Congratulations to our 2024 ISCD Award Recipients

We are pleased to announce our 2024 ISCD Award Recipients and to recognize their contributions to the field of skeletal health assessment.  These remarkable individuals were nominated by fellow ISCD members for their leadership, expertise and outstanding service to ISCD and our mission. The announcement of ISCD Awardees has been a milestone event for the Society since 1996 and a highlight of the Society’s Annual Business Meeting where our Awardees are recognized formally with an ISCD plaque.

Dr. Sydney Bonnick ISCD Award for Excellence in Densitometry
In Recognition of Distinguished Service in the Field of Densitometry

2024 Award presented to:
Leila Kazemi, MS(c), CMRI, CBDT, CCRP
leila-1

Leila is an experienced healthcare professional with a diverse educational background and a passion for improving healthcare delivery. Her current role as a ‘Clinical Research Program Manager’ at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, epidemiology department, coupled with her extensive educational background, including a Master’s in Health Administration and Interprofessional Leadership from UCSF (also a Ph.D. candidate in the same program) and specialized training in DXA and MRI, brings a unique blend of administrative expertise and technical skills to the healthcare field. With a foundation in Midwifery, she is committed to enhancing patient care, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, and driving organizational efficiency within healthcare settings. Her tenure as a DXA technologist started under the guidance of Dr. Elliot Schwartz at the Foundations of Osteoporosis Research and Education (FORE) where she first received her limited license for DXA and afterward participated as a trainer in their limited license training course. Then she joined Shepherd Research Lab at UCSF, Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Department, in 2013.

Additionally, Leila is a DXA expert reviewer and project manager for the NHANES DXA component and has been the lead trainer for new NHANES DXA technologists since 2013. Leila is also the project manager for the DXA component for numerous international studies including IMPAACT, HANDLS, national studies including BeMyKids (PI: Zemel), and Multiethnic Cohort Adiposity Phenotype Study. These leadership roles and her ability to manage and coordinate complex projects highlight her exceptional leadership and organizational skills along with a deep commitment to quality in densitometry.

Dr. Sydney Bonnick ISCD Award for Excellence in Densitometry
In Recognition of Distinguished Service in the Field of Densitometry

2024 Award presented to:
Lynnett Rotert, BSRT, CBDT (posthumously)

Lynnett Rotert, BSRT, CBDT
February 11, 1965 – August 2, 2023

Aristotle once pointed out that happiness resides in doing things one can take pride in: “Life’s greatest joys are not what one does apart from the work of one’s life but with the work of one’s life”. Lynnett’s work as a Clinical Bone Density Technologist strengthened our clinic’s bone health programs, which in turn helped patients and community. She had strength of values, honesty and integrity with priorities of high-quality care while providing an excellent caring patient experience. She has served on the ISCD (International Society for Clinical Densitometry) Certification Council and was instrumental in our ISCD Facility Accreditation in 2013 and recertifications in 2016 and 2021. At those times we were 1 of 2 facilities accredited in the state of South Dakota.

Lynnett

She was part of the driving force along with Dr. Keim (retired) in developing our Fracture Liaison Services and the Osteoporosis Clinic in Spearfish, SD. She served in a leadership role in our Bone Health Programs from maintaining publications, data collection, DXA maintenance and software updates, patent education brochures, and maintained all statistical logs including fracture data from our local hospital.  Her integrity and excellence have impacted our community for many years in her work ethic and volunteering countless hours at youth programs, community events,  and The Good Shepherd Clinic.

She worked with Monument Health System for over 20 years and her vision has always been to the right thing, every time. She was committed to excellence in her care and was looked upon as a role model and leader. Her precision with DXA (bone density testing) and her keen sense of attention to detail made her outstanding in her line of work.

Written by Cathy Sowers, DNP
Medical Director, Spearfish Osteoporosis and FLS Program, South Dakota

Dr. Harry K. Genant ISCD Researcher of the Year Award
In recognition for distinguished service to the field of densitometry in the areas of publication, education or leadership

2024 Award presented to:
 John T. Schousboe, MD, PhD, CCD
J. Schousboe

Dr. Schousboe is a rheumatologist and health services researcher who directs the bone densitometry center of Park Nicollet Clinic, a large integrated health care delivery system in Minneapolis, MN. He is a Past President of the International Society for Clinical Densitometry (ISCD) and a Fellow of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). During a 16-year research career he has been an author on 200 peer-reviewed publications, the far majority of which have been in the field of diagnosis and management of osteoporosis. His contributions to science include development of a cost-effectiveness model that was used to conduct studies of the cost-effectiveness of bone densitometry in men and subgroups of older women and men defined by prevalent vertebral fracture, bone turnover marker levels, and bone density level; studies of the accuracy, prevalence, and clinical impact of vertebral fracture recognition on bone density lateral spine images; studies of medication adherence to osteoporosis therapies; studies of the identification and clinical significance of abdominal aortic calcification on lateral bone density spine images; and predictors of health care utilization and costs using Medicare Claims data.

ISCD Clinician of the Year Award
Presented to an outstanding clinician for distinguished service to the field of densitometry in the areas of publication, education or leadership.

2024 Award presented to:
Mei Dong, MD, PhD, CCD
 

Mei Dong, MD, PhD, CCD is a Chief Physician of Second Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University and has been an active ISCD member for over 7 years. Dr. Dong has been teaching, researching, and practicing bone metabolism for over 15 years, and special interests include osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures. She has been a Certified Clinical Densitometrist (CCD) of The International Society for Clinical Densitometry since 2019, and is actively focusing on bone-health initiatives, treating metabolic bone disorders, and diagnosing bone disease using DXA for her hospital, managing a 17-person team. Her hospital sees over a thousand patients every year.

Mei Dong