Canon tapped to lead Radiology

Cheri L. Canon, M.D., has been named chair of the UAB Department of Radiology effective immediately.

Cheri L. Canon, M.D., has been named chair of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Radiology by Ray L. Watts, M.D., senior vice president for medicine and dean of the UAB School of Medicine. The appointment is effective immediately.

Head_shot_III_color_II_site“Dr. Canon has been invaluable in her role as interim chair of the department. That, coupled with her international recognition for imaging and medical education, makes her an excellent choice to lead the department of radiology,” Watts said. “Dr. Canon will provide the department with the leadership needed to maintain and grow our strong clinical and teaching programs in radiology and take imaging research and development at UAB to the next level.”

That future of imaging at UAB, Watts said, includes development of the recently approved Advanced Imaging Facility; state-of-the-science equipment will enable UAB scientists to develop novel imaging molecules for early disease detection and better monitor the treatment of diseases such as cancer and some debilitating neurologic conditions.

“The Advanced Imaging Facility will house one of the largest cyclotrons in North America with immediately adjacent PET-CT and PET-MRI in the basement of the newly renovated Wallace Tumor Institute,” Watts said. “Dr. Canon’s vision for this program includes the recruitment of outstanding new faculty and the attraction of new research grants to support these discoveries in disease detection and treatment.”

Canon, a professor of medicine, has been on faculty at UAB since 1998. She was named interim chair of radiology in 2010. She also is director of the division of diagnostic radiology, senior vice chair for operations and interim co-medical director of the UAB Heart and Vascular Center.

Canon earned her bachelor’s degree in zoology in 1990 from the University of Texas at Austin and her medical degree in 1994 from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Canon completed her postdoctoral training in diagnostic radiology at UAB in 1998.

She is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the Radiological Society of North America, European Society of Radiology, Association of University Radiologists, Alliance of Clinicians-Educators in Radiology and American Association for Women Radiologists. Canon is on a number of professional society committees, including on the Board of Chancellors for the American Board of Radiology, for which she chairs its Commission on Education. She is a board examiner for the American Board of Radiology.

Canon is on the editorial board of World Journal of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and also is a reviewer for AJR, Radiology, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Digestive and Liver Disease, Abdominal Imaging, European Journal of Radiology, Radiology Case Reports, Medical Education Online and Clinical Imaging.

She has published in numerous professional journals, including the AJR, Laryngoscope, Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology and Endoscopy.