This year, the main theme of the International Day of Radiology is emergency radiology. To get some insight into the field, we spoke to Moscow radiologist and radiology educator Dr. Elvira Akchurina, a senior radiologist in the Radiology Department of a Federal Center of Treatment and Rehabilitation in Moscow, Russia.

European Society of Radiology: Could you please describe the role of the radiologist in a typical emergency department in your country?
Elvira Akchurina: In our hospital, there is a radiologist on duty at night. The radiologist gets a request for an emergency study and gets acquainted with the case. In complicated cases, and if time permits, the radiologist speaks with the patient or emergency physician to understand the trauma and selects the best diagnostic approach. Radiologists control the examination and interpret its results. Then they discuss the radiologic findings with the emergency physician.

Dr. Elvira Akchurina, MD, PhD, works as a senior radiologist in the Radiology Department of a Federal Center of Treatment and Rehabilitation in Moscow, Russia.

ESR: What does a typical day in the emergency department look like for a radiologist?
EA: Usually it’s a busy day with lots of cases. During breaks radiologists interpret nonemergency cases.

ESR: Teamwork is crucial in an emergency department. How is this accomplished in your department and who is involved?
EA: Effective teamwork is the only way to get the correct diagnosis quickly. Timely diagnosis is crucial for finding the optimal treatment plan in emergency cases. In our department, we use a picture archiving and communication system (PACS), radiological information system (RIS) and hospital information system (HIS), and radiologists have access to patients’ charts. And, of course, the radiologist discusses the clinical history and key imaging findings with the referring physician.

ESR: How satisfied are you with the workflow and your role in your department? How do you think it could be improved?
EA: I like the organisation of workflow in my department and the friendly atmosphere between physicians and nurses. I think it would be better if emergency physicians would offer radiologists more clinical-history detail on patients and provide clearer indication for the examination.

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This year, the main theme of the International Day of Radiology is emergency radiology. To get some insight into the field, we spoke to Dr. Kathia Chaumoître, professor and head of the radiology department at North Hospital, Aix Marseille University, France.

European Society of Radiology: Could you please describe the role of the radiologist in a typical emergency department in your country?
Kathia Chaumoître: There are constant interactions between the emergency department and the imaging department. The radiologist is involved in every aspect of patient management: discussion about indication, choice of the best imaging technique, realisation or management of the examination, interpretation and transmittal of results.

Dr. Kathia Chaumoître is professor and head of the radiology department at North Hospital, Aix Marseille University, France.

ESR: What does a typical day in the emergency department look like for a radiologist?
KC: There is not always a dedicated team of radiologists for emergencies during the day. That depends on the size of the institution. Emergency imaging can be mixed with scheduled examinations, or it can be separated, with dedicated CT or MRI scanners. On nights and weekends there is a radiologist on site or on call for ultrasound, CT and MRI. There also are specific teams for interventional radiology, interventional neuroradiology and paediatric radiology, in the case of a teaching hospital.

ESR: Teamwork is crucial in an emergency department. How is this accomplished in your department and who is involved?
KC: In my department, all radiologists are involved in emergency work as part of their schedule. There is a dedicated CT unit for the emergency department (and two additional CT units for scheduled exams); two conventional x-rays rooms in the emergency department, one each for adults and children; and two ultrasound emergency rooms, one for adults and one for paediatric emergencies. Also, there are dedicated time slots for emergency MRIs.

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This year, the main theme of the International Day of Radiology is emergency radiology. To get some insight into the field, we spoke to Dr. Radu Baz, an associate professor of radiology and head of the radiology department at Clinical County Hospital of Constanta, Romania.

European Society of Radiology: Could you please describe the role of the radiologist in a typical emergency department in your country?
Radu Baz: The radiologist is one of the most important members of emergency-service teams in Romania’s major hospitals. Radiologists here must examine and formulate rapid results for a large number of patients.
Because many emergency hospitals don’t have radiology imaging in emergency departments, radiologists dictate cases from the radiology department on emergency devices. In just one 24-hour period radiologists in our department dictated 220 x-rays, 70 ultrasounds and 45 CTs.

ESR: What does a typical day in the emergency department look like for a radiologist?
RB: Shifts start at 8:00, 14:00 and 20:00. During the morning and afternoon shifts there are three radiologists for conventional radiography, CT and MRI; ultrasound examinations often are conducted by the colleague responsible for conventional radiography. In most emergency hospitals, there are two radiologists on call: one who provides ultrasound and standard radiological assessments, and another for emergency CTs.

Dr. Radu Baz is an associate professor of radiology and head of the radiology department at Clinical County Hospital of Constanta, Romania.

Imaging (e.g. radiographic, CT and MRI) examinations are performed by radiology technicians or nurses, often under the direct supervision of physicians, who prioritise all cases. Physicians perform ultrasound examinations. Images are immediately transmitted to the hospital network for the use of clinicians and emergency physicians. Radiologists interpret images immediately from the x-ray console or from work stations in the reading room. Also, radiologists review complex cases in detail with clinician colleagues to assure proper case management.

ESR: Teamwork is crucial in an emergency department. How is this accomplished in your department and who is involved?
RB: Yes, indeed. Teamwork is essential in an emergency department. Direct and immediate collaboration with radiologists and their clinician colleagues helps us get through difficult cases. There often are situations when we call to ask advice from a radiologist colleague or ask to examine images while collecting clinical data. Also, there often are situations when we simply need to consult with a clinician on a case for a more in-depth approach.

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This year, the main theme of the International Day of Radiology is emergency radiology. To get some insight into the field, we spoke to Swiss radiologist Prof. Pierre-Alexandre Poletti, currently in charge of the emergency radiology unit and vice-chairman of the radiology service at the University Hospital of Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland.

European Society of Radiology: Could you please describe the role of the radiologist in a typical emergency department in your country?
Pierre-Alexandre Poletti: Emergency radiologists in Switzerland adhere to the most appropriate imaging protocols and algorithms for emergency patients to optimise and expedite the radiological management of emergency-department patients in term of quality of care and improvement of workflow.
Also, radiologists have to teach the fundamentals and the specifics of emergency radiology to the radiology residents in the emergency department. They must establish links and close collaborations between the emergency radiology team and the various subspecialties in radiology.

Prof. Pierre-Alexandre Poletti is currently in charge of the emergency radiology unit and vice-chairman of the radiology service at the University Hospital of Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland.

ESR: What does a typical day in the emergency department look like for a radiologist?
PAP: As part of their workflow, emergency radiologists work using various imaging modalities (mainly CT, ultrasound and conventional radiology) chosen to adapt to the specific clinical suspicions of the emergency physician. The senior radiologists supervise the examinations performed by the residents to discuss specific problems they may have. The radiologists participate in multidisciplinary events, such as case presentations, journal clubs, and morbidity and mortality meetings.

ESR: Teamwork is crucial in the emergency department. How is this accomplished in your department and who is involved?
PAP: Representatives of the radiological team have regular meetings with various emergency-team members to address the radiological and clinical-management concerns of emergency patients. Complex problems, such as the optimisation of imaging protocols and algorithms, are referred to small reflection groups, who will meet and return to their colleagues with a proposed solution.

ESR: How satisfied are you with the workflow and your role in your department? How do you think it could be improved?
PAP: Workflow is one of the main problems radiologists face in the emergency room, especially as it relates to CT imaging. Indeed, in our institution, like probably in many other hospitals, the number of CT examinations performed annually has increased by more than 300% (4,500 to 15,000) over a 15-years period, while emergency department admissions have increased only by about 10% during the same period. The satisfaction of emergency radiologists is linked directly to their ability to solve problems associated with this increased workload: long wait times for CT scans; psychological effects of heavy workloads on the radiological team; and disagreement with clinician colleagues regarding patient triage for the scanner. Read more…

This year, the main theme of the International Day of Radiology is emergency radiology. To get some insight into the field, we spoke to Dr. Anton Nosov, MD, head of the radiology department at the Kyiv City Children’s Diagnostic Center in Kyiv, Ukraine

European Society of Radiology: Could you please describe the role of the radiologist in a typical emergency department in your country?
Anton Nosov: In our country, the role of a radiologist in the emergency department depends on situations outside of the hospital. Usually, radiologists are members of a multidisciplinary team, where they provide high quality, timely final readings for patients, which guarantees that decisions are made in consensus.
But everything changes in the case of extreme conditions, such as an unexpected military conflict (as we faced in eastern Ukraine) or other situations with enormous casualties (e.g. technogenic disasters or terrorist attacks). Such situations require rapid decision-making in conditions where there is a shortage of medical staff. In those cases, radiologists must draw quick conclusions directly from CTs or x-rays based on triage priority to ensure the survival of the most patients. This is a difficult job psychologically.

Anton Nosov, MD is a radiologist with a special clinical and research interest in emergency radiology.

ESR: What does a typical day in the emergency department look like for a radiologist?
AN: Of course, in the emergency department we face many cases every day, but the vast majority of them are trauma cases.
Trauma is a tremendous burden for hospitals and healthcare systems, affecting 135 million people worldwide annually. In Ukraine, the majority of these injuries are caused by motor-vehicle accidents, falls from heights and violent altercations.
The most pressing concern of any trauma team is stopping active haemorrhage, which is the most common cause of death in polytrauma patients.
Modern trauma management heavily relies on imaging, particularly CT scans. Most major centres now forego plain x-ray imaging in favour of diagnostic CT, which provides much higher sensitivity and can detect any active extravasation or bleeding. Our evidence suggests that well-timed use of CT increases the chance of survival in polytraumatised patients.

ESR: Teamwork is crucial in the emergency department. How is this accomplished in your department and who is involved?
AN: A multidisciplinary team is the only way to approach complex cases, such as polytrauma. We don’t have a fixed trauma team, but usually such a team consists of an anaesthesiologist, a radiologist, and a trauma surgeon or neurosurgeon. Trauma surgeons often serve as the case managers. The anaesthesiologist initiates ventilation of the patient; the radiologist interprets the imaging studies, and the trauma surgeon manages the case.

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This year, the main theme of the International Day of Radiology is emergency radiology. To get some insight into the field, we spoke to Dr. Elizabeth Dick, BSc, MD, consultant radiologist and honorary senior lecturer at Imperial College London, United Kingdom.

European Society of Radiology: Could you please describe the role of the radiologist in a typical emergency department in your country?
Elizabeth Dick: It varies. In many hospitals, traditional model remains; radiology and emergency departments are distant from each other. There may be one or two consultant radiologists with an interest in emergency imaging who are the ‘go to’ radiologists for the emergency team during the day. After hours, on-call radiologists will be the point of contact, but they are busy with many services, and increasingly may be remote from the hospital they cover.

Dr. Elizabeth Dick, BSc, MD has worked as a consultant radiologist and honorary senior lecturer at Imperial College London since 2002.

Teleradiology often is used to deliver after-hours care, with obvious advantages. The result is an inevitable loss of personal interaction between the radiology and emergency departments. However, set against this traditional model is the ‘gold standard’. Since 2010, a network of major trauma centres was set up across the UK to deliver excellence in trauma care. In these centres, radiologists usually are an integral part of the trauma team, and the CT scanner is usually co-located in the emergency department. This has a ripple effect: Not only is trauma imaging improved, with resulting lower morbidity and mortality, but all emergency patients benefit from a closer relationship between radiologists and the emergency department team.

ESR: What does a typical day in the emergency department look like for a radiologist?
ED: I start my day at 7am by checking all the reports from the night before so that I can speak to the emergency teams as they do their ward rounds at 8am. Our radiology registrars and residents do two, twelve-hour shifts (8am to 8pm), so this is a good opportunity for the on-call registrars to discuss cases they found particularly challenging. Like all hospitals, we perform more imaging examinations each year. On average, there are at least 25 patients who get imaging (mainly CT) overnight, which means a huge responsibility for the radiology registrars on call. Although they may reach out to the duty consultant during their call, for most scans, registrars issue a report based on their own findings. We regularly audit their reports, and the discrepancy rate is very low – probably due to the fact that they strive to work hard to learn. Also, they get a lot of training and support before, during and after being on call.

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Dear Friends,

Over the last couple of years, one of the last sessions at the ECR has always covered 20 interesting cases from various subspecialties, which the audience is asked to solve in an interactive way to broaden and update their knowledge.

In between, the very best submissions from the global radiological community have been presented in an interlude lecture. The best submission has always been awarded with a prize and a certificate.

Due to time limits, not all submitted cases can actually be shown onsite, but the session’s rising popularity has resulted in increasing numbers of submissions of excellent quality. This is why we would like to give our submitters the opportunity to reach a broader audience by posting the best cases here on the ESR Blog.

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An exclusive interview with the incoming ESR President

ECR Today spoke with the incoming ESR President, Prof. Bernd Hamm, from Berlin, Germany, to learn about his ideas for next year’s congress.

ECR Today: You were already ECR Congress President in 2015. How did you come to be president again in 2018?

Bernd Hamm is professor of radiology and chairman of all three merged departments of radiology at the Charité, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Freie Universität (Campus Mitte, Campus Virchow-Klinikum, and Campus Benjamin Franklin). He is also clinical director of the Charité Center, which includes radiology, neuroradiology, nuclear medicine and medical physics.

Bernd Hamm: This is not the first time that I have been asked: “why are you president again?” It was a great pleasure and responsibility to be the ECR President in 2015. For many years, we had two presidents – one to manage the affairs of the European Society of Radiology (ESR) and another to organise the society’s annual congress (ECR). And frankly, in my opinion this was a good division of labour. However, “the times they are a changin’ …” and, therefore, our society changed its statutes, and now we only have one president, who is both President of the ECR and President of the ESR.

This new combined ESR/ECR President begins his or her term of office at the end of each ECR by organising and chairing the next ECR and then the following year, as Chairman of the Board, focuses on professional and administrative business of the ESR. For me, this means a double honour and double responsibility. When I was elected to be the congress president for ECR 2015, I made a great effort to make the ECR a success and I will do my best to make ECR 2018 a success too.

However, I wish to underline that the ECR is a team effort and that the Programme Planning Committee with its brilliant members is a major asset in compiling an attractive scientific programme and that the organisation of a congress like the ECR is not possible without the highly professional staff of the ESR Office. Working together with many colleagues from many countries and different fields of radiology is very inspiring and is what ultimately underlies an attractive congress. This joint effort is rewarding and enlightening.

ECRT: As a motto for ECR 2018 you chose ‘Diverse and United’. Could you tell us a little about this?

BH: Radiology is such a diverse specialty, ranging from more and more refined diagnostic options to image-guided minimally invasive treatment options. Our specialty has something to offer for all of us and also for future generations of physicians, radiographers and students. However, like in a mosaic, it is the connection of all the pieces that create the big picture. By using this metaphor I wish to express my sincere wish and hope that, despite these different and interesting facets and subspecialties, radiologists should see themselves as a community and join forces to strengthen our specialty in the best interest of our patients.

In 2015 we also had a motto – ‘Radiology without borders’. In the beginning of 2015, none of us would have expected to see new fences being erected in Europe and borders becoming important once again. In view of these tendencies, it is even more important for our scientific community to practice radiology without borders and to advance our specialty through free academic discourse and by benefiting from a diversity of ideas.

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Watch the European Radiology 25^th Anniversary session live on ECR Online, Friday, March 3, 16:00–17:30, Room Z
#ECR2017 

25 years of success for the three editors-in-chief of European Radiology: Albert L. Baert, Adrian K. Dixon, Maximilian F. Reiser.

The ESR’s flagship journal, European Radiology, celebrated 25 years of publication in 2016. We spoke to Prof. Albert L. Baert, the journal’s Editor-in-Chief from 1995 to 2007, Prof. Adrian K. Dixon, who headed European Radiology from 2008 until 2013, and our current Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Maximilian F. Reiser. Together, they gave us a comprehensive account of the journal’s development during the last quarter of a century.

 ECR Today: How have you seen the journal develop during the past 25 years?

Albert L. Baert: During this time period the number of published articles has increased spectacularly from 60 articles per year in the first issues to more than 400 per year now. For example, no less than 4,674 pages were published in 2016! European Radiology is now one of the most widely distributed and read scientific journals in the world. Simultaneously, the scientific level of the contents has improved steadily over the years as proven by the current excellent Impact Factor ranking.

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Guest article by ESOR Director, Prof. Nicholas Gourtsoyiannis

Nicholas Gourtsoyiannis is the Educational & Scientific Director of the European School of Radiology (ESOR) and chairman of the ESR’s ESOR Committee.

The European School of Radiology (ESOR) has completed ten years in action. Ten challenging and rewarding years of unfailing commitment and continuous investment in radiological education in Europe. Ten years of envisioning, engaging, delivering, teaching, tutoring, nurturing, and adding value to radiology.

The three main goals of ESOR are still to assist in harmonising radiological education throughout Europe, by supporting the implementation of the European Training Curricula (ETC); to build a genuine and firm interest in subspecialisation in radiology; and to raise the scientific profile of radiological education in Europe and worldwide.

The past ten years of ESOR have been marked by an outstanding growth in a wide range of modular activities, including foundation and advanced courses, teach-the-teachers and visiting professorship programmes, visiting schools, seminars, tutorials, preparatory courses for the European Diploma in Radiology (EDiR), scholarships, exchange programmes for fellowships and full one-year fellowships. So far, ESOR has delivered structured continuing education to almost 17,000 residents and board-certified radiologists worldwide, through 800 programmes.

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