PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE 2011
January 24, 2011
TO: MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF EXTREMITY MRI IN RHEUMATOLOGY
FROM: Dr. Norman Gaylis, President
Dear Members,
I hope the new year finds you in good health and enjoying the challenges of practicing rheumatology and medicine in 2011; certainly a challenge for all of us, which hopefully will ultimately have its rewards.
We recently had our annual meeting of the Society in Atlanta prior to the annual ACR meeting and a summary of the pertinent minutes are as follows.
The financial health of our organization is excellent. Dues renewals are being processed. We have had increased corporate sponsorship over the year and our Rome meeting was financially successful.
With regards to our Rome meeting, while the content was excellent, it does appear that logistically we need to consider either two separate smaller meetings annually or one every other year as it is logically difficult for our membership to attend meetings across the ocean on an annual basis.
On the subject of meetings, our next 4th annual ISEMIR educational conference will take place on Friday, April 15, in Chicago a day prior to the winter ACR meeting and we have decided to broaden the scope of this meeting to include ultrasound imaging as a topic in conjunction with MRI in terms of how these two imaging technologies interact for the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic conditions in the office environment of the rheumatologist.
We have a five star faculty from both MRI and ultrasound arenas and will be forwarding information to you on this meeting in the very near future. Registration will be available online and through our website. Please mark this date on your calendars and we would appreciate the attendance support of all our members. If you have colleagues who have an interest in the topic, please make them aware of this meeting. Remember, this meeting is designed for your benefit and the attendance at the meeting and socializing with each other is critical for our future success.
On the subject of membership, we have remained almost the same size as the previous year. While there has been no attrition, the consideration to potentially combine the MRI Society with an Ultrasound Society was discussed at our annual meeting. No decisions were made but certainly for the health and future of our organization, this is something that I think will be discussed further in Chicago and the Board will make an appropriate decision at that time.
I am pleased to report that web traffic on our site has increased significantly and would appear to be a valuable resource to our members as well as to the rheumatology community in general.
We continue to be very thankful for industry sponsorship, without which we would have significant challenges in hosting a web site and supporting an educational meeting, as well as interacting with the various societies, payors, and organizations, which is an ongoing process.
We continue to have a very strong relationship with ICAMRL, which is an authorized accreditation society for MRI, but we do need to be aware that, in the very near future, extremity MRI of less than 0.2 Tesla strength may not be able to continue to be accredited. The older Magna - VU MRI scanners have, in fact, been deemed to no longer be up to acceptable standards.
Drs. Phil Conaghan, Paul Emery, and Mikkel Ostergaard have participated in the revised ACR white paper, which will shortly be published on the topic of MRI and rheumatoid arthritis. While we have obviously made significant advances from the original white paper, there is concern that, overall, there still is no consensus as to the equal value of E - MRI versus whole body MRI in the management of rheumatoid arthritis. This continues to be a challenge, as the payors obviously like to focus on the negatives and your Society will continue to do its best to reinforce the positive aspects of small magnet MRI.
I will close this letter with an open offer for you to interact with myself and your Board members. We are here to serve you. I appreciate the honor of having been your president for the last two and a half years. My term will expire at the time of the Chicago meeting but I will be followed by Dr. Phil Conaghan, whom I am sure will be a very capable replacement. I have enjoyed my role as your president and will continue to work as hard as possible to improve the visibility and viability of our Society and the value of MRI in rheumatology.
Sincerely,
Norman B. Gaylis, M.D., F.A.C.P.PresidentNBG/dsj