incredible honor to be selected for this position. I learned a lot during the past years practicing academic radiology au CHUM. I really enjoyed the opportunity to develop a career as a clinical scientist aligned with an advanced practice of interventional radiology," he said. "My previous chairman position was also a great asset to understand the required level of synergy between the University, research institutes, and academic hospitals. My involvement with the CAR was key to take this decision to apply for this position. I learned a lot by sharing different approaches and knowledge to improve the quality and access to imaging care across the country and also in the US thanks to our close collaboration with the ACR.  I will definitely use this knowledge to advance our practice at CHUM."

Dr. Soulez has a detailed vision of how to make a great department even better. Some of the greatest opportunities for growth and improvement, according to him, centre on ways to attract and support technical medical professionals within the department. Investing in new information technology is also important, with opportunities to implement digital solutions for operational and diagnostic improvements and to streamline the digital workflow. Quality and Process can benefit from reviewing key performance metrics like waiting lists and delays in reading. Dr. Soulez believes the department’s organizational structure can be changed to be more agile, transversal, and generationally representative. He wants to implement a collaborative approach between clinical, academic, and administrative departments, and return to the guiding principles of the clinical-academic mission of the CHUM and UdeM, among other objectives.

As his career ascended, Dr. Soulez has earned leadership positions in various organizations, including several years serving on the CAR Board of Directors. He was Secretary-treasurer for the board from 2017-2019 before becoming the Vice-President from 2019-2021 and served as President from 2021-2023. His membership in the Canadian Heads of Academic Radiology (CHAR) and his work helping to produce guidelines with the Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal (CARJ) proved invaluable to position him to lead a major academic department.

Congratulations to Dr. Soulez once again on this major career milestone!