Bradford Harrold, CRA, CIIP, ARMRIT, holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences, with a focus on administration. He currently serves as the associate director of imaging administration at UT Southwestern.
However, he is not a native Texan. He was born at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California and grew up in the Bay Area. His journey to an imaging career began after a previous job exposed him to the possibilities.
“I was an emergency room technician and part of that entailed transporting patients to radiology. This allowed me to observe the workflows of each modality. I spent time with the various technologists and asked what they did and didn’t like about their jobs. It seemed like an interesting and growing field, so I decided to pursue it,” Harrold recalls.
ICE magazine recently found out more about this rising star via a question-and-answer session. •
Q: Where did you receive your imaging training/education? What degrees/certifications do you have?
A: I attended Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts (San Mateo campus) where I received a diploma in MRI technology. After completing the program, I became dual certified in MRI by sitting for and obtaining both ARMRIT and ARRT (MR) certifications. A few years later, I added both the Certified Radiology Administrator (CRA) and Certified Imaging Informatics Professional (CIIP) certifications.
Q: Why did you choose to get into this field?
A: The complexity of MRI with all the parameter tradeoffs is what drew me. Of course, it didn’t hurt that it’s non-ionizing radiation!
Q: What do you like most about your position?
A: As an associate director, I get to have fun by solving problems and developing people. Overcoming difficult challenges while developing strong relationships is very rewarding. I view my responsibility as a leader to put processes into place that enable our front line staff to give exceptional patient care.
Q: What interests you the most about the imaging field?
A: Imaging will be the key in many emerging fields: precision health and artificial intelligence are two that come to mind. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by world-renown physicians and the best technologists here at UTSW because our culture embraces these innovations. This academic mindset – to continually be pushing ourselves to be better, working together makes it easy to go to work every day.
Q: What has been your greatest accomplishment in your field thus far?
A: I’m very proud of putting together a multi-year, three-day symposium focused on MRI safety. We had 200 attendees spanning five states and 34 medical centers resulting in 65-plus newly certified MR safety officers (technologists), experts (physicists) and medical directors.
Q: What goals do you have for yourself in the next 5 years?
A: Obtain my MBA!
