The SMRT leadership has been busy since the Annual Meeting that was
held in Stockholm, Sweden in May, 2010. One of the most important
duties of the leadership is attending the SMRT Policy Board meeting
that convened by teleconference on 22 November, 2010. Policy Board
Members reviewed reports from committee chairs and discussed current
projects. Outstanding issues from the Stockholm Policy Board Meeting
were reviewed and successfully resolved and we were able to move
forward. The Program planned for the 20th SMRT Annual Meeting in
Montreal, Quebec, Canada in May, 2011 has been finalized and we are
all looking forward to meeting face to face for our next Policy
Board Meeting.
Julia Lowe, SMRT President, traveled to Chicago, Illinois,
USA to attend the Radiologic Society of North America (RSNA) 96th
Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting. The ISMRM Board of Trustees
met on Sunday, 28 November 2010 and as a member of the ISMRM Board
the SMRT President attends to present the Affiliated Sections
report. This report is bi-annual and is a review of the SMRT Policy
Board and Executive Committees’ activities, the progress made by
standing committees, the SMRT membership and financial status and a
report on the Annual Meeting. By attending the Board of Trustees
meeting the SMRT President has the opportunity to formally meet with
the leadership of the ISMRM, to gain insight of the direction of
that leadership and to affirm the goals of the SMRT as a section of
that society.
The SMRT is a member of the Associated Sciences Consortium of RSNA
and staffs a booth each year during the RSNA meeting. Policy Board
Members that volunteered to work in the booth this year were
Colleen Hammond, Julia Lowe, Vera Miller, Mercedes Pereyra, and
Charles Stanley with the help of Jerusha Rich from the
ISMRM. The Associated Sciences booths are grouped together and many
technologists/radiographers, educators and physicians are drawn to
these booths for educational opportunities for themselves,
co-workers, or their students. While staffing the booth we spoke
with many students that were very interested in what the SMRT has to
offer them such as the “JAK Award for Professional Development.”
This opportunity is offered to both students and new MR
Professionals and details are available on our website. Other
attendees were interested in viewing the hardcopies of the
Educational Seminar Home Studies and taking with them a
hardcopy of the Signals, Special Issue Year in Review
which was well received.
I was able to thank some of our vendors that have supported the SMRT
North American Regional Educational Seminars in the past and some
that plan to support the upcoming Annual Meeting in Montreal. I
visited the booths of Avotec Inc., Bracco, Hitachi Medical Systems,
Invivo (Philips Medical Systems), Kopp Development Inc., Lantheus
Medical Imaging, Toshiba America Medical Systems, and West Physics.
The SMRT would especially like to thank John Wilkie of Invivo
(Philips Medical Systems) for the continued support of the
Educational Seminar Home Studies. We thank all of our
vendors for their donations and acknowledge that such quality
educational programs would not be possible without their
enthusiastic support.
Charles Stanley, External Relations Co-Chair and SMRT
President-Elect, and Julia Lowe, SMRT President, were invited
to attend the Alliance for Quality Medical Imaging and Radiation
Therapy Meeting that was held during RSNA. The Alliance is a
coalition of 25 allied health organizations in the US dedicated to
the provision of safe, high quality medical imaging and radiation
therapy that support the CARE bill and routinely meet to discuss the
progress of the bill in Congress. External Relations Co-Chair,
Charles Stanley will be providing a more detailed report.
Charles and Julia also enjoyed speaking to the leadership of the
Society of Nuclear Medicine-Technologists Section (SNM-TS) and the
American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) while
participating in the Alliance meeting.
The people that we meet during RSNA as representatives of the SMRT
help us to reach our objectives; advancing education and training,
promoting world-wide communication of information related to MRI. It
is our mission as the leadership of the SMRT to think of new ways to
establish a forum to continue this communication. I look forward to
the people I have not yet met and understand that keeping an open
mind will provide new opportunities for the SMRT.
Best Regards and a Happy New Year,
Julia Lowe,
SMRT President |