April 2015 • Vol. 4, Issue 2


PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Maureen N. Hood, Ph.D., R.N., R.T.(MR), FSMRT
SMRT President, 2014-2015
SMRT Member since 1993

 

Please check out the new offerings that E-Signals has to make seeing what is happening in the SMRT easier for you. The newsworthy section will include links to the Program Committee report and the Education Committee report – both full of information about the upcoming annual meeting. You now have the chance to recommend people to be featured and special events to be showcased. Julie Strandt- Peay and Vanessa Orchard have been fantastic at trying new things this year. We want you to be more involved in what the SMRT is doing. Please contact Julie or Vanessa with your input and ideas.

As you all know, the SMRT’s main mission is MR education and we do it well. But, I can tell you that attending educational events in person gives you a much more rich experience – more than just getting your required educational credits. You get to meet your colleagues! Attending conferences gives you a chance to be a part of the total experience. You may find that others may be running into the same problems you are facing, which helps you not feel so alone or frustrated. Or perhaps someone is doing something you’d like to learn and they happen to have an opening at their center for you to try this. You may also find that you are the one who can help another colleague. Regardless, it is so nice to meet new people who work in your field. Some people who attend SMRT meetings regularly become the best of friends. I find attending the annual meeting a fun way to catch up with friends I see face to face only once a year or so. Plus, at SMRT meetings, we provide food and beverages. If you are getting education on-line, you have to find your own, so attend a meeting and feed your mind and body at the same time.

However, the SMRT realizes that for some people, getting education on-line is preferred. We are working on more on-line offerings, including new MR safety videos. These videos will help technologists/radiographers and others worldwide. The SMRT is going to be offering annual MR safety training certificates for both Level I and II. This should help MR facilities everywhere better educate their staff on safety issues and hopefully help reduce the adverse incidents happening around the world.

The SMRT Policy Board has been very busy this year. Besides providing increased safety education, the SMRT also has a non-voting representative on the American Board for Magnetic Resonance Safety (ABMRS). Despite its name, it is an international entity. Look for an article by Greg Brown, the SMRT Rep, in E-Signals. There is also another member of the SMRT on the ABMRS, which is Bill Faulkner. He is a current member and was the very first President of the SMRT. So as you can see, past SMRT officers stay around and continue to work for the advancement of MR.

The ISMRM/SMRT and Central Office are in a period of transition. Your organization is in the midst of several infrastructure changes. I realize that you cannot see these major changes, but it will enable all of us to deliver better, more efficient exchange of information. This all helps the SMRT to have a more solid foundation for growth in the future. One of the changes you will be able to see will be the change in the MR Technologist Listserve. The central office is testing a new e-mail exchange. It is planned that later this year we will move to that and hopefully it will fix the problems that the MR Technologist Listserve has been having this past year.

 

E-Signals is a publication by the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine for the benefit of the SMRT membership and those individuals and organizations that support the educational programs and professional advancement of the SMRT and its members. This publication is the compilation of the leadership of the SMRT and the contributions of the staff in the ISMRM Central Office.