Over two
centuries ago, Franz Anton Mesmer attained both fame and notoriety
in Europe for his study of “animal magnetism”, innate magnetic
forces which he claimed could be controlled to address a breadth of
illnesses. In 1784, King Louis XVI appointed a commission to
determine whether Mesmer’s practices in magnetism were valid, or
whether he was merely curing people through the power of
suggestion. The commission took a dim view of Mesmer’s work, and
reported back, in part, that “magnetism without imagination produces
nothing.”
I really like this story, because I think that our society and
Mesmer are on opposite sides of the same coin. I say this because I
believe that, like nowhere else and at no other time in history, one
sees the amazing results of magnetism with imagination at the
meetings of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in
Medicine.
The 20th annual meeting of the ISMRM will be held in Melbourne, 5-11
May, 2012. The theme this year is “Adapting MR in a changing
world”. In our Melbourne plenary lectures, you will learn how a
changing world is leading us to adapt MR, whether it is the
challenge to redefine what a scanner looks and feels like as we
broaden MR’s scope across applications, across technologies, and
across continents, or it is the promise to scan faster than we had
ever thought possible as we embrace the powerful new theories of
compressed sensing. You will also learn how, as we adapt MRI, we
are changing the world. You will learn about the power of this
modality for assessing the microstructure of in-vivo tissue in
health and disease, how MRI is transforming our understanding and
treatment of psychiatric diseases, and how surgical treatment is
being radically changed under the guidance of an MR scanner.
We have two wonderful speakers giving our named lectures this year.
Vivian Lee, MD, Ph.D., M.B.A., Senior Vice President for Health
Sciences at the University of Utah, will deliver the Monday morning
Lauterbur lecture on “MRI: From Science to Society.” Paul Bottomley, PhD, Director of MR Research
at Johns Hopkins University, will deliver the Mansfield lecture on
Thursday morning, which will be an historic look at the Nobel
traditions that have shaped our field.
In the spirit of our theme, there will be a different feel of the
meeting this year, as we adapt our traditional meeting format. Our
goal is to increase the visibility and impact of traditional and
electronic posters, and promote the personal interactions that help
make this meeting so special. The study group meetings will be
taken out of the evenings and spread throughout the weekdays, housed
in a “study group lounge” area, in which all attendees can come and
enjoy a less structured setting, meeting and talking with others
with similar interests, and discover what is new and interesting.
As this will replace the evening study group meetings, we will make
the poster hall a fun place to be in the evenings. Other additions
will include white boards scattered throughout the hall to
facilitate discussions, and dedicated gathering times for some of
our larger contingents for whom English is a second language.
Another big change to the meeting will be “distributed poster
sessions”. Traditionally, each day has had two 2-hour slots with 10
parallel oral sessions (including educational sessions) and one
2-hour slot for poster viewing. This year we will distribute the
traditional and electronic poster sessions throughout the day,
clustering them by theme. Thus each of the three daily two-hour
“slots” will contain an e-poster session on a given theme (e.g.
cancer), a traditional poster session on a given theme (e.g. fMRI),
5-6 scientific sessions, 2-3 educational courses, and one or more
specific study group meetings. This more flexible and distributed
format will reduce content overlap, make it much easier to identify
when posters are to be presented, and help bring people with similar
interests together in the poster sessions. The reduced number of
e-poster presenters in each slot will also enable us to improve the
“browsability” of the e-posters. Please come with an open mind -
after the meeting, we’ll solicit feedback on how these changes
worked for you.
The Education program in Melbourne, under the direction of Garry
Gold, MD, is spread throughout the week, along with an intensive
program held on the opening weekend. Courses span across the
breadth of our field, and are targeted toward various levels of
expertise, from complete novices to advanced scholars. Many of the
popular courses will return, in addition to new courses such as
“Imaging in Nutrition (Neuro)”, “Comparative Effectiveness:
International Perspectives”, “Meet the Editors and the AMPC”, and a
mock grant review.
The new convention center is spectacular, with a great layout. For
breaks during and after the day’s meeting, its riverfront location
offers a beautiful place to unwind with colleagues. Melbourne is
also a fantastic city with lots of great restaurants, and is easy to
navigate by foot or tram. The south side of downtown meets the
Yarra river with an impressive waterfront packed with restaurants,
museums, shops, an aquarium, and even a casino. This waterfront
stretches from the convention center on one end to the very
beautiful Royal Botanical Gardens on the other. Afternoon ventures
can bring you to seaside beaches, Australian Rules football games,
regional wineries, and the Australian outback, complete with “mobs”
of kangaroos. You will find people happy to help you plan small or
large adventures on our website and in the exhibition hall at the
meeting. Finally, you are sure to encounter the well-known
Australian hospitality wherever you are.
Throughout the meeting, you will encounter the wonderful staff
members of our central office. Although we mostly only see them the
week of the meeting, they work tirelessly throughout the year to
make this meeting the incredible experience that it is. In my role
as AMPC chair, I have come to greatly appreciate their dedication
and professionalism. I believe we owe them a debt of gratitude for
the role they play in advancing this meeting, our field, and our
respective careers, and I encourage you to pass on a word of thanks
as you interact with them.
On behalf of the Annual Meeting Program Committee, I invite you to
come “Down Under” in May 2012 to Melbourne and the 20th Annual
Meeting of the ISMRM. Be part of the One Community combining
magnetism with imagination, adapting MRI to address a breadth of
illnesses and enable amazing scientific discovery. Watch, learn,
and participate, as we change the world together - you will be
mesmerized by what you see and hear.
Jim Pipe
Chair, Annual Meeting Program Committee |
