How to Get the Most Out of ISMRM
Organizers: Ariel Hannum, Grace McIlvain, Thekla Oechtering
Time: Monday, 05 June, 13:45-14:45
Panelists: Nivedita Agarwal, M.D. (2023 ISMRM Program Chair), Anthony Christodoulou, Ph.D., Anja van der Kolk M.D., Ph.D.
Overview: Is this your first time attending ISMRM? Are you a trainee deciding which sessions not to miss? Do you attend ISMRM, but have yet to engage in ISMRM activities outside the annual meeting?
Come join us for a warm welcome from ISMRM. Our program chair for ISMRM 2023, Dr. Nivedita Agarwal will kick-off the session with her perspectives on the ISMRM experience. We will then have a panel of researchers and clinicians share their ISMRM highlights and ways to stay involved in ISMRM throughout the year. The organizers will then provide a brief overview to planning the ISMRM week.
Chatbot for Literature Review, Are We There Yet?
Organizers: Ummul Afia Shammi, Grace McIlvain, Thekla Oechtering
Time: Tuesday, 06 June, 9:15-10:15
Panelists: Mark Schweitzer, M.D., Linda Moy, M.D., Jana Hutter, Ph.D., Rajesh Bhayana, M.D.
Overview: Greetings, fellow researchers! Tired of being buried under stacks of research articles for your literature review? Look no further than the chatbot! With its advanced Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing technology, this chatbot can help you streamline your research process and get better results in less time. However, it’s important to note that chatbots may struggle with capturing the complexities of certain research topics and providing proper references. So, the question remains, is the chatbot for lit review actually reliable? Let’s weigh the merits and demerits and discuss if chatbots can truly replace human researchers in conducting literature reviews.
What Does “Better Image Quality” Mean to You?
Organizers: Sophie Schauman, PhD, Shruti Mishra, MD
Time: Tuesday, 06 June, 13:30-14:30
Panelists: Greg Zaharachuk, M.D., PhD, Jon Polimeni, Ph.D., Vikas Gulani, M.D., Ph.D., Penny Gowland, Ph.D., Michael Atalay, M.D., Ph.D., Li Feng, Ph.D.
Overview: Too often methods researchers work in a vacuum without the input of clinical colleagues when choosing metrics for optimizing image quality. In this session, methods researchers and clinicians will get the opportunity to interact together and collaborate in a small group case-based format. The session will be divided into two halves with a small group case study session followed by a large-group panel discussion. In the first half clinicians and methods researchers will break into groups (Neuroimaging, Cardiac Imaging, and Body Imaging) based on their area of interest / specialization. Small-group discussions will be led by a pair of experts from clinical and technical backgrounds. Participants will participate in interdisciplinary small-group discussions centered on case examples highlighting different aspects of image quality. In the second half, all the participants will come together for a panel composed of all experts reviewing major take-home points from each small group discussion.
Mentor Speed Meeting
Organizers: Mary Kramer, Grace McIlvain, Thekla Oechtering
Times:
- Speed mentoring for early career Ph.D.s & students
Tuesday 15:45-16:45 - Speed mentoring for early career M.D.s & students
Tuesday 17:00-18:00
Overview: The pandemic has taken its toll on networking opportunities for junior trainees through the cancellation and online reformatting of many conferences. Many labs may have also experienced reduced recruitment channels as a result. After great success last year, the Mentor Speed Meeting session is back in hopes to alleviate some of this lost time by directly connecting scholars at different career stages with shared research interests. This is a great opportunity for anyone looking for the next step in their career hoping to connect with a future employer or just a mentor outside your lab or interest area. This session will take place in the PhD and MD engagement room and requires pre-registration, registration link will be sent via email.
Explain It Like I’m Five: Communicating MRI Research to a Live Layman Audience
Organizers: Kimberly Hemmerling, Divya Joshi, Jasmine Vu, Kristina Zvolanek
Time: Wednesday, 07 June, 9:15-10:45
Overview: Ever been asked to explain your research at a “10th grade level” or in “layman terms”? In this session, you will have an opportunity to practice exactly that by explaining your science to a live audience of Toronto-based secondary school students. You will craft a 1-minute elevator pitch to practice applying appropriate organization, tone, and jargon-free language. Then, you will recite this pitch to secondary students and receive feedback based on their understanding and enthusiasm. Preparation of the elevator pitch before the session is recommended but not necessary; we have built-in brainstorming time for this purpose. The best pitch will receive a small ISMRM prize!
SWiM (Scan With Me: A Tour of MRI Practices in Low-Resourced Settings)
Organizers: Christian Montalba, Abdul Nashirudeen Mumuni
Time: Wednesday, 07 June, 13:30-14:30
Panelists: Aduluwa Harrison, MD (Nigeria), Petronella Sammuels, MD (South Africa), Udunna Anazondo, PhD (Canada/Nigeria), Tchoyoson Li, MD (Singapore), Pablo Irrarazabal, PhD (Chile)
Overview: Up to 80% of the world’s population do not have access to adequate MRI services. Besides the fundamental challenge of MRI scanner availability in low-resourced setting (LRS), the scarcity of skilled MRI expertise to acquire (technologists), analyze and interpret (radiologists) MRI scans as well as lack of optimized imaging protocols, exacerbates the low accessibility of high value MRI in LRS which reinforces MRI inequities. Various approaches have been proposed to address these challenges, including MRI education to supplement the lack of postgraduate training in LRS, novel low-field MRI scanners to improve availability and replace obsolete low-field systems, artificial intelligence solutions for fast and autonomous acquisition, image enhancement of low-field systems and rapid analysis and interpretation. These approaches often do not center the MRI technologists who are tasked with providing high quality MRI images for clinical and research use. The proposed Scan with Me (SWiM) session will take a practical tour of MRI practices in LRS to systemically understand barriers to MRI acquisition in LRS and discuss opportunities to improve MRI scanning practices in these settings.
Finding the Right Collaborators
Organizers: Dengrong Jiang, Shohei Fujita
Time: Wednesday, 07 June, 15:45-16:45
Panelists: Richard Edden, PhD, Thijs van Osch, PhD, Mami Iima, MD/PhD, Vikas Gulani, MD/PhD, Claudine Gauthier, PhD, Jie Luo, PhD
Overview: Do you want to find a collaborator but don’t know where to start? Do you already have a collaboration, but it is not going well? Are you fighting for authorship with a collaborator? Come to our secret session and hear the stories of experienced researchers.
10 Years of BART – User Meeting and Hands-On Sessions
Organizers: Martin Uecker, PhD, Jon Tamir, PhD, Miki Lustig, PhD, Christian Holme, PhD, Efrat Shimron, PhD, Sidharth Kumar
Time: Thursday, 08 June, 09:15-10:15
Overview: Join us for the 10-year anniversary of the BART open-source toolbox for Computational MRI. The BART team will give updates on the latest features and documentation roadmap for the toolbox. This will be followed by interactive parallel stations spanning installation support, interactive overview of basic use, advanced usage discussion, and open-ended “office hours.” We will hear from the BART community on example user studies – both successes and challenges. Finally, we will have an open discussion on future development, webinars, and workshops.
Juggling Without Struggling: How Women in Academia Navigate it All
Organizers: Grace McIlvain, Thekla Oechtering
Time: Thursday, 08 June, 13:45-14:45
Overview: Are you juggling your academic and personal life and feeling overwhelmed? There is so much to do and think about that it is hard to focus and to know where to start?
This Secret Session will feature several prominent women of ISMRM who will discuss the topic of time management and burnout in an open and inclusive way. We will highlight the impact of COVID-19 and remote working, childcare, as well as the disproportional effect this has on early career researchers from marginalised groups. We hope to generate a fruitful discussion surrounding the best habits and tactics to tackle the world of academia. By the end of this session, we hope the attendees have a clearer vision of inclusive ways to promote a healthier and more productive academic environment. We encourage women of all ages in ISMRM to attend this exciting session (men welcome too).
The Art of Mixing and Mingling (Interactive, hands-on, learning-by-doing session)
Organizers: Antonia Kaiser, PhD, Emma Wiström, Antonia Susnjar
Time: Thursday, 08 June, 16:00-17:00 – MOVED TO FIRESIDE CHAT LOCATION – Hallway between 714 & 715
Overview: Approaching new people can be a daunting experience. Partly responsible for that is the amygdala, a small brain region that releases stress hormones and triggers a fight or flight response. This fear response can be triggered by new social situations, such as networking events or negative past experiences. However, with practice and exposure, people can rewire their brains and gradually decrease this negative response.
In this interactive, hands-on learning-by-doing session, you will acquire practical tips and tricks to help you mingle and network with others. The goal is to create an open, inclusive, and equal environment where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and learn. Through various games and tasks, you will discover that you have more in common with others than you may think, and that we can learn from each other’s differences.
The session will also provide advice on how to smoothly handle professional meet-and-greets in the future. At the end of the session, an AI-based tool will group individuals to apply these newly acquired skills and practice networking. To sign up for the session, visit https://forms.gle/y4UGvk7MCUXVC6dm9.
A Bit of History...
The Secret Sessions initiative started at ISMRM 2017 in Honolulu (Hawaii). These sessions are run in a dedicated space at the annual meeting: the “Resonarium,” a comfortable and less formal meeting space in the exhibition hall. Due to the sessions' great success, the Secret Sessions also accompanied the annual ISMRM meetings of the following years. This year the Secret Sessions are back again at ISMRM 2023!
The real secret is that… these sessions are not secret at all! They’re separate from the main scientific program and much more informal, explorative, and frequently tailored (but not limited) to early-career researchers.
The idea of the Secret Sessions is to create an appropriate framework to host an original session for anyone with an idea. For early-career researchers, this is a unique opportunity to not only gain experience in organizing a session, but also to meet new people and increase exposure in the ISMRM community.
You can reach us at secret@ismrm.org for all relevant questions and feedback.
Organizers
Grace McIlvain, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Emory University
Thekla Oechtering, M.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
It’s a secret to everybody.