guest post by Dr. Rowland Illing, Affidea Chief Medical Officer

The healthcare industry as a whole has become increasingly sub-specialised, some would say fragmented. Many more healthcare professionals are involved in each patient’s care than in the past and this has both advantages and disadvantages. Amidst the complexity, there is a risk of losing focus on the patient. As with all advanced healthcare practices, the trend in radiology will, or at the very least should, tend towards a patient-centred approach to care provision. Coordinating such a vast system of referral, diagnosis, treatment and recovery therapy is a complex job in itself. The personal touch is all too easily forgotten. Services are delivered in a way that fits the system, rather than with actual patient needs.

The human factor in providing healthcare services

The challenge for the future will not be in advancing technology even further, that progress is well under way. Rather the challenge is to re-orientate today’s healthcare around the patient and develop treatments, therapies and processes that provide a holistic solution to their given healthcare needs.

Read more…

ECR Today spoke with the new ESR/ECR President, Prof. Paul M. Parizel, from Antwerp, Belgium, to learn about this new position, his visions for the society and his ideas for next year’s congress.

Prof. Paul M. Parizel, chairman of Antwerp University Hospital’s department of radiology and full professor of radiology at the University of Antwerp’s faculty of medicine, is the incoming ESR/ECR President.

ECR Today: You are the first officer of the European Society of Radiology to take on the new position of combined ESR/ECR President. Could you please briefly explain to our readers how this change came about and what it means? What are your main tasks and responsibilities in this position?
Paul M. Parizel: It is a great honour, and also a huge responsibility, to assume this new position of combined ESR/ECR President. The ESR is one of the most important and prestigious international scientific societies, with more than 63,000 members throughout the world. The ECR is well established as the foremost congress in radiology in Europe. Until a few years ago, nominations and elections for the ‘cursus honorum’ of the ECR and ESR were made independently of each other. This implies that we have had brilliant presidents of our society, who never became president of the congress, and vice versa. As both the society and the congress were getting bigger, and more mature, it was decided to re-evaluate and retune the strategic plan and to change the statutes so that appointments were fully integrated, instead of running on parallel tracks, as was previously the case. Bringing the congress and the society under one and the same leadership umbrella is an efficient way to better utilise our resources (human, political and financial). I am convinced that this will improve communication with our members, enhance our international standing and facilitate relationships with other societies and with the industry.
This combined ESR/ECR presidency is certainly a daunting task, and I admit that I am a little bit nervous. On the other hand, I can rely on the work of my predecessors and especially on the creative input and unflagging energy of my friends and colleagues of the Board of Directors, the Executive Council, the statutory committees, subcommittees, working groups, and, last but not least, the experience, professionalism and efficiency of the ESR staff. Our society is healthy, both politically and financially, and we are steering a stable and steady course.

Read more…

Dear Friends, dear Colleagues

I hope you are looking forward to the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) 2016 as much as I am. Every year I love being at this wonderful event and it is a great privilege to be taking part as the Congress President this year. The task of putting together the programme for this year’s congress has been long, but very enjoyable, and I would now like to introduce a few of the highlights to you.

ECR 2016 Congress President, Prof. Katrine Riklund, from Umeå University Hospital, Sweden.

First of all, the ‘ESR meets’ sessions are always among the most anticipated every year and are a great example of how our congress brings people together from throughout the world. This year you will have the chance to learn about some fascinating topics, such as breast radiology in the Nordic countries, state-of-the-art radiology in Japan, and the transition from practice to reality in Colombia. It is important to note that these sessions are not aimed just at attendees from the guest countries, but at everyone, with the idea that you can discover something new. The same can be said of our guest discipline, nuclear medicine, which will feature in a joint session on hybrid imaging. You can also witness the launch of the new European Society for Hybrid Medical Imaging (ESHI) at the congress, and I encourage you to visit the ESHI booth in the entrance hall, where you can pick plenty of information about the new society.

The new formats introduced to the educational programme last year, under the European Excellence in Education E3 heading, will remain this year, which means you will find sessions with the right level of complexity, wherever you are in your professional development. From the Rising Stars Programme to the ECR Master Classes, there is something to suit everyone, and the sessions are marked with the knowledge level they are intended for. I strongly suggest seeking out your level and making the most of these sessions.

Read more…

The winners of the ECR 2015 Cases of the Day Quiz are as follows:

Michael Camerlinck; Antwerp/BE
Ricardo Correia; Porto/PT
David Durany; Lleida/ES
Yasuyuki Onishi; Kurashiki/JP
Filip Vanhoenacker; Antwerp/BE
Rikiya Yamashita; Kyoto/JP
Phey Yeap; Dundee/UK

To view the cases please click here.

Congratulations to all winners!

ECR Today spoke with ECR 2016 Congress President, Prof. Katrine Åhlström Riklund, deputy head of the department of radiation sciences and director of the medical school at Umeå University, Sweden, to find out a little bit about next year’s annual meeting.

ECR 2016 Congress President, Prof. Katrine Åhlström Riklund, from Umeå, Sweden.

ECR Today: What will be the highlights of ECR 2016?
Katrine Åhlström Riklund: It is hard to tell what the specific highlights will be more than one year ahead, due to the rapid development of imaging. The highlights will be the entire congress through its well-developed programme, which covers the whole range of education from student level to advanced subspecialists. I should say the added content of hybrid imaging in several sessions would make the programme even more attractive. Besides the educational and scientific programme, the grand opening ceremony and social activities will also be memorable events.

ECRT: Will there be any new additions to the programme?
KAR: As always, there will be innovations at the ECR. The content of hybrid imaging will be spread across several sessions and not in one single session. The new session formats introduced at ECR 2015, with the European Excellence in Education (E3) programme – divided into five levels (the Rising Stars programme, European Diploma Prep Sessions and Beauty of Basic Knowledge programme, ECR Academies and ECR Master Classes) will be continued. These levels cover the entire span from undergraduate medical education to subspecialised continuing professional development. Getting involved in the sessions is important for retaining knowledge.

Read more…

ECR Today spoke with the incoming ESR President, Prof. Lluís Donoso Bach, Director of the Diagnostic Imaging Department of the Hospital Clínic of the University of Barcelona and Executive Director of the UDIAT Diagnostic Centre at the Health Corporation Parc Taulí, to find out about his plans for the ESR over the coming year.

New ESR President, Prof. Lluís Donoso Bach

ECR Today: What will be your priorities as ESR President?
Lluís Donoso Bach: The ESR has a good track record in education and we will continue to innovate through the ECR. We will also open new learning centres in Vienna and Bogotá and are planning a further centre in Moscow.
Because of the financial crisis, it is more important than ever that we develop efficient systems, so we will increasingly rely on electronic, web-based services for our members. This is why we decided to launch the ESR eLearning Platform. This represents a big challenge, and we will see how it works as a business model and how our members use the platform throughout the year. We will also try to offer an examination for the European Diploma in Radiology online. There are a lot of experiences and successful models to draw inspiration from.
We will also continue our efforts in research through the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR). The ESR Research Committee has been working a lot on the quantification of data using biomarkers and biobanks, focusing in particular on oncology and trying to have more influence in that area. Quality and safety is another very important issue for us. During ECR 2015, we launched ESR iGuide, a clinical decision support system for European imaging referral guidelines, following the example set by the American College of Radiology with ACR Select.
We also want to offer our members tools to improve quality in their departments. The ESR Quality, Safety and Standards Committee has thus created Level 1 clinical audit templates based on safety. We should also explore the possibility of performing quality controls at the level of department management.
Lobbying with European institutions has been an important field of battle for us in the past few years, and we will consolidate our action in this field keeping the momentum and relying on the personal contacts and networks established over the past years. We launched a Call for a European Action Plan for Medical Imaging in the European Parliament on November 4, to highlight existing heterogeneities in medical imaging in Europe in the areas of quality and safety, education and training, research, and eHealth, and to call for joint targeted actions to improve harmonisation in these areas.

Read more…

Watch this session on ECR Live: Sunday, March 8, 8:30–10:00, Room E1
Tweet #ECR2015E1 #NH17

Besides personalised imaging, a new paradigm is emerging in radiology that should re-shape clinical practice and benefit the patient immensely. Supported by new technologies that enable radiologists to image the body faster and better, radiologists are now trying to broaden their focus during examinations.

If there is a field where these advances make a tremendous difference, it is cardiothoracic imaging, an area where diseases are more often than not intertwined. Cardiovascular and chest radiologists will explain how the comprehensive personalised approach impacts their work and try to convince radiologists on both sides to take an interest in the other, in a New Horizons session on Sunday at the ECR.

For years, the trend was for radiologists to subspecialise as much as they could. Cardiovascular radiologists and chest radiologists would focus on their own area with little or no interest beyond that. But among these subspecialists, an increasing number are now changing their approach, as mounting evidence shows that diseases of the heart and chest are very often related, according to Dr. Christian Loewe, deputy head of the section of cardiovascular and interventional radiology at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria.

Dr. Christian Loewe is deputy head of the cardiovascular and interventional radiology section at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria.

“In the past patients were investigated by either focusing on chest or cardiac diseases. This choice was mainly driven by their first clinical examination. However, there are a lot of situations and diseases where chest problems are caused by cardiac diseases and vice versa. There’s a huge interaction between heart and chest, and that’s why it’s interesting and important to look at this relationship in more detail today,” he said.

To prove his point, Loewe, a cardiovascular radiologist, will talk about acute and chronic chest pain during the session. Some of the most severe causes of chest pain are due to cardiovascular diseases, including myocardial infarction or acute aortic diseases. However, acute chest pain can also be caused by a number of pulmonary diseases, including pulmonary embolism, pneumonia and others. Therefore, radiologists must learn the different life-threatening disorders that cause chest pain, whether they are respiratory or cardiovascular.

Read more…

Every Scientific Session at ECR 2015 includes a vote for the best paper of the session. Below are all of the winners for Saturday, March 7. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Winner: SS 1402 – B-0920 Paola Clauser
Joint Winner: SS 1406 – B-0930 Jamal Guenoun
Joint Winner: SS 1406 – B-0938 Philipp M. Kazmierczak
Joint Winner: SS 1410 – B-0941 Freek de Bruin
Joint Winner: SS 1410 – B-0947 Guillaume Lefebvre
Winner: SS 1411 – B-0958 & B-0959 Hanne Christensen
Winner: SS 1416 – B-0967 Francesco Giganti
Winner: SS 1401 – B-0978 Francesco Carbonetti
Joint Winner: SS 1404 – B-0987 Elodie Gyssels
Joint Winner: SS 1404 – B-0990 Ilaria Merli
Joint Winner: SS 1404 – B-0991 Maria T.A. Buzan
Winner: SS 1409 – B-0993 Pierleone Lucatelli
Winner: SS 1407 – B-1009 Andreas M. Hötker
Winner: SS 1414 – B-1015 Martin W. Kusk

Since the discovery of the x-ray, radiology and radiation oncology have been sister disciplines. Recent progress has brought increasing points of interaction between the two and this is no better exemplified than by the close relationship between the ESR and the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO). The two societies will host a joint session at ECR 2015 focusing on this partnership and opportunities for future collaboration. To find out more about the session, ECR Today spoke to session co-chairman and ESTRO president, Prof. Philip Poortmans, of the Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands.

Prof. Philip Poortmans, President of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, will moderate today’s joint session on radiology and radiation oncology.

ECR Today: How was this joint session between the ESR and ESTRO first initiated?
Philip Poortmans: The time of medical specialties working on their own is over. It is now all about cooperation and multidisciplinarity. Often when we talk about multidisciplinarity, people think only about doctors who are directly involved in treating the patient. In the case of breast cancer, for example, this would then be the surgeon, the radiation oncologist, the medical oncologist and in several countries also the gynaecologist. People often forget about diagnostic specialists like the pathologist and the radiologist. Radiation oncology is very closely linked to imaging in general; both to radiology and to nuclear medicine. So it is a field that is very important for us and a specialty with which it is essential for us to cooperate closely. For many years, ESTRO has run courses with contributions from radiologists and nuclear medicine specialists to teach our young colleagues, or colleagues who want CME, about the contribution of the diagnostic specialties. So this is not new at all. ESTRO and the ESR have an especially close relationship, with the former president of ESTRO, Prof. Vincenzo Valentini, and the ESR president, Prof. Lorenzo Bonomo, working in the same hospital. People in such positions who know each other very well can facilitate this process of close collaboration which then benefits us all. Of course, this means that last year we already had a joint session at the ECR. This collaboration is based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed by both societies, which includes agreements about education, guidelines, and scientific dissemination. A congress is of course always a mixture of both scientific dissemination, bringing new findings to the community, and education, so this nicely fits our mutual commitment.

Read more…

Every Scientific Session at ECR 2015 includes a vote for the best paper of the session. Below are all of the winners for Friday, March 6. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Winner: SS 1001 – B-0841 Elisa Guidi
Joint Winner: SS 1002 – B-0759 Barbara Bennani-Baiti
Joint Winner: SS 1002 – B-0767 Claudio Spick
Winner: SS 1003a – B-0792 Gert Jan Pelgrim
Winner: SS 1003b – B-0905 Thula C. Walter
Winner: SS 1004 – B-0852 Martine Remy-Jardin
Winner: SS 1008 – B-0882 Anuradha Chandramohan
Winner: SS 1009 – B-0862 Hester J. Scheffer
Joint Winner: SS 1010a – B-0801 Melissa N. Ong
Joint Winner: SS 1010a – B-0809 Anna Palmisano
Joint Winner: SS 1012 – B-0889 Marco Salsano
Joint Winner: SS 1012 – B-0895 Frederica Papadopoulou
Winner: SS 1010b – B-0916 Vasiliki Perlepe
Winner: SS 1011 – B-0818 Arturs Balodis
Winner: SS 1013 – B-0782 Marco Das
Winner: SS 1014 – B-0873 Lee R. O’Hora
Winner: SS 1015 – B-0768 Andreas Gutzeit
Winner: SS 1016 – B-0831 Salvatore Donatiello