Dr. Ari Isaacson

Dr. Ari Isaacson graduated from medical school at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. He completed a transitional internship at the Naval Medical Center San Diego. Then he completed the Diagnostic Radiology Residency Program and the Vascular and Interventional Radiology Residency Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he was an Associate Professor and later became the Vascular-Interventional Radiology (VIR) Division Chief. Dr. Isaacson now works with IR Centers at their Raleigh, NC location.

Isaacson is a leader in clinical services expansion. When he was on UNC faculty, he was instrumental in growing what UNC VIR offers patients in minimally invasive interventional procedures (MIIPs). Isaacson’s focus on patient awareness of MIIPs offered by UNC VIR — geniculate artery embolization (GAE) / prostatic artery embolization (PAE) – reinforced his division’s reputation in offering procedural alternatives to conditions traditionally treated more invasively, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

Advancing IR clinical services expansion at UNC has established Isaacson as a leading clinical researcher. When he was on UNC faculty, he served as P.I. for several men’s health studies on MIIPs alternatives sponsored by UNC — Efficacy of Prostatic Artery Embolization (PAE) in Patients With Severe Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) – and industry (Terumo Medical Corporation) —  Safety and Efficacy of Prostatic Artery Embolization Using HydroPearl® Embolic Particles — that offer a more promising quality of life than open transurethral surgery.

Isaacson promoted IR MIIP solutions beyond UNC, bringing needed procedural instruction to IR practitioners across his subspecialty. In early 2018, he and fellow PAE expert Dr. Sandeep Bagla developed and facilitated the first intensive, one-day course on PAE for IR practitioners nationwide – STREAM. Because of Isaacson, Bagla and other IR collaborators, STREAM now annually trains practitioners on using known IR techniques to conduct a more technically challenging procedure to offer patients suited to PAE.

Isaacson oversaw a division shifting in 2020 from training fellows to solely IR residents tracked to three pathways — ESIR, Integrated IR and Independent IR. As UNC VIR phases in a new education model, he is charged with meeting varying curricular needs across a fast-growing base of IR and Diagnostic Radiology residents.