Steven Montner named Interim Chair of the Departme

Steven Montner, MD, has been named the Interim Chair of the Department of Radiology, effective October 9, 2023.

Montner joined the UChicago faculty in 1988 and is currently Professor and Executive Vice Chairman for Clinical Operations in the Department of Radiology. In this role, he is responsible for daily operations and physician staffing, along with other senior administrators in the department. He also acts as a liaison with other departments and hospital groups.  Montner is currently the elected president of the medical staff organization, chairing the Medical Executive Committee and serving as an ex officio member of the UCMC board of trustees.

As a practicing radiologist, Montner specializes in pulmonary imaging, analyzing and interpreting chest radiographs and CT scans for thoracic diseases, and has an expertise in interstitial lung disease and diseases of the large and small airways.

Through his research, he has worked with the section of pulmonary medicine studying how imaging plays a role in the characterization of interstitial lung disease, pulmonary fibrosis, and occupational lung disease. He has authored or co-authored over 45 peer-reviewed articles that have been published in scientific journals and given numerous presentations internationally.

In addition to his clinical work and research efforts, Montner is active with the Radiological Society of North America and the Society of Thoracic Imaging, having served on several committees primarily concerned with radiology education and physician well-being.

Montner will serve in an interim role while we conduct an external search for a new department chair. He succeeds Aytekin Oto, MD, who announced that he was stepping down in August to take on an expanded leadership role in the BSD. Oto served as the chair of the department since 2020, after beginning as interim chair in 2019. During his tenure, he introduced several important innovations to design enterprise level governance for imaging, improve clinical operations in the department, and increase patient access to advanced imaging techniques.