Dorothy Gilbertson-Dahdal, MD, FACR

Professor, Medical Imaging and Pediatrics
Vice Chair, Education
Chief, Pediatric Radiology
Program Director, Diagnostic Radiology Residency

Dorothy Gilbertson-Dahdal, MD, is Professor and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Radiology at the University of Arizona, Department of Medical Imaging. She holds joint appointments as Professor of Medical Imaging and Professor of Pediatrics in the College of Medicine-Tucson. 

As Vice Chair of Education, Dr. Gilbertson serves as Residency Program Director with the added responsibility of overseeing the subspecialty fellowships within the department of Medical Imaging. She is a member of the Medical Imaging Executive Committee and serves on numerous committees at the level of the department, at the College of Medicine, for Banner University Medical Center as well as the American Board of Radiology, Association of University Radiologists and the American Roentgen Ray Society.

Dr. Gilbertson oversees Diamond Children's Image Gently Program, a national safety campaign to lower radiation dose when imaging children. She has a special interest in congenital cardiac imaging as well as urologic and gastrointestinal MRI.

Dr. Gilbertson was named Fellow of the American College of Radiology in 2024. A recipient of the 2019 College of Medicine Faculty Mentoring Award, Dr. Gilbertson is also named as Tucson’s Top Doctor by Castle & Connelly for the last 10 years and Exceptional Women in Medicine for 7 years.

Dr. Gilbertson-Dahdal completed her pediatric radiology fellowship training at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. She is board certified by the American Board of Radiology in Diagnostic Radiology with a certificate of added qualification in Pediatric Radiology.

Research Interests: 

Utilization of MRI to evaluate pediatric abdominal pain

Degrees
  • Albany Medical College, 2000
Honors and Awards
  • Castle Connolly Top Doctors 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014
  • UArizona College of Medicine-Tucson, Faculty Mentoring Award, 2019
  • Castle Connelly Exceptional Women in Medicine 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017
Internship
  • Columbia University/Mary Imogene Bassett (2000-2001): Medicine
Residency
  • Albany Medical Center (2001-2005): Diagnostic Radiology
Fellowship
  • Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University (2005-2006): Pediatric Radiology
Board Certifications
  • ABR (2006) with CAQ in Pediatric Radiology (2008)

Select Publications

2022

M, S., L. M, D. S, and G-D. D, "Midgut malrotation and volvulus presenting outside of the newborn period", Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports, vol. 79, 04/2022.

2021

Sawyer, D. M., R. Mushtaq, S. Vedantham, F. Shareef, S. M. Desoky, H. Arif-Tiwari, D. L. Gilbertson-Dahdal, and U. K. Udayasankar, "Performance of overnight on-call radiology residents in interpreting unenhanced abdominopelvic magnetic resonance imaging studies performed for pediatric right lower quadrant abdominal pain.", Pediatr Radiol, 2021 Mar 10.

2020

Larson, M., B. Skidmore, D. Gilbertson-Dahdal, and S. Desoky, "Late-presenting midgut volvulus", Submitted for Publication, 2020.
Warner, J., S. Desoky, H. Arif Tiwari, F. Morello, D. Gilbertson, and U. Udayasankar, "Unenhanced MRI of the Abdomen and Pelvis in the Comprehensive Evaluation of Acute Atraumatic Abdominal Pain in Children.", AJR Am J Roentgenol, pp. 1-11, 2020 Sep 09.

2019

Mushtaq, R., S. Desoky, F. Morello, D. Gilbertson-Dahdal, S. Vedantham, B. Kalb, D. Martin, and U. Udayasankar, First-Line Diagnostic Evaluation of Children with Suspected Acute Appendicitis using MRI, 2019.
Mushtaq, R., S. M. Desoky, F. Morello, D. Gilbertson-Dahdal, G. Gopalakrishnan, A. Leetch, S. Vedantham, B. Kalb, D. R. Martin, and U. K. Udayasankar, "First-Line Diagnostic Evaluation with MRI of Children Suspected of Having Acute Appendicitis.", Radiology, vol. 291, issue 1, pp. 170-177, 2019 04.

2018

Desoky, S., RI. Kylat, U. Udayasankar, and D. Gilbertson-Dahdal, Managing Neonatal Intestinal Obstruction: Clinical Perspectives, 2018.

2016

Duke, E., B. Kalb, H. Arif-Tiwari, Z. John Daye, D. Gilbertson-Dahdal, S. M. Keim, and D. R. Martin, "A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Diagnostic Performance of MRI for Evaluation of Acute Appendicitis.", AJR Am J Roentgenol, vol. 206, issue 3, pp. 508-17, 2016 Mar.

2015

Becker, J., W. Kubal, S. Hur, R. Khan, R. Inampudi, R. Carmody, D. Gilbertson-Dahdal, R. Buckner, and K. Nael, "The Utility of a Rapid 13-Minute MRI Protocol for Evaluation of the Pediatric Brain Following Intracranial Trauma", American Society of Neuroradiology: American Society of Neuroradiology, 04/2015.
Becker, J., W. Kubal, S. Hur, R. Khan, R. Inampudi, R.(3) Carmody, and D.(2) Gilbertson-Dahdal, The Utility of a Rapid 13-Minute MRI Protocol for Evaluation of the Pediatric Brain Following Intracranial Trauma, 2015.

2014

Emerson, M., S. Desoky, and D. Gilbertson-Dahdal, The Great Imitator: A Case Report of Congenital Syphilis, 05/2014.
Gilbertson-Dahdal, D., J. E. Wright, E. Krupinski, W. E. McCurdy, and M. S. Taljanovic, "Transphyseal involvement of pyogenic osteomyelitis is considerably more common than classically taught.", AJR Am J Roentgenol, vol. 203, issue 1, pp. 190-5, 2014 Jul.
Emerson, M., G. Woodhead, S. Desoky, and D. Gilbertson-Dahdal, An Introduction to PPB: A Case Report of Pleuropulmonary Blastoma, 05/2014.