Today, the Department of Radiology announces Daniel Brown, M.D., FSIR, Professor of Radiology and Chief of Interventional Oncology, as its Vice Chair of Innovation and Clinical Research.
In this newly created role, Brown will be responsible for helping faculty and trainees engage in clinical research at Vanderbilt. This will also include establishing academic partnerships with programs internal and external to Vanderbilt, including interacting with industry on clinical trials.
“Clinical trials related to imaging, therapeutics and new medical devices represent an important avenue for growth of the department’s overall research portfolio,” said Reed Omary, M.D., M.S., Carol D. and Henry P. Pendergrass Professor and Chair, Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences. “We would like to eliminate barriers to conducting clinical research at the Medical Center. I’m excited for Dr. Brown to lead this effort, and think he’s going to become an even greater asset to the department in this role.”
Brown will serve as a liaison for those interested in pursuing clinical research and the resources available to them through faculty at the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Sciences (VUIIS) and the Vanderbilt Institute of Surgery and Engineering. He plans to expand existing access for Ph.D. students and post-doctoral students to observe cases through radiology to enhance idea sharing and development. Brown will also work to develop navigational tools for faculty interested in starting clinical research. He has already begun to connect clinicians with researchers to assist in trial enrollment with novel PET agents at VUIIS.
“We are enthusiastic about Dr. Brown’s interest in reinvigorating clinical imaging research and providing an opportunity for investigators to more easily tap into the rich research resources available to them; resources that make the Department of Radiology and VUIIS unique across the globe,” said Seth Smith, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Radiology, Director of the Center for Human Imaging and Associate Director at VUIIS. “We look forward to working with him and welcome him into this new role.”
Brown joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in 2013 as the Director of Interventional Oncology for the Department of Radiology and the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. In 2015, Brown launched the Radiation-Emitting SIR-Spheres in Non-Resectable (RESIN) Liver Tumor Patient Registry to track cancer patients with targeted Yttrium-90. The research, performed in partnership with six other medical centers and Sirtex Medical Ltd., has resulted in over $3 million in grant funding for the Medical Center to date.
“When I first came to Vanderbilt, I was eager to get involved in clinical research, but had little guidance and found the process difficult to navigate,” said Brown. “I think it’s important for resources like this to be established so that our colleagues can successfully engage in the research that inspires them.”
Brown is a graduate of Hahnemann Medical College and completed his fellowship in interventional radiology at Bryn Mawr Hospital and Penn State University. He has a secondary appointment in Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt and has authored more than 100 manuscripts, including guidelines for a number of minimally-invasive oncologic interventions performed at VUMC.
