So when a job opportunity arose in Niagara Health’s Department of Interventional Radiology in late 2017, Dr. Athreya didn’t hesitate to apply. He saw it as an opportunity to provide more extensive care closer to home for so many Niagara patients.
“I thought, ‘We’re seeing a lot of people from Niagara. I could help there,” recalls Dr. Athreya. “I knew Niagara Health was welcoming, moving forward and making a difference locally for patients.”
Interventional radiology (IR) is a specialty of radiology that uses medical imaging, including CT scans, fluoroscopy, MRI, and ultrasound, to guide minimally invasive surgical procedures that diagnose and treat a variety of conditions. IR procedures include biopsies, inserting picc lines, angioplasty or stenting to unblock blood vessels, and treating cancers by removing a tumor or through chemoembolization, which restricts the tumor’s blood supply.
At the time of the arrival of Dr. Athreya, the department had two interventional radiologists working hard to serve patients in limited hours. If patients needed the care of an interventional radiologist overnight for conditions such as postpartum hemorrhage or abscess drainage, for example, they had to be transported outside of Niagara.
Shortly after Dr. Athreya moved to Niagara Health, he was promoted to Chief of Interventional Radiology. The department added other fellowship-trained Interventional Radiologists, Diagnostic Imaging Nurses, and Medical Radiation Technologists, and momentum grew to offer more services with the support of Drs.
Some of the Interventional Radiology team at Niagara Health. The department now has four fellowship-trained interventional radiologists, medical radiation technologists and nurses. Together, they help patients throughout their procedures and assist with recovery and discharge.
To become a world-class healthcare hub
In 2019, under the leadership of Dr. Athreya and with funding from Cancer Care Ontario, the department began offering image-guided tumor removal, making Niagara Health one of only a handful of Ontario hospitals to offer the service. This low-risk pinhole procedure done under conscious sedation is used to treat small tumors in the kidneys, lungs or liver using an ultra-thin probe to burn or freeze cancer cells. Patients are discharged from the hospital on the same day. “This is evidence-based, targeted therapy for cancerous tumors, especially those smaller than four centimeters,” says Dr. Athreya. “Previously, there were only a few centers in Ontario that did this, including Toronto, Hamilton and London. Now we are proud to say that we offer this treatment locally.” During a routine ultrasound in 2019, doctors discovered a small tumor on Fern Gow’s right kidney. Fern, a retired registered nurse who lives in Niagara Falls, was given the option of surgery, which would require removing part of her kidney or removing the tumor via IR. He chose the latter after meeting with Dr. Athreya and researched the work he had done in the field in the past. “He was so approachable and very informative. I decided to do it,” recalls Fern. “The program is great for people like me who don’t want to have surgery and prefer something less invasive. I was really happy to do this here in Niagara through an extremely high quality program by highly skilled professionals. If I had to go to Hamilton, it would be more difficult.” This November marks three years since Fern underwent a 60-minute procedure that left her with little pain and minimal recovery. She has been cancer free ever since. “I’m still here,” he says. “I hope it continues like this.” From left: Medical Radiation Technologists Carly Mascia, Brayden Shaw, Sarah Robb, Christopher Provias, Tiffany Sagloski and Dr. Sriharsha Athreya gather around a CT machine, which is used in some of the procedures performed by the Interventional Radiology department. Thanks to the dedication of Dr. Athreya and the IR team, the department now has four fellowship-trained interventional radiologists, medical radiation technologists and nurses. Together, they help patients throughout their procedures and assist with recovery and discharge. The team also created an improved system to manage appointments and optimize patient care, including informing patients in advance what to expect on the day of surgery. This ensures that appointments are carried out on time and any cancellations are completed quickly to avoid delays. Post-procedure follow-up is coordinated through the IR Outpatient Clinic. Interventional radiologists are now on call 24/7, eliminating the need to send patients to other hospitals after hours for IR treatments. The program was expanded to treat patients at the Niagara Falls Site two days per week, which helped reduce wait times for some IR procedures. “The work done by the entire Interventional Radiology team has been commendable, especially during the COVID pandemic, and I am grateful to all of them,” says Dr. Athreya. “We can now provide image-guided treatment for cancer in Niagara that is minimally invasive, safe, and recovery time is only a few days with no long-term effect on lung, liver, or kidney organ function. By offering these services locally, it instills confidence in clinicians and patients as well. Our goal is to provide patient-centered care.”
Providing patient-centered care close to home
The work of Dr. Athreya and the IR team has touched almost every program in the hospital. From left: Diagnostic Medical Sonographers Amanda Ouwendyk, Vanessa Vaicius and Marisa Boccia are members of the Interventional Radiology team. They are “a huge asset,” providing timely access to biopsies and placing rows and ports to provide treatment and pain relief to patients, says Dr. Michael Levesque, Chief of Oncology. Dr. Athreya also regularly visits the Walker Family Cancer Center team to ask what is needed in an effort to improve services and continue to provide high quality healthcare. “It took a person like Dr. Athreya and other professionals to look after and make a schedule. They all believe in providing patients in Niagara with services you can find elsewhere,” says Dr. Levesque. “They want the program to be the best it can be. We want people to come here because our program is world-class, not just because it’s close to home.” IR is also key in the care of dialysis patients. The department performs critical vascular procedures and operations, including angioplasty to keep open the arteries and veins of dialysis patients when fistulas begin to fail. These are “lifesavers for patients who allow dialysis to clean their blood,” says Dr. Danny Lagroteria, Chief of the Nephrology Service. So are the long-term dialysis catheters that the IR team uses using fluoroscopy, which is a type of medical imaging that uses real-time moving X-ray images inside the patient’s body. “They do a lot for vascular access to support dialysis care,” says Dr. Lagoterria. “Without them and the success of this program, we would have to send patients to Hamilton. The availability of IR here has done a lot to improve the quality of life for patients.”
