2 new courses have been included to the ESMRMB School of MRI educational course programme. We would hereby like to introduce our 2 new course organisers and their courses:

Body Diffusion-weighted MR Imaging: From Theory to Practice
April 18-20, London/UK

I am Dr. Dow-Mu Koh, Consultant Radiologist at The Royal Marsden Hospital (UK), a specialist cancer hospital, and also Honorary Faculty member at the Institute of Cancer Research.  My key area of interest is in the development and application of functional imaging techniques for tumour assessment.  I have a broad interest in applying a range of imaging techniques for disease detection and tumour response assessment.  In particular, I have a special interest in body diffusion-weighted MR imaging, and the development of this technique for wider application across the body for oncological patient management. 

In April 2012, we successfully presented a new course in the ESMRMB School of MRI programme, entitled ‘Body diffusion-weighted MR imaging: From theory to practice’.  This course was highly successful and well attended by 65 participants. The faculty comprised 10 internationally recognised experts in this specialist field.  The course covered the principles of diffusion-weighted MRI as applied to the body, and also detailed its application across the body including the breast, abdomen and pelvis, as well as whole-body imaging.  The potential value of using diffusion-weighted MRI for the assessment of tumour response and other non-oncological applications were also presented.  The course will be repeated in 2013, the date of which will be announced shortly. 

MR Safety
October 18-20, Vienna/AT

I am Siegfried Trattnig, Professor for Radiology with special emphasis on high field MR and I have build up a task force in Vienna, which developed concepts for MR safety within the General Hospital of Vienna. The MR safety issues get more and more important with the increasing number of high field MR systems operating at 3.0T, which increases the risk for specific absorption rate (SAR) related heating since the SAR values increase with the square of the field strength and the new stronger gradient systems which may induce peripheral nerve stimulation.
In addition, more medical implants are nowadays used in patients which necessitates a careful screening and an expertise for their safe use in the MR environment.
In addition to the consideration of safety of patients in the MR environment, the EMF Directive which is now under consideration for implementation in 2013 drives initiatives to develop guidelines for safe working in MRI, develop training materials for this purpose and to define the requirements for professionals who provide MR safety advice.
For this purpose I offer a specialized course on MR safety with internationally recognized experts in this field within the School of MRI and this course will take place in Vienna, October 18-20, 2012 for the first time. The structure of the course is based on the Austrian course on “Training to be an MR Safety Officer” developed by my task force and which was certified by a Standard Institute (Austrian Standards Institute – ÖNORM S 1125 and S 1125-2) and thus is an ÖNORM certified course to become an MR Safety Officer. This course was successfully held three times and based on it the new School of MRI course on MR safety was developed.

MR Safety course programme
MR Safety / School of MRI course registration