Absract submission is now open for ECR 2010 the annual congress of the European Society of Radiology.
More info: My ESR

-Andras

I apologize for putting this up so late but I was busy the past two days. So the second day of the conference passed very quickly. Presentations from 8-12, including mine at 11:36, great lunch, poster session, afternoon presentations and a fabulous dinner at the Hotel Aranybika.

My presentation was in a very physics oriented section. I guess it would not have fit in anywhere any better, but I was happy to see that the lecture hall began To fill up with people just in time for my presentation.

At the end I was glad to have it overwith, and I was more relaxed when talking To people afterwards. I hope To give this presentation somewhere else also.

So I will end this post just the way that day ended; with pictures from the dinner party.
- Andras

The first day of the conference started off with the official opening of the new Nuclear Medicine Center where the latest scanners of Mediso were installed including the new PET/SPECT/CT hybrid camera. Tomorrow is the day of my presentation on Web 2.0 and Nuclear Medicine. I am going to talk about my latest project nuklearismedicina.hu and try to persuade people to participate. We will see how it goes, wish me luck! Until then enjoy the photos.

Here are two shots of the new Nuclear Medicine Center on the campus of the Univ. Of Debrecen Medical and Health Science Center scheduled for opening next Thursday at 1pm.

The ceremony will take place on the first day of the MONT Conference. If you come you can see the very first Hungarian developed hybrid scanner, but that is all I am allowed to tell you.

See you there or follow me via Twitter or my blog for live blogging action from this conference.

- Andras

The 16th biennial congress of the György Hevesy Hungarian society of nuclear medicine, MONT, will take place between the 2-4 of July, 2009 in Debrecen. On the first day the new Nuclear Medicine Center and the first Hungarian developed, multi modality, hibrid scanner will be shown to the public.

Dear Colleague,

The György Hevesy Hungarian Society of Nuclear Medicine (MONT) will organize its next national congress between 2 and 4 of July, 2009, in Debrecen. The venue will be the Health Science Building of the University of Debrecen.

On behalf of the organizing committee I would like to invite you and your colleagues to participate on our congress. We hope again to attract a large multidisciplinary audience as on previous congresses of MONT.

The official languages of the congress are Hungarian and English.

The scientific abstracts will be published in the Nuclear Medicine Review.

Debrecen, June 2009

Best Regards,

Prof. László Galuska, MD, PhD
Congress President

Schedule of the congress may be found on the MONT website.

See you there!

- Andras

I have just started using the iPhone and among the first applications I downloaded from the Apps Store was this WordPress mini blogging tool.

I must say that it is quite easy and simple to use. What I like best is that and I no longer need a noisy computer to blog, and I can add new post to my blog from just about anywhere. In fact, I will test this mini app as a means to live blogging starting Thursday at the MONT 2009 Conference here in Debrecen.

So stay tuned!
- Andras

(The image is the best I could manage with the iPhone)

As a medical student, I never had a decent seminar in Radiology. Week after week we would go into a tiny room, and our doctor would show us x-ray and CT images from a distance of up to 10 meters (why didn’t I get closer? – because the room was crowded!) So how on earth was anybody supposed to learn in that kind of invironment? I am not proud of it, but I did not get much out those afternoon sessions. Even so, during my clinical rotations, I was expected to recognize certain lesions on CT, but I was not too successful as you may imagine.

That is why I am so glad I fould e-anatomy! Absolutely free of charge I get to practice my anatomy skills through CT and MRI images on a virtual workstation. The image quality is excellent, the labels are very informative, and if I chose to upgrade for only 40 dollars a year I could get even better service. Other subscription options are 1 dollar for a day, or 9 dollars for a month.  Institutions can also purchase a larger package, but the price is not available on the website.

All you need is a browser that supports Adobe Flash (sorry iPhone users), and a quick, free registration. They have a wide range of available content:

HEAD AND NECK

Brain

Skull, Sinuses

Temporal bone

Ear

Face (Bones)

Face (Soft tissues)

Neck

Diagnostic scans, whether it is a plain x-ray or CT scan, use some form of radiation and for those who are exposed to radiation sources, the doses eventually add up over the years and may disrupt cell division.

While debated, a recent study suggests that radiation exposure from medical imaging may be responsible for 1-3% of cancers worldwide. In 2004, Lee et al. concluded that “patients are not given information about the risks, benefits and radiation dose for a CT scan”. Additionally, this study found that both patients and physicians were “unable to provide accurate estimates of CT doses”.

If you are curious about your risk data, head over to Xrayrisk and calculate your own values. Just type in your age, the type and number of scans you have had so far, and the approximate dose value in mSv!

The frequently asked questions section of this website contains some short, but detailed descriptions of the various modalities, including Nuclear Medicine modalities, that may be valuable for patients.

Don’t forget, though, it is all about probability! Not one test will ever be able to predict for sure whether someone will have any form of cancer in their lifetime.

- Andras

I have come across a valuable website that is something the imaging community has been missing for some time. RightScanRightTime is a platform that encourages patients and physicians to share imaging stories, but it contains resources that may be useful for both patients and doctors:

Scan 101: This section explains briefly, but clearly what modalities are used today in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, so it is great for patient education.

Research: The site contains an easily-searchable data base of peer-reviewed research demonstrating the patient and economic value derived from medical imaging.

Stories of imaging: Here you, as a patient or as a doctor, can share your imaging story or read about someone else’s experience. I am sure this will help alleviate a lot of people’s fear of imaging modalities.

I highly recommed the site, though the Scan 101 section could be a little bit more detailed.

- Andras

Péter Bágyi, a fellow Hungarian blogger, put together a long list of online available Radiology related journals:

Post updated: 26th June, 2009.

This is a great compilation, but if you believe that something is missing from this list, add your comment below!

- Andras