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rstanley{at}ajroffice.org
Two years ago I attended the annual meeting of the European Congress of Radiology (ECR), held in Vienna, Austria, in March. At that time I was most favorably impressed with the quality and scope of the meeting. This year I again was provided the opportunity to attend the meeting, representing the AJR, and also to actively participate in the meeting.
The meeting ran from the morning of Friday, March 3, through the early afternoon of Tuesday, March 7, maximizing the weekend days and keeping the weekdays to a minimum. I was able to attend the entire meeting and leave for home on Tuesday. Once again the depth and breadth of this high-quality meeting were impressive. More than 15,000 attendees were on hand. And because it is held in a conference center—the Austria Center Vienna—that functions on a human scale, it was easy to get around and attend whatever I desired. A very convenient metro train took me to and from the center to downtown Vienna and my well-serviced hotel.
I was invited to participate in a competitive image interpretation session, held on Sunday afternoon, which pitted a team of American radiologists against a team of European. Although the concept was analogous to the traditional Sunday RSNA unknown film panel, the format was decidedly different. The moderator, Dr. Tony Nicholson of Leeds, UK, fashioned the competition much like a TV game show. The audience, about 2,500, was able to participate in the event with computerized keyboards, allowing about 15% of the attendees to vote on the correct diagnosis from a differential diagnosis listing of possible diseases. The teams could also phone a friend for help once each. As a consequence, the audience stayed connected and also entertained. Before each case, the team was required to answer a starter question, such as "What is Hans von Schmuck's claim to fame?" (For the curious, go to Google.)
The cases had excellent teaching value, but the discussions were not permitted to drag on. As a consequence, a large number of cases were presented in a 90-minute period, and the audience was kept aware of the running score by Vienna's answer to Vana White of Wheel of Fortune. The competition ended in a tie, even after tiebreaker cases had been used, but the moderator determined that an offhand comment by one of the European teammates was slightly insulting to us, and therefore subtracted one point, making us the "winners." Quite ingenious. Needless to say, it was a distinctly unique and enjoyable experience for me, my teammates, the competition, and, most important, the audience. It was an educational exercise worth emulating.
Among many of the educational sessions I attended, the one in which the "ECR Meets Singapore" introduced me to the radiology community of Singapore, a city-state not much larger than Vienna.
Once again, as had been my experience during a focus session with a delegation of Korean presenters in 2004, I was much impressed by the high quality of the presentations. It reinforced the message contained in Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat [1], which analyzes the advanced phase of globalization in which we find ourselves. Although his book focuses primarily on the world of business, the globalization of medicine is also described. For those who enjoy learning about the "broad picture," I wholeheartedly recommend this best-seller to you. I read it on the trip to Austria, and then witnessed the accuracy of his points firsthand at this international meeting.
Continuing medical education is an integral part of our professional lives. By combining a trip to Vienna, one of the elegant old—and now vital—cities of Europe with attendance at the ECR, whose sessions are conducted entirely in English, a North American radiologist will get her or his CME money's worth, and then some. I sincerely congratulate Professor Andy Adam, ECR 2006 president, and his team of ECR leaders, for once again presenting an outstanding annual meeting, held for the first time under the auspices of the newly founded European Society of Radiology.
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