Presidents Message September 2009

9/27/2009

Dear Colleagues,

This has indeed been a busy and challenging year for many. It is good to see some upturn in the world economy which has also seen the reserves of ISRRT improve as well.

You will see from the Reports from the Board members that they have been working hard in their various portfolios on your behalf – it is worth remembering that they are also working daily in full time employment so spend much of their spare time on ISRRT activities.

You will also sadly read an Obituary for Peter Lloyd, the late husband of our Director of Education. Peter died in September this year, and we send our sincere condolences to Cynthia. Many of you will have met and even worked with Peter on ISRRT projects. His good natured enthusiasm made him great fun to be with and he will be sadly missed by us all.

Sandy Yule our CEO will mention in his Report, the ISRRT Board Meeting which was held in Hong Kong earlier this year and was a productive and concentrated two days of activity. Whilst it is an expense for the Board to meet it is essential for overall management and planning. We plan a location based on the cheapest fares and access and thank Maria Law and the Hong Kong Poly U for their support as well as the Hong Kong Societies who hosted us for an evening.

I was invited to represent the ISRRT at the Annual National Meeting of the Canadian Society in June and present the Address at the Opening Session. It was a good opportunity to join with the Canadian Council Member Rita Eyer to promote the international education work of ISRRT and to also thank the Canadian Society for their continuing  strong support of ISRRT. They were very generous and warm hosts during my visit.

I was also able to meet with the representatives of the Society of Radiographers at the UK meeting and meet with the staff at the John Rylands Library of the Manchester University to discuss and sign the agreement for them to officially hold the material forming the Archives of the ISRRT. This material will be used as the basis of a formal History of the ISRRT which will be produced to mark the 50^th Anniversary of the ISRRT to be celebrated in Canada in 2012.

Of more practical benefit however is the work being done on the educational front in many locations from Tanzania to Fiji – Cynthia Cowling, Caesar Barare and Jenny Motto headed up a team which has been widely commended for its work with QA in Digital Imaging and we hope this will be the basis for ongoing projects. The Fiji project in conjunction with World Health has been similarly acknowledged and we thank Soji from the Fiji School of Medicine for his work on this project.

You will also have been advised of the recent recognition of the role of ISRRT by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). We are seen as the focus for Technologists internationally and this is an excellent fit with the plan to increase activities for Technologists at the RSNA Meeting.  Our American Society colleagues are also increasing their exposure at the RSNA Meeting so it now becomes a very worthwhile event on the Technologists calendar. Cynthia Cowling and I will be presenting material with an International focus at the Associated Sciences Forum and giving those attending increased access to ISRRT. We also offer any Society Representatives attending the RSNA Congress the opportunity to join us for an informal Meeting of interested Societies – a forum to exchange current issues affecting technologist Societies internationally. The date, time and location are available from the CEO.

We have also strengthened our relationship with both the World Health Organisation (WHO) and The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). We have invited Dr Madan Rehani, an expert on Radiation Protection from IAEA to attend our World Congress in 2010 and to be part of a focus of this important issue.  I commend you to read the regular updates from the IAEA on radiation protection topics which are very relevant to us all.

http://rpop.iaea.org/RPOP/RPoP/Content/Documents/Whitepapers/NewsletterFinal.pdf

The planning for the ISRRT World Congress in September 2010 is well in hand and promises a stimulating educational program as well as enjoyable social activities. Abstract applications are now being received via the ISRRT website – www.isrrt.org

It has also been my pleasure recently to attend as a guest, the Annual National Meeting of the Chinese Society of Imaging Technologists (CSIT), held in the city of Wuhan in mid China. Whilst this Society is not a member of ISRRT, they have been official observers at our last two World Congresses and ISRRT Council Meetings. 800 technologists attended their meeting with visitors from Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. They held a full day International session with over 40 papers of a very high technical standard presented in English for which they are to be highly commended. They have a particular interest in research which is also to be encouraged.

Research will also be highlighted by ISRRT at the 2010 World Congress, and the Board will be advising the commencement of a formal research award - full details will be widely circulated to all Member Societies by the CEO. Thanks must go to the VP for Asia/Australasia. Maria Law, for producing the guidelines and criteria.

As you receive this Newsletter we will be approaching another anniversary of the discovery of X-rays in November 1895. ISRRT, through our Director of Public Relations Fozy Peer, has suggested a theme based on “Caring for your protection” which is in line with our increasing focus on Radiation Protection.  This information including appropriate artwork is also available from our website for your use.

The last  edition of our Newsletter was also available in Spanish and French to give access far more widely in keeping with our aim to make ISRRT even better known and accessible and it is hoped that we will be able to produce further copies in the future. We will need to decide whether or not  electronic distribution of the ISRRT Newsletter as a PDF file via our Member Societies and our website will be a far more effective and economical means of distributing information and news. It is certainly a better way to save our financial resources for additional educational purposes rather than spending them on very expensive, inefficient and environmentally wasteful hard copy postage.  It also fits very well with the theme of the 2010 World Congress “ Tomorrow and Beyond- Connecting and Communicating”.

Rob George                                                                                                                                                               President, ISRRT

September 2009