Edwin Donnelly, MD, PHD

About Me

I serve as the division chief and fellowship director for thoracic imaging in the Department of Radiology at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.

Prior to moving back to my home state of Ohio, I worked at Vanderbilt University Medical Center for nearly 25 years. I did my residency training there and served as chief resident. After completing fellowships in both radiology physics and thoracic radiology, I was eventually granted tenure. My most enjoyable administrative and educational duties there included both being a course director for multiple medical student radiology courses and serving as the residency program director.

In 2003, I earned my PhD in biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University and have been active in research for that field ever since. I have been the principle investigator on multiple NIH-funded studies and serve as a grant reviewer for the NIH Center for Scientific Review. On the engineering end, my research interests include novel X-ray-based imaging techniques (especially phase-contrast radiology). As an educator and thoracic radiologist, I have also been very interested in studying how we perceive abnormalities on images, how we can better teach these perceptions, and how we can program machines to “perceive” as well (machine learning/artificial intelligence).

On a national level, I’m very involved in the American College of Radiology, currently serving as the Thoracic Specialty Chair for the ACR Appropriateness Criteria Committee, and with the Radiological Society of North America, currently serving as Co-Chair of the RSNA/AAPM Physics Module Committee/Task Force. I’m a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians (FCCP) and a Fellow of the American College of Radiology (FACR).

Outside of work, I’m an avid “maker,” involved in 3D printing, microelectronics and woodworking. I have been a coder nearly my whole life, first learning BASIC in the late 70’s and adding languages as the need arises, mostly using Python, C++ and Java now. My favorite activity is spending time with my wife and large family, which I do as much as possible.