About Jo-Anne Shepard, MD

Departments, Centers, & Programs:

Clinical Interests:

Treats:

Locations

Mass General Imaging: Thoracic Imaging and Intervention
55 Fruit St.
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-643-4723

Medical Education

  • MD, Boston University
  • Residency, Hartford Healthcare****
  • Residency, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Fellowship, VA Boston Healthcare System

American Board Certifications

  • Diagnostic Radiology, American Board of Radiology

Note: This provider may accept more insurance plans than shown; please call the practice to find out if your plan is accepted.


Research

Dr. Shepard's research interests are in the realm of thoracic imaging and intervention. Her research has focused on studying percutaneous needle biopsy of the lung, resulting in implementation of standard procedures for the appropriate selection of patients, improved diagnostic technique, and significantly improved post procedural care of biopsy patients.  The experience and skills derived from the experience with needle biopsies have led to the development of the Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) Program for lung tumors at Massachusetts General Hospital.  Her current research focuses on studying RFA of the lung in the treatment of lung tumors. She is a co-investigator in the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) pilot study of RFA in high risk patients with Stage IA non-small cell lung cancer.

The MGH recently participated in the Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis (PIOPED II), a National Institute of Health (NIH) sponsored multi-center trial in the investigation of pulmonary embolism by CT angiography (CTA) and peripheral venous thrombosis by CT venography (CTV).  Dr. Shepard oversaw the implementation of this trial within the Division of Thoracic Radiology at MGH.  The results of the PIOPED II investigation have recently been published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Shepard's clinical investigations have focused on imaging of thoracic surgical conditions including lung transplantation, diseases of the airways, and lung tumors.  She has described imaging findings on new technologies including MR imaging and FDG PET imaging characteristics of chest tumors. She has investigated the CT evaluation of incidental pulmonary nodules detected by CT leading to the development of guidelines for the follow up of pulmonary nodules published by the Fleischner Society.  Dr. Shepard is currently investigating dose reduction techniques in CT imaging of the chest.

Publications

  • Original Articles

    Stein PD, Fowler SE, Goodman LR, Gottschalk A, Hales C, Hull RD, Leeper KV, Popovich J, Quinn DA, Sos TA, Sostman HD, Tapson VF, Wakefield TW, Weg JG, Woodard PK, for the PIOPED II INVESTIGATORS* (*CT Working Group- Goodman L, Burrowes P, Hatfield B, Heiken J, Henschke C, Heyneman L, Kazerooni E, MacGregor J, McAdams H, Mcloud T, Patel S, Shepard JO*, Spizarny D, Wittram C, Woodard P, Woodcock R, Yankelevitz D). Multidetector computed tomography for acute pulmonary embolism.  N Engl J Med 2006; 354:2317-27.

    Lanuti M, Sharma A, Digumarthy SR, Wright CD, Donahue DM, Wain JC, Mathisen DJ, Shepard JO*. Radiofrequency ablation for treatment of medically inoperable stage I non-small cell lung cancer. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2009;137(1):160-6.

    Singh S, Kalra MK, Gilman M, Hsieh J, Pien HP, Digumarthy SR, Shepard JO*. Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction technique for radiation dose reduction in chest CT: A pilot study. Radiology March 2011.

    Review Articles

    Wu CC, Maher MM, Shepard JO. CME. WEB. Structured Review Article. CT-Guided Percutaneous Needle Biopsy of the Chest: Preprocedural Evaluation and Technique. Am. J. Roentgenol. ; May 2011. 196(5): 10.2214.

    Wu CC, Maher MM, Shepard JO.  CME. WEB. Structured Review Article. Complications of CT-Guided Percutaneous Needle Biopsy of the Chest: Prevention and Management  Am. J. Roentgenol. June 2011.

    Sharma A, Moore WH, Shepard, JO.  How I Do It: Radiofrequency Ablation and Cryoablation of Lung Tumors. J Thorac Imaging 2011;26:162-74.