An internationally recognized neuroradiology expert, James G. Smirniotopoulos, MD, is also a pioneer in electronic and online radiologic education. He has created a legacy of innovation—correlating radiologic and pathologic images, creatively using animations and drawings, and employing a unique lecture style—all in the name of teaching more than 36,000 residents over the past 34 years. Many have come to know him through his groundbreaking work at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), Bethesda, MD. Dr. Smirniotopoulos developed MedPix®—an Open-Access Web-based teaching file application that allows cases to be shared with military and civilian physicians all over the world. Dr. Smirniotopoulos was awarded a patent for MedPix® in 2006.

A familiar face at the Radiologic Society of North America (RSNA) meetings, Dr. Smirniotopoulos demonstrated at RSNA 2004 the breakthrough “MedPix Tutor”—an online system that uses a pre-test, learning module, and post-test paradigm for graduate medical education during residency. Dr. Smirniotopoulos was a neuroradiology panelist for the RSNA's Image Interpretation Session in 1996, the panel moderator in 1998, and the expert “lifeline” for the neuroradiology panelist in 2008.

Doctor “S”, as his residents and students call him, is now a Special Volunteer at the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, U.S. National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, MD.