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.

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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.

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One thing you can say about the ECR is that every year there is always something new. The ESR loves to innovate, and this year is a great example of that, with a number of changes in place that will make ECR 2015 an even better congress experience than before. Here we take you through some of the most important new additions, as well as a couple of other vital things to take note of.

The ESR Walk of Fame, in the entrance hall at ECR 2015, features some of the stars of the society’s first ten years

1. The ESR’s Tenth Anniversary
The European Society of Radiology was founded in February 2005, so we’re celebrating our tenth anniversary at the ECR. This will be most noticeable in the entrance hall, where you’ll be able to take the ESR Walk of Fame, featuring the stars of the ESR’s first ten years, as well as some of the society’s brightest moments. You’ll also be able to collect your own star from the membership desk (in front of the big flower pot) and stick it to our ESR Wall of Fame

2. Electronic Evaluation
This year, ECR session evaluation and CME acquisition has gone completely digital, saving a huge amount of paper and making the whole system a lot more flexible. Delegates can now complete an online questionnaire for every session, which is accessible via the official ECR 2015 App (available from Tuesday, March 3), on more than 160 laptops in the ECR Live & EPOS Lounge, at the registration counters, and at special CME & Evaluation terminals on the first level.

3. New Session Formats
The number of different educational session types has grown and grown over the years. This year, the programme has been simplified, with the majority now grouped under the heading E³ – European Excellence in Education and divided into five branches reflecting the different stages of an individual’s professional career. Congress President, Prof. Bernd Hamm explains the concept here.

4. Best Paper Awards
Not only are there more scientific sessions this year, but at the end of each one, smartphones and mobile device users will be able to vote for their favourite presentation via an online voting tool. The most popular presentation will be awarded a certificate by the session moderators.

The ESR is launching its new eLearning platform at ECR 2015

5. Education On Demand
The ESR is launching its brand new eLearning platform Education On Demand at ECR 2015. The platform is packed with online educational resources to suit radiologists at every stage of their career, but most significantly for attendees, it also hosts the self-assessment tests for numerous E3 sessions (see point 1, above) at the congress. Bookmark learn.myesr.org and prepare to assess yourself!

6. ECR Live
Just as last year, more than 1,500 presentations will be streamed online during the congress, completely free of charge via ECR Live. And, just like last year, most of those presentations will also be available to watch on demand from the following day onward. Whether you couldn’t make it to Vienna and want to keep up with what’s going on at Europe’s biggest imaging meeting, or you’re at the congress and want to catch something you missed, there’s just one place you need to go: live.myesr.org

7. Social Media Wall
Once again, the ECR Social Media Wall brings all ECR-related social media activity together in one place. Every time someone uses the #ECR2015 hashtag on Twitter, that tweet will appear on all of the many screens throughout the congress venue, as well as the online stream. Plus, we again have an individual wall for every room being streamed on ECR Live. To join the conversation in any room, just add the room name to the hashtag (e.g. #ECR2015B, #ECR2015D1, #ECR2015MB5) or use ECR Live’s integrated chat function.