David Koh, MD

“I wanted Radiology to play a more integral role in patient management,” says David Koh, MD referring to his goal when he became Chief of Radiology in 2004. To him that meant getting reports out in hours rather than days, expanding the department’s subspecialty offerings and working more collaboratively across departments – and he’s done it all.

Early on, he brought voice recognition technology to North Valley to expedite report turn around time and successfully created alternative staffing models to match production. As a result, more than 90% of reports are now read, authenticated and available to referring physicians the same day, often the same hour.

Understanding the need for subspecialty interpretation, he has built a cadre of radiology subspecialists and supports the continued development of centers of excellence in Musculoskeletal Radiology, Neuroradiology, Interventional Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Pediatric Radiology and Breast Care.
He implemented walk-in mammography at North Valley and fostered inter-departmental collaborations with Pathology and the Breast Care Clinic, leading to more rapid diagnostic studies and same-day biopsies with pathology results often the next day.

“When I discuss the changes that Dr. Koh has led in Radiology, spontaneous applause often results from our clinicians regarding the same-day reads and augmented access to imaging studies,” says Chris Palkowski, MD, Physician-in-Chief, Roseville Medical Center. “The changes he’s implemented seemed impossible a decade ago.”