FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- A General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital radiologist ranked second in competitive diagnosis of over 50 different unknown cases at medical diagnostic competitions in Chicago recently.

Maj. Mustafa Ali-Khan, officer in charge of Radiology here, who took second place in his category among nearly 25,000 radiologists at the 2012 Radiological Society of North America conference, was also among the top three radiological performers.

The top two finishers were both U.S. Army Radiologists, followed by the Navy, and then about 600 other radiological professionals in this category.

Ali-Khan missed only two of 100 questions as he diagnosed the unknown general radiology cases, securing his high standing.

"It just goes to show you the Army's contribution to medicine," said Ali- Khan."Year after year, we are still leading the army and the country."

Ali-Khan, known for his unconventional and patient-oriented radiological work here, isn't the typical radiologist who primarily works behind the scenes and rarely interacts with patients.

"I've seen him go out of his way to personally take a patient to a clinic. He made sure they were seen and treated properly," said Jane Keeth, ultra sound technician here.

Ali-Khan and his team also developed a new imaging protocol to find stress fractures in Soldiers far earlier than traditional x-rays.

Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography is normally used for non-musculoskeletal imaging studies such as parathyroid, cardiac and adrenal gland imaging. But his team's novel use of SPECT imaging, in conjunction with a low-dose computed tomography scan, allows radiologists to better grade stress injuries for severity.

"I can't speak for other departments, but for this division, we have top notch radiologists," said Ali-Khan.

Radiologists typically sit behind a computer all day and interpret and examine x-rays, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and CTs to determine a diagnosis.

"He's very professional, very thorough and he loves to teach. He'll go out of his way to teach his staff so that we are all on the same page," said Rick Carter, a hospital radiologist technician here.

"It was cool to compete against top radiologists who teach other radiologists," said Ali-Khan.

(Editor's note: Johnthan Matar is an infantryman assigned as a journalist to the General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital Public Affairs Office.)