One of the ESR’s statutory committees underwent two subtle changes earlier this year; its interim chair was officially elected as chairperson, and its name was changed. We spoke to Dr. E. Jane Adam, Chair of the newly re-named ESR Quality, Safety and Standards Committee, to find out a little bit about her role, the committee’s function, and some of the key items on its agenda.

ESR Office: What is the overall purpose of the ESR Quality, Safety and Standards (QSS) Committee and how does it operate?
E. Jane Adam: The committee has several subcommittees and working groups covering radiation protection, audit and standards, management in radiology, e-health and informatics, ethics, ultrasound and a European Medicines Agency task force. They are all active in their various areas, undertaking projects, producing documents on behalf of the ESR, and liaising with other organisations. However, the aim of the committee as a whole is to promote high standards of radiology and, by working together, with cross fertilisation of ideas, the committee becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Dr. E. Jane Adam, consultant in diagnostic radiology at St. George’s Hospital, London, and chair of the ESR Quality, Safety & Standards Committee.

ESR: What is your background within the ESR committee structure and what motivates you to be involved?
EJA: I first became involved in the work of the ESR when I became chair of the Audit and Standards Subcommittee when it was first formed. This probably came about because I had chaired both the audit and standards committees of the Royal College of Radiologists in the UK. I have more recently been elected to chair the ‘parent’ QSS Committee. I have a long standing interest in these topics, and also wider professional issues in radiology from being chairman of a very large radiology department where I became very aware of the challenges for radiologists when the demands on radiology departments are increasing all the time, expectations are extremely high, and we rarely have the resources or manpower which we would like in order to provide the highest quality service.

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As every year, the ESR presidency changed hands at the European Congress of Radiology in March, with the new president, Prof. Guy Frija, from Paris, taking the reins from Prof. Gabriel P. Krestin. At the same time, the ECR 2014 Congress President, Prof. Valentin E. Sinitsyn, from Moscow, took over from Prof. José I. Bilbao as chairman of the Congress Committee.

In addition to these regular changes, a number of other positions on the Executive Council have been filled by new faces. First, Prof. Bernd Hamm, from Berlin, has moved up the chain into Prof. Sinitsyn’s position as 1st Vice-Chairperson of the Congress Committee, with Prof. Katrine Åhlström Riklund, from Umea, Sweden, elected to the role of 2nd Vice-Chairperson.
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