We are pleased to announce continuation of
the initiative, launched at the ISMRM Seattle Meeting, to highlight
unsolved problems and unmet needs in magnetic resonance. Online
submissions on important problems and needs will be solicited, and
approximately ten of these submissions will be selected for presentation
over the course of two two-hour afternoon sessions. The submission
deadline and procedure for these “unsolved problems” abstracts will be
separate from those of regular ISMRM abstracts.
Submissions should be sent as attached PDF’s
to:
Unsolved_Problems@ismrm.org.
Background: The field of magnetic resonance is increasingly rich and
diverse, spanning far too many areas of clinical and research activity
for any one person or group to track effectively. At the annual ISMRM
meeting and in many of our professional interactions, we tend to focus
on what we or others have recently accomplished in our areas of
interest, or else we speculate together on current trends and promising
future directions in MR research and practice. In the midst of all this
lively and topical activity, the less satisfying questions of what we
cannot but would very much like to achieve with MR receive little
concentrated, collective attention. Discussions of unmet needs and
research priorities are often left to funding organizations, which
publish periodic “requests for proposals” and “roadmaps” to which many
of us as researchers are encouraged to respond. The process of assessing
needs and formulating priorities, however, could very well benefit from
broader participation by our MR community at large. Collective
brainstorming about unsolved problems and unmet needs would have the
added benefit of promoting interactions between the disparate members of
our community, and it might also serve to stimulate innovative
solutions.
For all of these reasons, a series of morning sessions on the topic of
unsolved problems and unmet needs were held at the 2006 ISMRM Meeting in
Seattle. The sessions covered a diverse range of topics, including
prospects for imaging near metallic implants, assessments of the
information content of radiofrequency fields, unresolved issues in
diffusion and perfusion, the role of new contrast agents, and the need
for a “virtual MR scanner” as a community resource. Discussion, as
expected, was lively and thought-provoking.
Objectives: Unsolved problems and unmet needs will again be addressed at
the 2007 ISMRM meeting in Berlin, this time in one afternoon session.
The afternoon session will once again emphasize open discussion, in
order to promote interactions and to foster innovation. Since unsolved
problems may often be controversial, the sessions will also be an
opportunity for lively and reasoned debate. In order to continue the
discussion after the meeting, results from the sessions and from the
abstract solicitation will be posted on the ISMRM Website, and an online
list of unsolved problems and unmet needs will be maintained and updated
thereafter, serving both as a resource for new entrants into the field
and as an ongoing challenge for established investigators.
For detailed information on prior submissions, survey, etc.,
please click here.
Target audience: All members of the MR community, including both
clinicians and basic scientists, both established investigators and
students or young investigators, are encouraged to submit abstracts and
attend the oral sessions. One explicit goal of the sessions will be to
bring together those with detailed knowledge of important needs (“If
only I had X, then I could diagnose / monitor / treat Y”) and those who
seek to characterize and extend the limits of MR capabilities (“If only
I could measure / build / control Z, then I could accomplish X”). The
sessions are expected to be of particular value for students who may be
looking for research problems of importance. They are also targeted at
clinicians and researchers interested in potential collaborations on
high-impact problems.
Online submission and review: Submission of an abstract represents a
good way to bring attention to an area of particular interest to you.
Abstracts should be no longer than one page, in single column format,
with images optional. Please include a 100-word summary with a clear
statement of the problem or need. Remaining text may include a statement
of background and significance (current limitations of MR technology or
methodology, importance of the clinical or research problem to be
answered, etc.), an accounting of existing alternative approaches, if
any, and possibly criteria for a successful solution. Topics may include
specific technical challenges (e.g. “Detect a single labeled molecule in
vivo using MR”), clinical targets (e.g. “Diagnose X definitively using
MR”), or even current controversies (e.g. “Establish the definitive
physiologic or biochemical mechanism underlying Y”).
Given the differences in content and review criteria from traditional
ISMRM abstracts, the “unsolved problems” abstracts will be submitted and
reviewed separately from regular ISMRM Scientific Meeting submissions.
This is a separate program from the regular ISMRM scientific abstract
submission, and you should NOT use the regular abstract submission
website. Instead, we are providing a special email address and form for
submission. Submissions should be sent as
attached PDF’s
to:
Unsolved_Problems@ismrm.org.
Despite these differences from the traditional abstract submission
process, every effort will be made to ensure impartiality of the review
process for this new program. Each abstract will be refereed by at least
3 referees, one or more of whom will be a member of the Annual Meeting
Program Committee. A scoring system similar to that used for
construction of other oral scientific sessions will be employed.
Please note that abstracts submitted for the unsolved problems/unmet
needs sessions may not also be submitted for presentation in the regular
scientific sessions at the Scientific Meeting. Note also that
traditional abstracts reporting on completed research will not be
accepted for presentation in the unsolved problems sessions, and will
not be able to be transferred after the fact to the pool of traditional
ISMRM submissions. The purpose of this initiative is to explore what is
UNsolved, in the hopes of making our way, collectively or individually,
toward much-needed solutions.
We welcome your participation in this new program, and look forward to
lively discussions in Berlin and beyond.
Daniel K. Sodickson
Organizer
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