Pat Basu, MD, attending radiologist at Stanford University and Palo Alto VA Hospital in California, has received a presidential appointment as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the President.

Basu is the first radiologist to receive such an appointment and one of only a few physicians to serve in this role, according to the American College of Radiology (ACR). At Stanford, he is course director of health policy, finance and economics. He is a former Rutherford Fellow in the ACR Washington, D.C. office. Basu has also served as a member of the ACR Resident and Fellow Section.

White House fellows typically spend a year working as a full-time, paid fellow to senior White House staff, cabinet secretaries and other government officials. Fellows also participate in an education program consisting of roundtable discussions with representatives from the private and public sectors and trips to study U.S. policy in action both domestically and internationally. Fellowships are awarded on a strictly non-partisan basis.

Responsibilities range from chairing interagency meetings and designing and implementing federal policies to drafting speeches for cabinet secretaries to represent their agencies on Capitol Hill, the ACR reported.