At its March meeting, the RSNA Board of Directors approved a 2008-2011 strategic plan for the Society. The plan keeps in place the same basic objectives for RSNA, including fostering international relationships, meeting members' professional development needs and promoting high-quality education and research. Recognizing the completion of some prior initiatives, the Board outlined some new strategies for meeting the Society's goals.

Fostering International Relationships

The new strategic plan includes a five-year international strategy, encompassing the Society's many efforts to lead global radiology activities and provide valuable educational opportunities to foreign radiologists. RSNA will continue promoting the Society through visits of the RSNA president and informational booth to radiology meetings around the world each year. RSNA will also continue to encourage participation by foreign radiologists in the RSNA annual meeting and submission of abstracts for presentation consideration. Other activities identified in the international strategy include the outreach programs of the RSNA Committee on International Relations and Education (CIRE), technology and education programs geared toward assisting radiologists in other countries and collaboration with foreign radiology societies.

The RSNA International Visiting Program will travel to Estonia, Bolivia, South Africa and Argentina in 2009. The IVP program will also send a team to Mexico again next year. In 2008, IVP teams will visit China, Nigeria, Vietnam and Mexico.

Meeting Professional Development Needs

Hedvig Hricak, M.D., Ph.D.,
Dr. h.c.
Chairman, 2008 RSNA Board of Directors

An RSNA Education Committee will be formed at RSNA 2008. Staying on top of breaking developments in clinical practice and research, committee members will identify the educational needs of RSNA members and the emerging technologies through which the Society can serve them.

RSNA continues to help members streamline and standardize their practices in the area of informatics with an effort to develop and publish standard report templates using the RadLex® radiology lexicon and current approaches to structured healthcare documents. The new RSNA Radiology Reporting Subcommittee of the Radiology Informatics Committee will hold a consensus meeting on the structured radiology report in summer 2008 at RSNA Headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill. The workshop will bring together representatives of radiology subspecialty organizations, other medical specialties and technical experts to discuss the status of structured radiology reporting.

Planning for RSNA 2008 continues. As the number of abstracts submitted for presentation consideration at the RSNA annual meeting has increased over the past several years, a number of the Scientific Program Committee subcommittees charged with reviewing the abstracts have been expanded.

The New Horizons Lecture at RSNA 2008 will be dedicated to the memory of Samuel J. Dwyer III, Ph.D., and the Annual Oration in Radiation Oncology to the memory of Steven A. Leibel, M.D.

Looking ahead to RSNA 2009, RSNA is working with the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT®) to develop an education track for radiologic technologists. The new track will complement current programs for allied professionals offered by the Associated Sciences Consortium.

As it focuses its education resources on other projects, RSNA will discontinue RSNA Highlights™, the pilot educational conference held in 2007 and 2008.

Promoting High Quality Science and Research

RSNA continues to establish its role in the evolution of imaging biomarkers and quantitative imaging. At the Imaging Biomarkers Roundtable in Oak Brook last month, representatives of groups charged with evaluating biomarkers discussed the status of their various projects and how to coordinate their efforts. RSNA Science Advisor Daniel Sullivan, M.D., continues to work with an ad-hoc group advising RSNA on its quantitative imaging activities. The group will come together for the Toward Quantitative Imaging meeting this summer in Oak Brook and is exploring ways to promote quantitative imaging through the RSNA annual meeting, a white paper, intersociety collaborations and other forums.

The Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance—a group of stakeholders from the pharmaceutical and equipment industries, imaging informatics companies, government agencies, imaging societies and clinical trials—met during RSNA 2007 and are proceeding with their 2008 work plan to promote quantitative imaging. The project is to be modeled after the process used by the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE®) initiative in the area of imaging informatics. This group will hold a two-day kickoff meeting this month.

Having recently received positive feedback about RadioGraphics via the 2007 reader survey, RSNA is extremely pleased that RadioGraphics Editor William W. Olmsted, M.D., has agreed to extend his contract through 2011.

Hedvig Hricak, M.D., Ph.D., Dr. h.c.
Chairman, 2008 RSNA Board of Directors

Note: In our continuing efforts to keep RSNA members informed, the chairman of the RSNA Board of Directors will provide a brief report in RSNA News following each board meeting. The next RSNA Board Meeting is in June 2008.