Hybrid imaging with PET/CT and PET/MR is becoming increasingly crucial in the routine staging of oncologic disease, treatment planning, early treatment evaluation, and follow up. With ECR 2016 President, Professor Katrine Riklund, being licensed in both radiology and nuclear medicine, it is easy to guess, that one of the key aspects of the ECR 2016 programme will be hybrid imaging.
Source: Press Release ECR 2016
The combination of molecular, biochemical, and structural information that hybrid imaging has to offer is more useful than the information provided by each techniq ue on its own, and can help to optimise the management of cancer patients, particularly those suffering from solid cancers and lymphoma, explained Riklund, assistant head of the department of radiation sciences , chief physician of the nuclear medicine department and director of the medical school at Umeå University.
Radiotracers are crucial for PET , since the tracer defines which function, receptor or biochemical process is being measured. The protocols used for CT and MRI define the quality and type of information gained by these modalities. In hybrid imaging it is therefore of utmost impor tance to both select the correct tracers as well as to optimise the examining protocol for each disease.
“To underline the importance of hybrid imaging, the ESR Executive Council decided in May 2015 to establish the European Society of Hybrid Medical Imaging (ESHI) as a subspecialty society under the umbrella of the European Society of Radiology (ESR). The society has been created with the aim of improving training in hybrid imaging so that its practitioners can make the best use of PET/CT and PET/MR for the benefit of patients,” said Riklund.
The focus is on ensuring the optimal use of hybrid imaging to provide the best patient care, and to establish a collaborative relationship between radiology and nuclear medicine. It is important to take advantage of both structural and molecular information in each examination and with continuous education most hybrid examinations should be read by only a single specialist in the future. The society welcomes all physicians, scientists and professionals with an interest in hybrid medical imaging. ESHI will be officially inaugurated at the ECR 2016.
The founding Board of ESHI is as follows:
Katrine Riklund, Umeå/SE – President Osman Ratib, Geneva/CH – Vice President
Thomas Beyer, Vienna/AT – Treasurer
Gerald Antoch, Düsseldorf/DE
Andrea Laghi, Rome/IT
Ex officio: President of the European Society of Molecular and Functional Imaging in Radiology (ESMOFIR) – Olivier Clément, Paris/FR
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The European Congress of Radiology is the annual meeting of the European Society of Radiology (ESR), the largest radiological society in the world, currently with 63,600 members. The congress, which this year takes place March 2 to 6, at the Austria Center Vienna, annually attracts more than 20,000 delegates from around 100 countries, and the accompanying technical exhibition hosts more than 300 international exhibitors across 26,000 m².