2015 CRUES KRESSEL AWARD

The Crues Kressel Award is for Outstanding Contributions to the
Education of Magnetic Resonance Technologists

Michael Kean, R.T., FSMRT

MRI Unit, Dept. of Medical Imaging
Royal Children's Hospital
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Michael Kean, R.T., FSMRT graduated from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) as a Radiographer in 1979 and commenced working at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) shortly thereafter. Through presentations at national and international Radiography conferences it became obvious that there was very little emphasis in pediatrics so in 1988 with the help of Graham Truman (Adelaide Children’s Hospital) Michael established the Australian and New Zealand Pediatric Imaging Conference that is conducted bi-annually, this year celebrating its 13th meeting. Michael’s love of pediatric imaging enabled him to work in undergraduate and postgraduate lecturing and tutoring of RMIT Radiography students.

In 1988 the wonderful new field of NMR Imaging was becoming a reality and looking for a new challenge Michael started scouring the literature reading everything he could on MR. In 1989 with the support of his department Michael was awarded the Rosemary Durham Traveling Scholarship which enabled him to travel to the US to study MR. In 1990 Michael travelled to many key North American MR sites including Tri Hospital MR in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Mallinckrodt Institute in St. Louis, Missouri; and Pittsburgh NMR in Pennsylvania. During this period Michael also completed the University of Pennsylvania MR course conducted by Candi Watson (Roth).

In 1990 Michael left RCH to establish the first 1.5T MR clinical system in Melbourne at St. Vincent’s Hospital and its was during the early 1990’s that Michael attended his first SMRT Meeting in San Francisco. This was a unique and challenging experience and once again highlighted the need to promote MR based educational opportunities for Radiographers. In 1991 Michael commenced the Victorian MR User Group meetings where MR Radiographers and Technologists, Radiologists, and visiting Physicists would present on a variety of topics. In 1994 Michael returned to RCH to establish their new MR service and a return to pediatric imaging. During this period in his MR career Michael worked closely with his vendor to develop strong ties between clinical and research MR applications, developing a strong cardiac, epilepsy, fMRI and fetal MR service. This enabled him to work with key MR researchers and visit the NIH Cardioenergetics Laboratory, complete the MGH Visiting fMRI course and develop links with early fMRI pioneers; the research bug had been firmly planted in his brain.

During these early years of evolving MR techniques it was becoming clear that the ability to dissipate this information to the MR Radiographers and Technologists was limited to general imaging conferences. In 1995, with the support of Greg Brown, Michael conducted the first Australian MR Radiographer and Technologist meeting; 100 registrants gathered to hear lectures on a broad range of topics.

In 1997 the next phase of the Australian New Zealand SMRT group was developed when Michael met with Anne Sawyer, SMRT president-elect, at the ISMRM Fast Imaging Workshop in Monterey.

In 1999, Michael and Greg conducted the ANZ meeting for MR Radiographers and Technologists in Christchurch, New Zealand. The first official meeting of the ANZ Chapter was held in 2001 when 120 MR Radiographers and Technologists gathered in Daylesford – the dream was a reality. The 2012 SMRT Annual meeting was held in Melbourne, a testament of how far MR education for MR Radiographers and Technologists in Australia and New Zealand had progressed.

Throughout his MR career Michael developed the course notes in Clinical MR Imaging for a post-graduate Masters Course, acted as an online tutor in MR Technique for postgraduate courses and in 2011was an invited reviewer of the MR course structure and content for an Australian University.

Working at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne (RCH) and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute has enabled Michael to further his interest in clinical, research and educational opportunities. Working with key research groups within Melbourne (Florey Institute, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre and Oxygen Youth Health) has enabled him to develop MR protocols for diverse research applications for human and animal protocols including 31P Spectroscopy and Lung Imaging as well as internationally recognised clinical imaging. In 2011 these research collaborations enabled him to complete the Siemens IDEA pulse sequence-programming course.

Michael served a 3-year term (1999-2002) as a SMRT Policy Board member and during that time it became obvious to him that the educational objectives of the SMRT were extremely important to continue ongoing support for Radiographers and Technologists worldwide. Michael continues to promote the goals of the SMRT through his involvement at many local and international SMRT meetings through invited presentations, abstract submissions and working on program committees. Michael continues to support the SMRT Home Studies program investigating and submitting articles for publication, acting as an Expert Reviewer, submitting questions for the required quizzes, and writing a Pediatric MR Safety article. In 2005 Michael was honoured with Fellowship of the SMRT. In 2007, Michael received the President’s Award at the SMRT Annual Meeting for the most outstanding abstract submitted: “Neonatal Brain Imaging at 3T.”

In 2012 Michael’s work in Pediatric MR was recognised with an invitation to speak at the Siemens Magnetom World Meeting and in 2014 invited to speak at the ISMRM Safety Workshop, a realization of many years of hard work.

A challenge recently has been to develop an MR Safety Program for the introduction of intra-operative MR into his hospital.

Michael’s MR educational goals are now focused on working with an MR vendor to develop pediatric imaging courses within South East Asia, which will also be a new opportunity to promote the SMRT.

Through his diverse areas of clinical and research expertise Michael has co-authored numerous articles in peer reviewed journals and presented papers at national and international meetings. These presentations are made either as an invited speaker or through proffered papers that include a diverse range of topics related to pediatric MR.

In recent years Michael has put a hold on his own educational goals to focus his attention on helping his two children complete their high school education and move on to university studies. He considers it a great honour to be nominated for such a prestigious award.