Had it not been for a spring break ski trip to Breckenridge, Colorado, Henry Dalsania, MD, might never have discovered his passion for snowboarding. Skiing was not a fit. Try as he might, he couldn't get his arms and legs in sync. But snowboarding was a different story. He sensed the way his body needed to move in order to assault the mountain. Thanks to an equal part of determination and grit, he conquered the sport. By week's end, he knew he was hooked. 

 

Something similar happened to Dalsania while in med school. Going through rotations, the technical side of radiology appealed to him intellectually, but it wasn't until he was introduced to the interventional side of the business, which gives radiologists the ability to treat conditions, that he knew he had a fit. Now, after spending more than a decade building his knowledge, Dalsania is finally out on the mountain alone.

 

“It's certainly a transition, not having someone over your shoulder. Now, making all the decisions, that responsibility falls on your shoulders. It's something you've been trained for, so you get to realize that full potential,” he said.

 

Last year, Dalsania became the fourth interventional radiologist to join Mid-South Imaging and Therapeutics. He treats patients at Baptist Memorial Hospital. Part of what brought him  home to Memphis, in addition to being near his family again, was the opportunity to teach at Baptist. “Teaching was something I was looking for, having the ability to teach and impart the knowledge I've accumulated. It's a good sense of satisfaction, watching the residents grow,” he said.

 

Born in Gujarat, India, Dalsania moved to the U.S. as a toddler with his parents. They eventually settled in Memphis where his father worked as an anesthesiologist. Dalsania graduated from Drury College and obtained his medical degree from St. Louis University School of Medicine. His post-graduate studies in radiology and interventional radiology included work at Drexel University, Chicago Medical School, and Washington University. Although he was always drawn to the sciences, it wasn't until he reached college that he began to think medicine might be his calling. As a radiologist, he diagnoses problems, but doing interventional radiology gives him the ability to go a step further and fix what is broken. “You know what the problem is before going to the operating room, and you get to see an immediate outcome, the impact you can have on the patient. That's very satisfying,” he said.

 

Each day, Dalsania assesses blockages, performs procedures and orders biopsies in treating patients with fibroids, tumors, and other medical conditions. Once a week, he also spends time in the reading room, where he analyzes C-scans and ultrasounds for consultations with other staff physicians.

 

“Every day is an intellectual challenge,” he said. “Radiology is so prevalent in medicine today, you can't go anywhere where you don't get an MRI or an X-ray. It appeals to me because of the different modalities and integration of information that must take place to come up with a diagnosis.”

 

One area Dalsania hopes to excel in is the treatment of liver tumors using chemoembolization and radiation beads; interventional techniques that may hold new hope for liver cancer patients. “The infusion of tumors with chemotherapy means fewer side effects and harm to the patient,” he said. “That may help improve the patient's quality of life.”

 

A case he had worked on earlier that day drove that point home. The jaundiced patient had been complaining of nausea and abdominal pain. Once Dalsania inserted a scope and injected dye into the veins, the problem became more apparent. Bile ducts, which usually appear as slender threads, had become thick and swollen due to a blockage. The image on the screen resembled an octopus with fat tentacles that fanned out across the liver. “Those bile ducts are normally much thinner,” Dalsania observed, which means the liver is compromised. “Usually, that can be caused by having a gall stone lodged in the bile duct but another possibility is cancer,” he said as he analyzed the image. The goals of the procedure were clear; drain the bile duct so no secondary infection would set in and to do a biopsy to determine the root cause of the blockage. Once the procedure was complete, the patient was resting comfortably, the jaundice fading from view. It is this type of challenge that Dalsania looks forward to unraveling.

 

For now, the direction of his career is just beginning to unfold. What the future holds is still unclear. But his ability to remain dedicated and achieve the goals he's set out to accomplish is apparent.

 

In addition to his job, Dalsania enjoys spending time at home with his two young children, and his wife, Kavita, who works as a family practice physician at Baptist Minor Medical Center.