Aloha!

Greetings and welcome to “Riding the Wave to Honolulu 2017”, the blog for the annual ISMRM meeting in Honolulu 2017. This will be the first in a series of monthly blogs providing information and updates on new initiatives and activities for the annual meeting to be held next April. I look forward to providing these updates as the Annual Meeting Program Committee (AMPC) works to pull together our next annual meeting where you will find the best science and education for magnetic resonance in medicine available anywhere.

For those of you who don’t know me, I have been fortunate to be involved with the ISMRM since 1993 when I was a graduate student. The ISMRM has been my professional home since then, and I have gotten to know many of you through collaborations, shared scientific interests and through countless friendships. Serving on both the Board of Trustees and the AMPC for the past four years has been an amazing way to give back to this society that has given me so much. In addition to practicing as an abdominal and cardiovascular radiologist, I also enjoy wearing my MR physicist hat, performing translational research in new MR methodology.  For these reasons, among others, I cherish the amazing breadth and depth of talent the ISMRM membership brings with regard to MR science, engineering and clinical medicine.

I am very excited to be returning to the beautiful Hawai’i Convention Center located in downtown Honolulu, where the ISMRM first visited in 2002 and later in 2009. This beautiful state-of-the-art international convention center is located centrally within Honolulu, directly adjacent to the world famous Waikiki district and beaches. In addition to the beautiful beaches, there are outstanding hotels and restaurants within walking distance of the convention center. The island of Oahu also offers tremendous site-seeing opportunities including world class surfing, snorkeling, hiking, the Pearl Harbor Memorial, and countless other attractions.

The AMPC has already been hard at work! Believe it or not, the educational program is almost complete, and there are many special events already being planned. After the scientific abstracts are submitted this November, the AMPC will meet in January to pull together and complete the scientific program.

There are several noteworthy highlights:

  • The schedule and layout for the Annual Meeting has changed! Major changes include:
    • The Annual Meeting has now moved to a 6-day schedule. The educational program will begin on the morning of Saturday April 22 and the meeting will end with the closing ceremony and party on the evening of Thursday, April 27. Unlike previous years, there will be no scientific sessions held on Friday morning.
    • The opening ceremonies, which will include gold medal presentations and the Lauterbur lecture, will take place on Sunday evening immediately prior to the opening party.
    • Please be sure to note the change from the usual 6.5-day schedule when making your travel arrangements.
    • The tentative schedule has been on posted on the ISMRM website at ismrm.org/17/.
  • The AMPC is pleased to announce an enhanced scientific and educational program! Highlights include:
    • Twice the number of power pitches as previous years
    • More sunrise courses, each morning Monday through Thursday
    • A 12% increase in the overall number of scientific oral presentations
  • Special sessions this year will include the traditional (gameshow), Value Initiative, a Junior Fellow Symposium (new!), and hot topics (to be announced closer to the meeting).
  • Childcare has been coordinated by the society through several of the local hotels providing housing for the conference, with details found here.
  • Slack is back! In fact, we will be integrating Slack into the scientific program for enhanced online real-time communication between authors and the audience. More to come about Slack!
  • Live web streaming comes to the ISMRM! Live streaming of key lectures including the plenaries, named lectures and the young investigator award session.
  • Finally, we are in the current stages of planning a charity fun run event for the Sunday morning of the annual meeting. Start your training now, plan to bring your running shoes. More details to follow.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank members of the AMPC, a large and diverse group of society members who put in countless hours organizing the many scientific and educational activities of the annual meeting. In particular, I would like to thank Mark Griswold, the outgoing Chair of the AMPC for the incredible work that he did for the Singapore meeting (best meeting ever!) and for providing me with invaluable advice and assistance as we plan for Honolulu 2017. I would also to thank Karla Miller for her incredible work on the educational program for Honolulu – she has organized an outstanding program that brings the best talent in our society to bring the latest in MR education. Finally, I would like to welcome John Port, a long standing member of our society, who will be the incoming Vice Chair of the AMPC starting in 2017. Welcome John!

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Roberta Kravitz and her amazing team at the Central Office of the ISMRM whose dedication and hard work form the backbone of all of the amazing things that happen at the annual meeting. Many thanks to you Roberta and the ISMRM team!

Look for the monthly blog as we ride the wave to Honolulu 2017.

Mahalo!

Scott