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July 2015 • Vol. 4, Issue 3 |
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MEMBERS MAKING NEWS
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Signals: How did you become involved with MR? I was trained as a radiographer in Sweden. The Swedish radiographer education also includes nursing qualification and nowadays also basic MR training. I was happy to be employed at Lund University Hospital and very early in my career I was involved in different radiology research projects such as CT, angiography, contrast agents, animal experiments etc. When it was time to specialize I was considering ultrasound training for a while, but after visiting RSNA in Chicago where the first MRI scanner was on display in 1981, my curiosity was definitely pointing in a new direction: (N)MR! In 1983 our professor in Radiation Physics Bertil Persson, started a project to build the first Scandinavian NMR scanner and luckily I was one of the persons involved. Pioneer work and not very beautiful pictures but we “learned by doing”. In 1986 we bought our first clinical scanner and a new MRI era started. Today we are starting up a national 7T research site in Lund, Sweden and I consider myself very lucky to have been around to see how MR has developed into many areas and functions, clinical as well as research wise. So far, a fantastic journey from 0,07T (1983) to 7T (2014). Signals: Who or what influenced you the most in your career? There are many persons that have been important to me and my professional career. However two of them stand out to be very special and they are both professors in (MR-) physics, Bertil Persson and Freddy Ståhlberg. Both are devoted to their profession and also excellent teachers. I would not have made it without them! I would also like to mention a very important moment when I realized that MR-safety was going to be a really important part of my MR-profession. It occurred to me in Lisbon, Portugal at an MR-safety workshop with participants from many different parts of the world. Various talks and intensive discussions at that workshop proved to me that there is a lot to be done to improve MR-safety worldwide. It was a great opportunity to meet various members from both ISMRM and SMRT safety organizations. They really gave me a lot of inspiration and motivation, and they still do! I am now working locally, nationally and internationally as a member of the ISMRM and SMRT safety committees and I am also as a member of the intersociety working group that is working and dealing with the situation we have in Europe regarding a very special EU-directive and derogation concerning electromagnetic fields. Signals: When did you first learn about the SMRT? It is almost unbelievable, but I went to a couple of ISMRM yearly meetings without knowing that there was a dedicated MR society with its own yearly meeting for us MR-radiographers/technologists. It was a physicist that told me about this possibility and when I read the SMRT yearly meeting program and realized that all talks were given by the best MR-speakers in the world, I decided to join this society at once. I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the next SMRT/ISMRM yearly meeting and since then I am a true SMRT supporter and have attended and also organized several meetings and workshops. I have learned a lot from my colleagues and friends in this organization and I know that there is almost no end to what you can learn and find out through SMRT information channels, its educational resources and networking. I am very happy and proud to be a part of our “MR-family”, a family that we would like to see growing across borders and we want many more of our MR-colleagues to join and participate in our activities. Signals: Describe how participating on the Policy Board has helped you in your efforts to promote the SMRT in Europe and Scandinavia. Being a member of the SMRT Policy Board is really something you learn a lot from. It gave me a fantastic opportunity to learn a lot about MR and our organization and also to see things from a global, European and national point of view. I am proud to say that a Nordic Chapter exists since a few years back that includes members from both ISMRM and SMRT and we hope that we can inspire radiographers from more countries and regions to become members. Language problems are clearly an issue in Europe but can hopefully improve in regional sections. My experiences from working within SMRT also made me realize that we all basically have the same problems and issues to deal with regardless of where in the world we are performing our MR examinations, clinical or research. I believe we have to put a lot of efforts to increase SMRT’s activities globally since we have a lot to learn from each other! Biographical sketch 2014: Titti Owman registered as a Radiological Technologist/Nurse in December 1979 and in January 1980 she started to work at the Department of Radiology in Lund. In 1981 she became involved in a clinical trial of the first non-iodine contrast agent and has since been involved in many different research projects. Titti is now serving on the Lund University’s clinical MRI research committee. In 1983 she went on to become involved in the very first NMR imaging attempts in Scandinavia at the Department of Radiation Physics at Lund University. Currently Titti is a Research coordinator/lecturer at the Center for Imaging and Physiology, Lund University Hospital, Sweden. Since 1986, when the first clinical MRI-scanner was installed in Lund, she has been working in clinical practice; research related work as well as MRI-safety. Titti is responsible for MRI safety education and routines to all staff in the medical imaging center as well as other clinics and hospitals. She is very much involved in organizing and planning various MRI research projects, mainly in the field of neuroradiology and she is actively taking part in several of them. In 1988-89 she worked for the Fonar Corporation, New York as an application specialist traveling in Europe and USA. From 1991-1993 she worked as assistant manager and helped to start up one of Sweden’s first private MRI-clinics where she did administrative work as well as clinical practice. Titti is a founding member, and still active, in the Lund School of MRI. She is responsible for organizing courses and lecturing for many different professional groups in the hospital and at the university. She has held the position of Course Director for MRI education for technologists at the University since 1995. Titti has been engaged by the Swedish Society of Neuroradiology to plan and organize nine courses in Neuroradiology and Spinal Imaging in Cyprus, Tenerife and Mallorca since 2002. In 2002 she was engaged in planning, organizing and starting up the first 3T MRI scanner in Scandinavia. In the spring of 2008 she was speaker and co-organizer of the SMRT’s first meeting in Scandinavia held in Aarhus, Denmark. She has been co-author on scientific papers and invited speaker on many occasions. In 2003, 2004 and 2009 she was invited lecturer at the European Congress of Radiology in Vienna, Austria. During the fall of 2013 she is involved in starting an advanced course for MR-radiographers, the first of its kind in Sweden. She is also an active member of the Swedish National board for Contrast Agents, MR-section. Between 2009 and 2012 she served as a member of the SMRT Policy Board and chairman for Global Relations committee. At present she is a member of several other SMRT committees. She served as expert reviewer for the SMRT magazine Signals in 2010. Titti was an active member of the local organising committee for the yearly ISMRM meeting in Stockholm in 2010. She was also active in the process of creating the ISMRM/SMRT Nordic Chapter that was founded in 2012. At present she is a Member of the ISMRM Safety Committee and also a member of an international MR-safety group whose aim is recommending minimum requirements for a research scientist performing MRI in human subjects. Furthermore, she was chairman and organiser of the ISMRM workshop on Health and Safety in Lund, Sweden in September 2012. She was also a member of the organising committee arranging the MR-safety workshop in Washington DC in September 2014. At present Titti is an active member of a group starting up a national 7 Tesla facility within Lund University Bioimaging Center. She is also a member of a national group that has purchased and is soon to start up a 7T research facility that is going to serve researchers, national as well as international. Titti is also representing ISMRM Safety Committee as an active member of the European MR-safety Group currently active in the process dealing with the EU-directive and derogation regarding MRI-workers an electromagnetic field exposure limits. In November 2015 she is also hosting a European MR-safety course in Lund, Sweden. In an effort to be able to keep up with what’s going on in the fast world of MRI she is a frequent visitor to MRI-meetings and other MR-sites, national as well as international ones. Titti considers it a great honour to be nominated as Fellow of the Section Award Recipient and she is always willing to promote and represent SMRT and ISMRM nationally and internationally. |
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Signals is a publication produced four times per calendar year 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. The newsletter is the compilation of editor, Julie Strandt-Peay, BSM, RT (R)(MR) FSMRT, the leadership of the SMRT and the staff in the ISMRM Central Office with contributions from members and invited participants. |
