Message from Mr. Robert George, President of ISRRT

3/5/2009

Presidents Message

Dear Colleagues –

I write this message as South Eastern Australia is still to recover from the horrendous bushfires that have ravaged so much of Victoria with the loss of over 200 lives and nearly 2,000 houses.

I have received many expressions of concern from overseas and have passed these on to our Australian colleagues many of whom have relatives affected by the disaster. As always in such events, radiographers have played a significant role on the medical support of those injured. It never ceases to amaze me how close the links are between our ISRRT Societies. We thank you for your thoughts.

On a more positive note, I was honored recently to be invited to represent ISRRT and speak at the Inauguration Ceremony of the newly formed Hong Kong College of Radiographers. We congratulate our Asia / Australasia Regional Vice President Dr Maria Law on being elected as the Foundation President and all of those who have worked so hard and cooperatively to establish of the College.

Above: Robert George, President of ISRRT and Maria Law, VP of ISRRT Asia/Australasia
            at inauguration ceremony

I have also just returned from attending the 42^nd Annual Conference of our colleagues in the Taiwanese Society in Taipei, where over 2,000 Technologists from 7 countries met .This was also the 11th East Asia Conference of Radiologic Technologist (EACRT) which includes the Societies from Japan, Korea and Taiwan. I thank them for their invitation and ongoing support of ISRRT.

These 3 Societies work closely together for the benefit of their members and even run a jointly recognised education program in PACS Management which is available to others outside of the Region via the web.

I was delighted to also meet with the President and Secretary of the Mongolian Society of Radiographers who are keen to join ISRRT as a Member Society.

Above: Visiting Presidents

You will find in the May edition of the Newsletter, a report from our Director of Education Cynthia Cowling on her recent visit to Fiji where she is helping coordinate an upcoming program in conjunction with WHO . We are in fact delighted to advise that WHO is continuing to focus efforts on Medical Imaging in its Health Programs and Dr Sandy Yule will be meeting later this year with the person responsible for these activities to ensure our continued support and cooperation.

Other Board Members will also report on their activities on your behalf. I urge you to regularly consult our website – www.isrrt.org to remain up to date on the work of ISRRT and our many Societies.

In having the opportunity to work closely with our Board, to meet with members of our Societies from all corners of the world and to also meet with the heads of the many Companies supporting our profession, I am constantly impressed by their commitment and dedication.

 We are all facing difficult economic times in our countries, but we need to maintain our focus on the bigger picture. This was brought home to me in an interview I read recently with a very prominent and successful lawyer who heads a law firm of over 900 solicitors– when asked what his job meant to him, his response was:-

“ If you focus on excellence, on integrity and on the opportunities you create for others, then you will have a good career and a good life.”

These are really the ideals by which the Board lives with respect to our work in ISRRT – excellence, integrity and creating opportunities for others – and if we all try to hold these as our individual tenets we will go a long way towards contributing to a better world for all.

Rob George,                                                                                                                         President ISRRT