For Immediate Release
Contact: ARRT Strategic Communications
651-687-0048        

(June 19, 2018) — The American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) is pleased to announce the second group of honorees in our I Am the Gold Standard program. The honor goes to three Registered Technologists (R.T.s) who meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Quality and Safety: they’ve led or significantly contributed to research that measurably improves patient care.
• Patient Experience: they’ve consistently provided stellar patient experiences that exceed expectations, and/or they’ve led patient experience efforts that resulted in measurable improvements.
• Advocating for the Profession: They’ve shown a substantial commitment to the profession by leading a volunteer effort or by achieving significant accomplishments while volunteering.

Liberty Adair, M.H.A., M.S.R.S. R.T.(R)(ARRT), L.V.N., is the Imaging Center Supervisor at Hillcrest Imaging Center, part of Baylor Scott and White Health in Waco, Texas. She advocates for the profession by leading and taking part in an extraordinary number of volunteer activities. An expert in bone health, Adair supports American Bone Health in holding community wellness programs. There, she teaches elderly adults and adults who have disabilities about bone density, osteoporosis, and the importance of bone density imaging. Adair also staffs a bone health table at For Women For Life, a free annual event for women. In addition, she discusses the radiologic technologist profession with students in elementary, middle, and high school. Adair is working on her Ph.D. in health services; her dissertation examines physician and hospital collaboration on reducing fragility fractures in at-risk adults.

Elizabeth Krcik, B.S., R.T.(T)(ARRT), is a Radiation Therapist at Mercy Hospital in downtown Chicago. Previously she was a Radiation Therapist at Northwestern Medicine Chicago Proton Center (NMCPC) in Warrenville, Illinois. She has a strong interest in research, which to date has focused on NMCPC’s unique vertical CT scanner and on the safety of proton treatments for men who have prostate cancer. Krcik pioneered an immobilization method that enables patients with lung cancer to sit upright for CTs, thereby decreasing respiratory motion, elongating the lungs, and improving patient comfort. Future uses might include treatments for the abdomen. Krcik has published in the peer-reviewed journal Radiation Therapist and has presented at the American Society of Radiologic Technologists national conference and the Particle Therapy Cooperative Group—North America conference. 

Denise Yost, B.S., R.T.(R)(M)(QM)(BS), is a Breast Imaging Specialist at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, Yale New Haven Healthcare, in New London, Connecticut. She handles most of the facility’s outreach programs, educating women about the value of mammograms and providing other information about breast health. In addition, Yost serves as lead quality control technologist, a volunteer position, for her hospital and its sister facility, Westerly Hospital. In that role, she helps her facility prepare for annual Food and Drug Administration inspections. Yost also helps devise ways to improve patient experiences as an elected member of her hospital’s Unit Practice Council for Relationship Based Care. She received the Gail Pitkin Memorial Lecture Award for a talk she gave recently at the annual conference of the Connecticut Society of Radiologic Technologists.

A committee of R.T.s on staff at ARRT selected the I Am the Gold Standard winners. Adair, Krcik, and Yost will receive airfare, hotel and conference registration for a national society conference of their choice in the continental U.S. Nominees had to be currently certified and registered with ARRT.

About ARRT

ARRT promotes high standards of patient care by recognizing qualified individuals in medical imaging, interventional procedures and radiation therapy. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minn.

ARRT evaluates, certifies and annually registers more than 330,000 radiologic technologists across the United States. For more information, visit www.arrt.org.