Meet Dr. David Wood - Advantage IR Director of Medical Operations

Advantage IR works with some of the best Interventional Radiologists at our clinics. The man who makes sure all our doctors are world-class and provide the best medical care available is Dr. David Wood, MD. Dave is a great guy. Once you meet him, you feel instantly at ease that you will be well taken care of. We thought you might be interested in meeting Dave and learning a bit more about him, so we asked him a few questions we thought you wpould like to know.

Why did you choose to become an Interventional Radiologist?

Like most people I was largely unaware of interventional radiology, even as I began specialty residency training in radiology. I love to read and I try to approach life as a "lifelong learner". Coming out of med school I was attracted by the cerebral nature of radiology, the opportunity to learn about all diseases, their effects on the body, and how those effects manifest on various imaging modalities. As residency evolved I was introduced to interventional radiology treatments. The residency program at USC was very "hands on", meaning I was allowed to perform supervised procedures myself even as a young resident. I became comfortable with the technical aspects of IR and realized "hey, I can do this!" IR is not one thing, it is an array of therapeutic tools for the entire body from head-to-toe and literally every organ in between. I've never counted all the treatments we offer, but they certainly number in the dozens. The best way to sum up IR is also the reason I am so passionate about what we do: IR is "high impact with minimal footprint". Everything is done through a small nick in the skin = minimal footprint. Yet our treatments are as effective as traditional surgery = high impact. When you look at it this way it's a no-brainer.

What part of IR interests you the most?

My passion is for endovascular-based organ treatments. When something is broken in the house the first thing you do is bring your tools to the problem area. It used to be when something broke in our bodies we relied on surgery to cut open the body to get our tools in place. All this cutting meant long recovery times to heal wounds. Our technology allows us to drive miniature tools to the problem areas using the blood vessels as our highways. Once our tools are in place we have a vast range of treatments that we can administer, all while watching what we're doing with x-ray pictures. There is no cutting involved. This is how we have minimized recovery times. 

Why did you become a owner in Advantage IR?

IR has traditionally been a hospital department, where most time and resources go into treating very sick patients. In this paradigm outpatients needing elective treatments take a back seat to the inpatients. The result is long waiting times and a lousy experience for outpatients having services performed in hospitals. Coming from this environment I set out to find a better way to deliver outpatient services, where patients are treated like customers, where customer satisfaction is of paramount importance, and where I could control the customer experience from start to finish. 

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have of IR procedures or IR in general?

Most people assume that IR treatments are only supplements to traditional surgery and only occasionally useful. Our challenge is to inform the public that our treatments are thoroughly tested and validated stand-alone therapies, largely replacing the need for traditional surgery.

What is the main point you want people to know going through an IR procedure?

Our treatments are easy! You are not going feel anything we do. 

What do you like to do outside of work?

I stay busy wrangling my six kids. We love to play and watch sports.

If you were not an Interventional Radiologist, what would you do for a career?

I almost became a paleontologist. I often daydream of being back out in the mountains of remote Montana collecting camel fossils!

 

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If you are in the Austin area and would like to schedule an appointment with Dr. Wood, call 512-598-9944 or visit https://advantage-ir.com/appointment-booking