Regional Report
New England Chapter of SMRT hosts the Presidents Regional
3-4 November 2012
 

Maryann Blaine, MAT, B.S., R.T., (R)(MR)

This year the New England Chapter had the esteemed honor of hosting another President’s Regional, the second for our chapter! The meeting was held for the first time as a two day conference, 3-4 November, 2012, in Salem, Massachusetts, USA, and was organized with talks grouped in forums. This was well received by the attendees and made for a very cohesive way to disseminate various MR topics.

On Saturday the meeting began with opening remarks by Vera Kimbrell, current SMRT President. Maryann Blaine, FSMRT who is currently a nominee for SMRT President-Elect introduced the speakers for the conference.

A neurology forum included innovative topics for brain imaging and included talks by SMRT Policy Board member Barry Southers on fMRI and Dr. Alex Lin who spoke about brain spectroscopy imaging. He presented the latest information on research of brain trauma and correlation with Alzheimer’s disease, a hot topic in the news these days.

The next forum was Interventional MRI; an area that is becoming more and more relevant for MRI technologists as the number of interventional programs grows both nationally and internationally. Janice Fairhurst a past SMRT Policy Board member provided an overview of differences between iMRI and diagnostic imaging including technique, safety and case studies. Dan Kacher and Dr. Kemal Tuncali offered perspectives from bio-medical engineering and the Radiology interventionalist respectfully.

The lunch break included a wonderful hot buffet and allowed for participants to network with one another as well as with the vendors who had set up displays. We started the second half of the day with a very interesting talk by Past-President, Maureen Ainslie, FSMRT on MR lung imaging which transitioned nicely into the Body Forum. Great information was delivered from Dr. Martin Smith and Patrick Pierce on MRI Enterography and body imaging techniques.

Day two was a half day Safety Forum which included two Radiation Protection presentations by Frances Keech. This was an opportunity for technologists who are licensed RT (R) and need these types of credits for licensure in certain states. Ms. Keech provided a historical look at nuclear power accidents and the lessons learned with a focus on the recent nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. Her second lecture focused on health care workers and the possibility of exposure to radioactive patients. One interesting note was the high incidence of exposure to sonographers from patients having thyroid scans in nuclear medicine.

Instructive talks on MR Safety were given by Richard Miguel of West Physics Consulting and Carolyn Bonaceto, SMRT Past President. She explained updated FDA information with regard to labeling and imaging of medical devices in MRI.

We had really wonderful feed back from attendees with regard to program to pics and location and overall a very successful meeting!

 


MCPHS Students- Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences


Dr. Martin Smith- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center


 Vera Kimbrell, Frances Keech (MCPHS Professor), Maryann Blaine


Dr. Alex Lin - Brigham and Women's Hospital


Vera Kimbrell, SMRT President


Maureen Ainslie


 Interventional MRI team from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston MA
(left to right)
Angela Kanan, RN, Dan Kacher, Janice Fairhurst, Dr. Kemal Tuncali
 


Angela Franceschi - Children's Hospital, Boston, MA