Society of Interventional Radiology Membership Benefits
- Member discount on the Society's Annual Scientific Meeting - Experience five days of hands-on training, plenary and scientific sessions, categorical courses, symposia and workshops. 2010 SIR Annual Scientific Meeting Web site
- CME Credit - Stay on top of the hottest topics in your specialty at SIR educational meetings.
- Interventional Radiology Coding Users' Guide - Get free up-to-date HCPCS, ICD-9-CM and CPT codes for IR procedures.
- Members-only Web site - Access clinical practice guidelines, practice building materials, FDA alerts, and membership directory.
- JVIR - Read 12 printed issues of research, case studies and specialty advancements and access abstracts and full text searchable archives online at www.jvir.org.
- Bi-monthly issues of IR News - Up to date columns on coding, practice development, technology, legal advice and much more.
- STAT and E-News - Receive e-mailed alerts on Society news, educational meetings, capitol hill updates, industry information and products.
- Practice Development - Utilize SIR resources to expand and strengthen your practice, educate patients, and reach referring physicians.
- Networking - Participate in career development and networking opportunities in one of the largest-growing medical fields.
- Lobbying resources on health policy issues - SIR ensures your voice is heard on Capital Hill.
- Discounts on SIR products - Patient Information Brochures, training and education materials, referral products, plus much more!
Membership Categories
Active Membership - $670
For individuals who have a special interest and competency in interventional radiology and are certified by the American Board of Radiology or other boards that are deemed of equivalent rank.
Public Health and Military Membership - $440
For individuals who qualify for Active Membership and provide proof of active duty in the military or proof of employment by one of the 10 public health service agencies and programs listed on: http://www.hhs.gov/about/index.html#agencies
Agencies in HHS
- Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
- Administration on Aging (AoA)
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
- Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
- Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
- Indian Health Service (IHS)
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Corresponding Member - $280
For individuals who reside and practice interventional radiology outside of the United States
Member-in-training - $50
For individuals who are currently in formal radiologic training, either as a fellow-in-training in vascular and interventional radiology, or a resident in a radiology residency training program.
Associate Member - $540
For individuals whose special qualifications are deemed valuable to the Society, but who do not qualify as an active member, Member-in-training or Corresponding Member categories.
Clinical Associate - $310
For nonphysician members of the medical profession who have a special interest and competency in interventional radiology, including, but not limited to, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, radiologic technologists and paramedical professionals.
Medical Student - $25
For individuals currently enrolled in medical school who have a special interest in interventional radiology.
Scientist Member - $310
For nonphysician scientists, which may include individuals whose primary interest is in basic or clinical research as it pertains to interventional radiology. Scientist Members are required to have a master’s degree, doctorate degree or equivalent degree. The scientist must show proof of a primary research interest in interventional radiology, including a percentage of time spent in basic research endeavors vs. clinical research.
Scientist-in-training - $50
For graduate students and post-doctoral students who have an interest in interventional radiology research. Each candidate must have a letter that documents training status and its relevance to interventional radiology from a supervising physician/scientist and department chairperson or letters from two SIR members.
Download SIR membership applications
Top Benefits SIR Offers Its Members
The Society of Interventional Radiology unceasingly works to further the specialty on behalf of its members. In the current economic climate, however, many individuals are forced to scrutinize the value of professional society membership. Below are just a few of the accomplishments SIR regularly achieves to support, promote and advance interventional radiology.
- Prevented 40 Percent Cut in IR Reimbursement
- Educated McCain and Obama Health Staffs on IR Issues
- Fought Vigorously for Expanded Coverage of -- and Access to -- IR Procedures
- Focused Strategic Resources on Critical Payment Challenges
- Increased Interest in IR Fellowships by 39 Percent
- Impacted Message to Hospital Administrators on Value of IR
- Met With the FDA on Revising Public Health Notice on Lung Ablation
- Created a Primary Certificate in IR Training Proposal to Provide the Clinical Training Fellows Need
- Launched Valuable New JVIR Features
- Subsidized Annual Meeting Fees for Members
- Facilitated VIR Recertification
- Constructed Robust New Doctor Finder
- Reached Millions Worldwide With SIR Public Relations
- Raised Family Physician Awareness of IR
- Urged Diagnostic Radiology to Support IR Clinical Practice
- Illustrated Monetary Value of IR to Diagnostic Radiology
- Identified Key Research Needs for IR
- Launched the Interventional Oncology (IO) Registry
- Provided 12-to-1 ROI on Foundation Grants
- Served as IR Research Incubator
- Fostered $10 million NIH Trial on DVT
Successfully prevented a 40 percent cut for IR reimbursement last year that was meant for diagnostic imaging only but would have been applied to IR. SIR is continuing to work to educate members of Congress that IRs provide minimally invasive treatments so they won't be subject to this cut in a future bill. Recent lobbying efforts helped prevent a 10.6 percent reimbursement cut in July 2008.
SIR lobbyists and volunteers met with Sens. Obama's and McCain's lead health advisers. SIR's staff lobbyist regularly meets with various members of Congress, including the Senate majority and minority leaders, as well as other key committee members.
SIR's coding and reimbursement experts and volunteer members regularly advocate for expanded coverage of interventional radiology procedures. They continually respond to insurance carriers' attempts to refuse coverage for IR treatments, supplying the available data, rebutting negative tech assessments, assisting members with insurance template letters, and fighting for appropriate reimbursement for IR procedures and services at RUC and with CMS.
Interventional radiology faces significant challenges in the manner in which IRs are paid for services. SIR created the Economics Strategic Planning (ESP) Workgroup, led by Kathy Krol, M.D., FSIR, to develop and implement strategies to effectively address these challenges. To better enable these efforts, particularly data analysis, the Society has retained the services of the Moran Company, a well-established health policy consulting firm. Economics leaders will be working closely with Moran's experts, and SIR anticipates a valuable long-term relationship.
SIR has been proactively reaching out to all second-year medical students since 2005 with a DVD video about the profession. Interest in IR has increased and IR fellowships are up 39 percent in 2008.
To help members with hospital administrators, SIR volunteer leaders met with the Advisory Board Co. to ensure that this influential group understands that IR is a revenue generator for the hospital. Their last report was very favorable to IR and should help members with their hospitals.
SIR has standing meetings and an ongoing dialog with the FDA, helping its representatives to understand issues behind off-label use and medical device needs in the real world that regulation may affect. The goal is also to ensure timely and safe access to IR technologies and procedures. SIR was instrumental in helping FDA to understand the issues involved in many complex medical areas, providing input on vertebroplasty, kyphoplasty and lung RFA.
IR training will be organized as an admitting clinical service with graded responsibility for longitudinal outpatient and inpatient care of IR patients, as well as procedures. The final year of IR training will be as a chief resident, with responsibilities and privileges analogous to those of a surgical chief resident. This will enable IR to evolve and become a clinical radiologic specialty, equal to -- but distinct from -- diagnostic radiology. The proposal has been submitted by ABR to the American Board of Medical Specialties.
The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR) has nearly doubled its submission base in the past five years. Improvements include new full-text access to all current JVIR articles; an archive going back to the journal's inception in 1990; access to the latest articles accepted for publication well in advance of print issues in the Articles in Press section of the JVIR Web site; and easy content navigation by customized searches and signing up for e-alerts and monthly CME credits.
The Annual Scientific Meeting has greatly expanded over the years. Although members are charged a registration fee, SIR subsidizes much of the meeting cost for members.
At the 2009 Annual Scientific Meeting, SIR is again offering the recertification exam in vascular and interventional radiology as a benefit to members.
Improvements to the SIR Doctor Finder and Web site make it easy for patients to find an IR and learn about treatments for their conditions. Most topics are in the top 10 search results on Google, helping to spread the word on interventional radiologists.
Through a year-round public relations effort, SIR keeps interventional radiology in the news. The 2008 Annual Scientific Meeting news alone was seen by 95 million people.
SIR has worked with the American Academy of Family Physicians to ensure this important referral base knows the spectrum of services IRs offer. This includes publishing a case series and ad series in their journal and exhibiting at their meeting.
SIR works closely with ACR and RSNA to ensure diagnostic radiologists understand the importance of IR clinical practice and support our members' need for clinic time. Achievements include the resolution and guideline in support of clinical practice and several articles in the ACR Bulletin discussing the importance of IR clinical practice to the DR group.
SIR created a clinical practice manual with a template to show the monetary value that IR clinical practice can bring to a radiology group.
SIR task forces and SIR Foundation research consensus panels move whole fields of practice forward.
SIR Foundation registries educate the public, providers, payors and policy makers on the effectiveness of IR procedures; establish the value of IR; contribute to Level 1 evidence; and increase public knowledge of IR, ensuring that patients receive the most effective, least invasive treatments.
The SIR Foundation grants program has an impressive 12-to-1 return on investment via acquisition of external funding. Foundation grants enable the next generation of researchers to investigate new procedures that will become tomorrow's standard of care.
The SIR Foundation supports clinical trial efforts in IR by serving as a research incubator and resource provider in IR clinical trials, identifying critical research topics, organizing research consensus panels and providing clinical trial planning grants to help bring more IR trials to fruition.
SIR Foundation research consensus panels have led to the development of the ATTRACT trial, a $10 million NIH trial on DVT.