Ellen Shaw de Paredes, a giant in breast imaging, passes away

Monongah’s breast imaging pioneer, Ellen Shaw de Paredes, passes away

Ellen Shaw de Paredes, a giant in breast imaging who grew up in Traction Park in Monongah as the daughter of Monongah High teacher Julia Shaw and graduated from West Virginia University Medical School, passed away Saturday of a heart attack and complications from endometrial cancer. She was 62.

Endometrial cancer is a uterine cancer.

Dr. de Paredes was named a WVU Distinguished Alumnus in 2008.  She was a Fairmont West and Bryn Mawr College graduate.

Dr. de Paredes founded The Ellen Shaw de Paredes Institute for Women’s Imaging and The Ellen Shaw de Paredes Research Foundation, devoted to education and research on early detection of breast cancer.  She was clinical professor of radiology at the University of Virginia and clinical professor of medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University

She is author of the textbook, “Atlas of Mammography.”

Dr. de Paredes was on the faculty in the Mammography Section at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. In 2004 she was named the YWCA Outstanding Woman of the Year for Science and Medicine.

Dr. de Paredes gave credit to her family for her successes.  She had said, “My parents, George and Julia Shaw, helped to guide my career and taught me the value of education and the importance of self-discipline.  My husband, Dr. Victor de Paredes, encouraged me to write the ‘Atlas of Mammography.’  The third edition was energized by his kind support and constant encouragement, and by the loyalty of my dog Sam who warmed my feet as I wrote every word.”

Michael Edmond, also a WVU Medical School grad and an infectious diseases physician/epidemiologist at Virginia Commonwealth Medical Center who lives in Richmond, Virginia, wrote:

“Ellen grew up in Traction Park. She was a highly regarded, superb physician.”

Donna Knight, a Mannington High grad from Bingamon who worked in the emergency room at Fairmont General Hospital, wrote:

“So sorry to hear of her passing. We were classmates in junior high school. When most kids were into TV shows she would always say, "If it's not educational I won't watch it." Always felt that was impressive.”

As late as 2006, Dr. de Paredes’ mother, Julia Shaw, was substitute teaching in Marion County in Latin, English and social studies.

“The prevailing practice among mammography centers was to notify patients of results by phone or mail in the days following imaging,” said Cassandra Wright, who first learned of Dr. de Paredes in Charlottesville, where the former was studying breast cancer survivors and the latter had worked at the University of Virginia.

“Dr. de Paredes thought this was terrible because it created unnecessary anxiety among the majority of patients who were going to get normal results. So she offered her patients the opportunity to sit down with her and receive the findings immediately.”

That empathy was evident throughout her life, Dr. de Paredes’ husband, Victor, wrote Saturday.

There was never “a hint of arrogance or superiority” in her work, he wrote.

“I know that there are more lofty words to describe her and her work, but … I don’t use them because she never liked embellishment.”

In Dr. de Paredes’ obituary, her husband wrote, “I am writing this note for myself and for those innumerable friends who were swayed by her unique charisma, her generosity, her joy, her deep knowledge in the field of breast imaging and her outstanding leadership as a mentor and educator.”

She began her career in Richmond in 1979 as a radiology resident after earning her undergraduate degree from Bryn Mawr College and her medical degree from West Virginia University.

Before going into private practice, she worked at the University of Virginia and the Medical College of Virginia, where she held the Veronica Donovan Sweeney Professorship for the Chief of Breast Imaging.

A teacher throughout her career, she helped train generations of physicians who followed her and contributed dozens of articles, book chapters and presentations to the literature in her field. She also completed three editions of her book “Atlas of Film-Screen Mammography."

In an op-ed column early this year, Dr. de Paredes strongly advocated continued use of mammography in the face of what she called “confusing news” about its value .“When I diagnose a small, early breast cancer on an annual mammogram, I know that the treatment options and prognosis are so much better for that woman than for a woman who presents with an advanced cancer and no prior mammography,” she wrote.

Dr. de Paredes warned, “If women do not continue to have screening mammography according to established medical guidelines, we risk a reversal of the statistics and an unfortunate rise in breast cancer deaths again.”

Funeral arrangements are incomplete.