Latest Updates from Leading European Associations

10th Annual Management in Radiology (MIR) Congress 2007

Register Online at www.mir-online.org to Join an International Pool of Experts Sharing Management Knowledge and Experience!

The 10th annual edition of the Management In Radiology (MIR) congress will be held this year in Oxford, UK from October 10 - 13, 2007, led by new Chairperson Dr Nicola Strickland.

This unique platform, initiated to address significant managerial issues that affect the medical imaging community from a scientific point of view, offers a wealth of opportunities to stimulate greater involvement and leadership of imaging specialists in the management of medical imaging departments.

Provisional Programme Topics

Highlights from the provisional programme for the MIR 2007 congress include the following subjects, but please note that this is a provisional programme and the speakers and the times of their lectures are subject to change. Final programme details will become available on the www.mir-online.org website.

Topics include:

• What can the ESR do about the complete lack of imaging training standards throughout Europe?, Peter Pattyama

• Managing future challenges in imaging, Michel Claudon

• Why cardiologists don’t need radiologists, Petros Nihoyannopoulos

• Interventional radiology should remain a key part of imaging training, Giles Maskill

• How can an imaging department encourage both research and clinical productivity: management models, Georg Bongartz

• Why is imaging research important to managing the future of our specialty? Hans Blickman

• Management guidelines for teleradiology outsourcing in the UK, Laurence Sutton

• Managing problems created by PACS, Nicholas Hollings

• Developing a UK-wide radiology accreditation programme, Conall Garvey

PACS Congress Promises Wealth of New Information

This year’s 25th Annual International EuroPACS Meeting will be held in conjunction with the CARS congress, from June 27 – 30, 2007, in Berlin, Germany. EuroPACS is Europe’s most intensive PACS congress, covering all the important subjects that are useful not just for healthcare IT personnel, but for all those concerned with efficient workflow management and the latest IT developments involving radiology. Sessions will be chaired by expert topic leaders, including Dr Jarmo Reponen, Prof. Peter Mildenberger, Prof. Davide Caramella and Prof. Berthold Wein.

The latest programme reveals a variety of interesting topics including:

• PACS – Beyond Radiology

• Regional PACS and Teleradiology

• Planning

• Architecture,Workstation, Archiving

• Image Distribution and Integration Strategies

For registration or further programme details, please visit the EuroPACS website. www.europacs.org

7th IHE Europe Connectathon a Great Success

TIHE Europe held its seventh interoperability testing event known as the IHE Connectathon on 15 - 20 April in Berlin. The event was organised in parallel with the German EU Presidency’s eHealth conference and the ITeG Congress.

Over three hundred engineers from seventy companies gathered in the Berlin Messe for six days, testing the interoperability of their healthcare IT systems. More than 1500 tests were carried out, verified by a team of over thirty monitors led by Eric Poiseau, IHE Europe Technical Project Manager.

Most European countries were represented this year with vendors originating from over ten European countries as well from Canada, Israel, Japan and the USA.

Many new vendors joined the Connectathon process for the first time, interested by the five domains covered there, including infrastructure, radiology, cardiology, patient care coordination and laboratory.

Among the hot topics at the Connectathon were document-sharing, security, identity management and workflow. The event was run in parallel to the ITeG and eHealth week, with tours in Dutch, English, French, German and Italian offered throughout the week.

The Connectathon provides a unique opportunity for application interoperability testing. Vendors identified and solved many bugs during the event. According to one vendor “The cost of identifying and solving a bug during a Connectathon is about ten times less than the cost of a bug identified on site”.

The results of the event will be published in the Connectathon results table on the IHEEurope website at www.ihe-europe.org. Vendors may use IHE integration statements to show their products’ compliance with the IHE integration profiles.This is a clear advantage for vendors when responding to requests for proposals from user sites

In 2008, IHE Europe is planning to hold the first UK Connectathon in Oxford. www.ihe-europe.org

Preliminary Programme Announced

Exciting List of Topics and Speakers Already Confirmed

Incorporating the CARS 21st International Conference and Exhibition, ISCAS 11th Annual Conference, EuroPACS 25th International Meeting, the 9th International

Workshop on CAD and the 13th Computed Maxillofacial Imaging Congress, those with an interest in developments in radiology will find a wealth of topics covered and information presented from June 27 – 30, 2007.

The main themes this year follow on from last year’s and include: Medical Imaging, Cardiovascular Imaging, Computer Maxillofacial Imaging, Image Processing and Display, PACS & IHE, Telemedicine and e-Health, Computer-Aided Diagnosis and a very topical theme which is Computer-Assisted Radiation Therapy amongst others.

During the CARS congress, a variety of international expert speakers will come together to present the latest technological advances and developments to their audience. Attendees will benefit from sessions such as:

• Workstations and e-Health: “Distributing 3D Tools across the enterprise with PACS Integration”; “New Display Solutions for the Image-Centric Era of Healthcare”.

• Image Processing and Visualisation: “Development and Validation of a PhysicsbasedBrain Atlas”, “Ultrasound for theHuman Spine – Imaging and Analysis”.

• Medical Imaging: “Real-time Endoscopic Image Enhancement”,“Volumetric CPR as an Enhancement to Virtual Colonoscopy Systems”.

These are just a small taste of the rich variety of topics that will be covered during the congress. The full preliminary programme is available for download on the CARS website. www.cars-int.org

ECRI Institute Provides Guidance on Reducing Cancers Caused by CT Scans

Despite being a life-saving diagnostic tool, CT scanners are estimated to cause around 6,000 cancers each year in the United States, roughly half of them fatal. Several surveys show that medical professionals and patients lack a clear understanding of the risks inherent with CT doses. In a recent report, ECRI Institute, a nonprofit healthcare research organisation, recommends more attention be paid to reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by radiation doses.

ECRI Institute’s guidance article explains the radiation risks of CT and discusses how they compare with other risks in and out of healthcare. ECRI Institute also outlines ways in which doses can be kept to the necessary minimum. According to ECRI Institute, the potential of CT to increase the number of cancers is a public health concern, especially in younger patients and everyone involved in referring patients for CT scans, as well as those responsible for the studies, should understand the risks and how to moderate them.

ECRI Institute recommends several steps that healthcare facilities should take in order to address the problem. They include eliminating unnecessary CT use, raising referring physicians’ awareness of the issues, considering alternative diagnostic tools when appropriate, optimising imaging protocols, and monitoring x-ray doses. Exams are justifiable says ECRI Institute, as long as the radiation risks are appropriate for the diagnosis. But, if healthcare professionals are not educated about the dose risks, the appropriate precautions may not be taken. www.ecri.org.uk

Annual Event a Must for Interventional Radiologists

At CIRSE 2007 world-reknowned experts will lecture on hot topics including cardiac and peripheral vascular imaging, arterial, venous and non-vascular interventions, bone interventions, and interventions in oncology. The foundation courses will provide a great educational experience for the younger attendees of the meeting, while numerous workshops will offer interactive education in all aspects of interventional radiology. The scientific sessions and electronic posters will give us the opportunity to look into the future of the discipline. For CIRSE 2007, the programme format has been changed; all lectures are divided into five main themes to allow delegates to follow one of these themes with little overlap.

Five Main Themes

Vascular Interventions

Covering this important area with a foundation course on intermittent claudication and special sessions from imaging of the peripheral arteries and the heart to management of intermittent claudication and critical limb ischemia.

Transcatheter Embolisation

Including a number of foundation courses on embolisation, seven special sessions on embolotherapy and three basic workshops.

Non-Vascular Interventions

A number of special sessions and workshops will be devoted to interventions, from needle biopsy to abscess drainage, to biliary drainage or percutaneous nephrostomy, with a particular look at abscess drainage and nephrostomy in an on-call setting.

Interventional Oncology

Radiofrequency ablation of tumours, transarterial chemoembolisation and targeted delivery of therapeutic payloads. New treatment modalities such as high intensity focused ultrasound, laparoscopically guided radiofrequency ablation, microwave ablation and cryoablation will all be featured at CIRSE 2007.

Clinical Practice

A number of special sessions and workshops are devoted to clinical practice development. www.cirse.org