FEBRUARY 2013 • Vol. 2, Issue 1

SMRT ELECTIONS RESULTS

SMRT President-Elect

Maureen has been a member of the SMRT since 1992 when the SMRT held one of its first Regionals in Seattle, Washington. She has also been a member of the ISMRM for several years. Maureen, better known as Mo, has a strong commitment to education and the advancement of professional health care practices and holds a PhD in MRI of heart failure. In 1998, Mo was elected to the SMRT Policy Board and has attended every annual meeting since. While on Policy Board, she served as the Chair of the Regionals Committee for two years. At the end of her policy board term, she was elected to serve as the Chair of the External Relations Committee of the Executive Board for a three year term, during which time the Global Relations sub-committee was formed to reach out more to our international community. During her tenure on the Executive Board for the SMRT, she served on the Recognized Continuing Education Evaluation Mechanism (RCEEM) application committee which, under the leadership of Heidi Berns, earned CE granting approval from the ARRT, paving the way for other countries to recognize the SMRT as a leader in MR education. Mo has served as a question writer, literature reviewer and author for the SMRT Home Study program. She has also written many articles for the Signals newsletter to help keep the membership abreast of some of the activities and alliances the SMRT has been involved with and to help encourage the membership to get involved in allied health activities. Mo has continued to stay active with the SMRT by serving on committees such as Education, Awards, Nominations, and Publications. In 2006 she was awarded the Crues and Kressel Award for her activities for technologist education, and in 2010, became a Fellow of the SMRT. Mo has also helped locally with SMRT Regional meetings in the mid-Atlantic area and plans to hold another one in the mid-Atlantic area within the next two years. She also attended the FDA MRI Safety workshop in October 2011 and spoke out on the importance of having qualified MR Technologists performing MR studies for safety reasons. She currently is an Assistant Professor of Radiology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and assists with managing the MRI clinic at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. She has given scientific presentations at both the SMRT and the ISMRM. She hopes that her diversified background and involvement with both the SMRT and the ISMRM will help the SMRT to grow and consequently increase MR education around the world.

 

SMRT Policy Board

Amanda Hunt has been an MR radiographer for the past 18 years. After graduating as a Radiographer from the University of Newcastle, Australia, she began her career at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. Here she gained experience in all facets of radiography but was particularly drawn to the wonderful world of MRI, undertaking post graduate studies through the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Canada. Amanda was appointed Supervisor of the MRI department in 1996, and subsequently Supervisor in Charge with responsibility for the management of the department’s research and clinical scanners, and the training and mentoring of countless staff and students. She has since been employed in a variety of MR departments and has gained extensive experience in routine imaging, clinical trial exams and has contributed to a number of research studies with protocol development and data analysis. Amanda’s dedication to her field was awarded with a traveling scholarship in 2000 to further her interest in fMRI by attending a short course at Harvard University, USA. Soon after, she obtained her Graduate Diploma in MRI from Charles Sturt University, Australia. Currently, Amanda works as the MRI Supervisor in Charge at an outpatient practice, where she enjoys focusing on routine imaging, staff training and patient safety. Amanda has been involved with the planning and setup of multiple new MR departments and acts as a volunteer Technical Assessor of MRI departments for the National Association of Testing Authorities, Australia. She has presented talks on MR safety at local meetings and is currently the Secretary of the MR Safety Committee of the SMRT Australia New Zealand (ANZ) Chapter. Amanda has been involved with the SMRT for a number of years, joining and attending her first ISMRM/SMRT international meeting in Sydney in 1998. Since then, she has regularly attended conferences both internationally and locally. She has been an active member of the ANZ Chapter for the past five years, serving as the Victorian State Representative (2008-2010) and currently as the Secretary of the Chapter. In this capacity Amanda has been involved in organising the Annual Meetings of the Chapter which have a regular audience of over 250 delegates. Amanda is honoured to have been nominated for a position on the Policy Board and believes that her dedication to the SMRT and her experience as a member of the ANZ executive committee will be beneficial to the Policy Board, the organisation and its members.

 

Vanessa Orchard has been a radiographer for 22 years after graduating from UCH, London in 1990. After 10 years working in London in general radiography, CT and Nuclear Medicine, gaining a postgraduate Diploma in Nuclear Medicine, she relocated to Australia to work at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. It was here that she was first introduced to MRI and quickly realised that this was the specialty for her, and decided to work full time in the MRI department beginning in 2002. After 4 years of enjoying the challenges of working in a specialist paediatric department, Vanessa gained a Masters in MRI in 2006 and had a very active role in the department developing a special interest in fetal and cardiac MRI. She helped develop imaging protocols, particularly in fetal imaging. Vanessa has been an invited speaker on this subject at national and international meetings, including a 2008 SMRT ANZ Chapter Meeting in Sydney and most recently at the Joint Annual SMRT/ISMRM Meeting in Melbourne, Australia in 2012. She has been a member of SMRT since 2006 and since then has attended five SMRT ANZ Chapter meetings within Australia as well as the 2010 SMRT and ISMRM annual meeting. Two years ago she relocated to the very wet, but beautiful Scotland, coping with a significant change in temperature from Australia, taking on a Chief Superintendent MRI position at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow. Early in 2012, she made the move to cardiac MRI research and now works in a Regional Cardiac Imaging Centre, which is also the National Centre for imaging Adult Congenital Heart disease. The SMRT expansion and the growth of the Australia Chapter within this organisation have always impressed Vanessa. Involvement in this dynamic organisation when geographically more isolated was inspiring. She hopes that she can continue her involvement now within a United Kingdom chapter and assist in its development.

James is President and CEO of AnimalScan, LLC and Vice President of Warren Radiology MRI, LLC.
Mr. Stuppino received his Bachelor of Science degree with a minor in management from College Misericordia in 1990, where he has been an adjunct professor teaching courses on preparation for the ARRT MRI Boards. While attending College Misericordia he received the Rho Tau Scholarship award for clinical excellence and was elected to the Phi Sigma Beta and Kappa Gamma Phi National Honor Societies. He was also elected to Who’s Who among students in American Colleges and Universities. Past projects in which Mr. Stuppino has been involved include testing new hardware and software on both Open and High Field MR with Siemens Medical Systems. He has co-authored multiple research projects, one of which won a cum laude award at the Radiologic Society of North America, and another award at the Pennsylvania Radiologic Society and was later published in the CMRS newsletter. Presently he owns a company that has sites across the U.S. providing clinical MR imaging for animals. He and his company are working with the Marine Mammal Center in California to provide MR Imaging of the California Sea Lions for detection of Domoic Acid Toxicity. Mr. Stuppino has been an active member of the SMRT since 1996. He served as a member of the SMRT Policy Board from 2001 to 2004 and was the Program Chair for the Thirteenth Annual SMRT Meeting in Kyoto, Japan. He served in many capacities such as the 2004 Regionals Committee Chair, RCEEM Ad-Hoc Committee member, Education Committee member and a member of the 2005-2006 Program committees. He has been included as a lecturer in several SMRT Annual Meeting Programs and SMRT Regional Educational Seminars. He was elected the technologist representative on the MRI Sub-committee from the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology (JRCERT). Mr. Stuppino remains actively involved in technologist education and lectures internationally with such prestigious organizations as Educational Symposia, Northwest Imaging Forums, AHRA and the SMRT on all current topics dealing with Human and Veterinary MRI. Despite Mr. Stuppino’s success in owning and operating MR businesses, he continues to lecture, educate and actively participate in the leadership of the SMRT. He believes that he has grown since his term as a Policy Board member in the past and is eager to tackle new opportunities and help to move the SMRT forward.

Raschel has been a Registered Radiologic Technologist, Radiotherapy Technologist, and Nuclear Medicine Technologist since 1997. She started working in 1997 in the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as a radiological technologist. In 1999 she began working with MR and developed a strong interest in research as well as in the clinical applications of MR. She gained experience with different types of MR systems and field strengths. Beginning in 2001 she worked as a specialised MR technologist, and since 2008 she works at the AMC as MRI supervisor both in the technical aspects of four MR systems and in the personal development of the MR technologists. She is also a visiting lecturer in two training schools for technologists in the Netherlands. She is involved in many MR research projects, including functional imaging, spectroscopy, cardiac imaging, abdominal imaging, neuro imaging and orthopedic imaging. In the AMC she is also responsible for the organization of the MR research on the 3 Tesla unit. Raschel has been a member of the SMRT since 2001. She has presented the results of her research work at the SMRT in Glasgow in 2001 and in Hawaii in 2009. Since 2008 she has been a representative of the Benelux Chapter of the SMRT. In March 2009 she initiated and organized a course in cardiac MR imaging together with S. van Den Berg and F. De Ridder. This meeting was attended by more than 150 technologists from all around the Benelux. Because of the exceptional quality and interest in this course, the SMRT-Benelux decided to repeat this course on a yearly basis in different locations in the Benelux. From that point in time Raschel and her team organized the meetings of the Benelux Chapter of the SMRT. Meetings were held both in 2010 and 2011. This yearly meeting has become the most important place for exchange of expertise for the SMRT Benelux community. Her role in organizing these meetings varies from choosing the topics and the speakers, to finding and involving sponsors in order to reduce the meeting registration fees. Because she knows a lot of professors involved in MRI, she tries to get the best speakers she can. Raschel is honored to be nominated as a candidate to the SMRT Policy Board. She hopes to transmit her enthusiasm and knowledge of MR to other MR technologists in Europe so more MR technologist-lead initiatives will lead to higher professional education and involvement in research, that she hopes to develop in Europe within the SMRT.

 

Wendy Strugnell is the Director of MRI Services at the Richard Slaughter Centre of Excellence in Cardiovascular MRI at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, Australia. From 1996-1998, Wendy was a member of the Australian Institute of Radiography MRI Advisory Panel Steering Committee whose key achievement was the implementation of educational standards and a national accreditation process for Australian MRI Radiographers. Attracted by the strong educational focus of the SMRT, Wendy became a member in 1998, and shortly after became the Queensland representative for the Australia New Zealand (ANZ) Chapter. In 2006 she became President of the ANZ Chapter and established the Annual Meetings of the Chapter. The meetings are now the largest Regional Meetings of the SMRT attracting an annual audience of around 250-300 delegates. As well as providing Australian and New Zealand MR radiographers with the highest quality educational forum in the region, the meetings also served to introduce the ANZ MRI community to the SMRT. As a direct result, Australian and New Zealand membership of the SMRT increased from 75 in 2005 to 515 in 2012. This represents an increase in global membership from 4% in 2006 to 21% six years later. Wendy was elected to the SMRT Policy Board in 2004 and while Chair of the Global Relations Subcommittee facilitated the recognition of SMRT educational activities (meetings and Educational Home Studies) as accredited educational activities by the Australian Institute of Radiography and the New Zealand Institute of Medical Radiation Technology. This greatly increased the opportunities for radiographers in this region to access MR education remotely and cost-effectively while enabling them to meet their countries’ accreditation requirements. In 2007 Wendy became SMRT President Elect and commenced her term as President in 2008 at the 17th Annual Meeting in Toronto. As President, Wendy was focused on one of the main goals of the SMRT: providing high quality education worldwide. She revamped the format of the annual meeting to include more speakers and a wider range of topics and overhauled the abstract submission system to raise the standards and integrity of the process. A new category of abstracts “Clinical Teaching Focus” was introduced to give all MR technologists (not just those in research institutions) an avenue to participate in education and present innovative ideas to the MR community. As a Past President, Wendy has continued to be actively involved in the workings of the SMRT with a particular focus on the educational pursuits of the SMRT. She has served on the Education Committee, continuing to work on refining the abstract submission & review process and as an abstract reviewer for the Annual Meetings. She is also a member of the Past President’s Council, the RCEEM Ad-Hoc Committee, and a number of other committees. She was a member of the 2012 Program Committee. Wendy is also a member of the Executive Committee of the ANZ Chapter where she continues to be actively involved in the management of all ANZ Annual Meetings. She has served as an abstract reviewer for all of the ANZ Annual Meetings. In 2011 Wendy was Co-Chair of the 6th Annual Meeting of the ANZ Chapter. As the manager of MRI units in tertiary hospital practices for more than 15 years, Wendy has been heavily involved in the education of MR radiographers. She currently runs a Fellowship Program in Cardiovascular MRI for Radiographers and participates as an educator for the Cardiothoracic Imaging Education Program at The Prince Charles Hospital. Wendy has been invited to give over 20 presentations at national and international meetings on MRI applications and techniques. In 2003, Wendy received the 2nd Place Oral Presentation Award for Research Focus for a paper titled “Cardiac MRI Analysis of RV Function: A New Approach”. This work has since been published in the Journal of Cardiovascular MR and the technique has been adopted at many centres around the world. Wendy continues to be actively involved in disseminating research findings relevant to the clinical applications of MRI. She has 13 publications in peer-reviewed international journals and has authored more than 70 poster and oral presentations at international scientific meetings. Wendy is delighted that her contributions to the education of MR technologists and radiographers throughout the world have been recognised by being nominated for this award.