Nicolas Bloch, MD

Dr. Nicolas Bloch is a professor of radiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) and an attending radiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian. He specializes in breast and prostate imaging and MRI research. Dr. Bloch is world-renowned for his work developing MRI techniques to improve the detection and treatment of breast and prostate cancer.

Dr. Bloch's contributions include the development of a novel multimodal breast biopsy marker which was patented in 2015 and received FDA clearance for clinical use in 2024. He received a Wallace H. Coulter Translational Research Partnership Award for his work on this device.

Dr. Bloch is also a pioneer of multiparametric prostate MRI, having developed a computer aided design (CAD) analysis software for prostate dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI, now used in clinical care. He was also among the first investigators to report the clinical utility of endorectal 3T MRI scanners, which markedly improve the sensitivity of the test. His early work led to the development of the first prostate MRI program in Austria, which quickly gained an international reputation, and he later helped build and lead the Prostate MRI Programs at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and Boston University Medical Center.

Dr. Bloch’s contributions to diagnostic radiology are documented in more than 60 peer-reviewed publications which have led to more than 2,500 citations. His research program has been supported by grant funding from  industry, foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Currently, he is principal investigator on several clinical trials and conducts several additional MRI studies in collaboration with other institutions in the field of AI enabled image-biomarker and classifier development in breast, prostate, and colon cancer.

He has served as associate editor and scientific editorial board member for European Radiology and as a committee member of the Scientific Review Board (GU) for RSNA. He also served on the Study Section Breast Imaging of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

A passionate educator, Dr. Bloch serves as the program director of the Breast Imaging Fellowship at Columbia in addition to his ongoing mentorship of medical students, residents, and PhD candidates. He also serves as co-director of the Master of Science in Bioimaging Program at Boston University School of Medicine. 

Dr. Bloch is fellowship trained in breast imaging, body MRI, and MRI research. He received his medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Vienna, after which he completed an internship at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and a radiology residency at Vienna General Hospital. He was then recruited to Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he completed fellowship training before joining the faculty. He has served as director of MRI at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, director of MRI Research at UMass Chan Medical School, and clinical director of the Advanced MRI Center, also at UMass Chan Medical School. He currently serves as an expert reviewer for the Board of Registration in Medicine of Massachusetts.

For a full list of Dr. Bloch's publications, visit Google Scholar.