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The preparation of the upcoming Joint Annual Meeting ISMRM-ESMRMB was
already confronted with unexpected events, of which the most important
one was the transfer of the congress venue from Barcelona to Berlin.
Initially several members of the program committee were unhappy with the
decision of the Board to exchange the Mediterranean atmosphere of
Barcelona to a technical capitol like Berlin. But Berlin is more than
only a second choice for us: The exploding German capital, with unique
new and old architecture, offers a mixture of modern and traditional
art; it is a melting pot of various cultures; and it is another city
that never sleeps…
Even more important is the huge and flexible congress center, ICC
(International Congress Center) in the “Messe Berlin” area, which will
easily host the Joint Annual Meeting of the world’s two most important
MR societies. The ICC, reflecting the 1970’s and resembling a landed
UFO, contains many architectural surprises and is absolutely stylish
again today.
For the first time in 2007, the Annual Meeting Program
Committee (AMPC) works in its new constitution as a complete merger of
the Scientific and Educational Program Committees in order to improve
the coordination of both program blocks. A new tenure of the AMPC Chair
allows for improved continuity over the years, with Kim Butts, PhD,
incoming AMPC Chair for 2008 coordinating the educational initiatives in
2007.
Early this year the AMPC revised the abstract submission categories
aiming to better separate abstracts according to their clinical or basic
science content and to avoid redundancies. The focus was not to
facilitate the composition of the scientific meeting program but to
unambiguously
allocate topics to reviewers for better score comparability.
I am extremely happy to announce two outstanding Honorary Lecturers
for the Berlin 2007 meeting: Sir Peter Mansfield accepted the
invitation to give “his” honorary lecture, while the Lauterbur Lecture
will be held by Prof. Hedvig Hricak on Thursday. Around this, we
established a framework of Plenary Lectures on Neuro-Imaging,
Interventional Imaging, Control of Treatment Response,
Recent Developments in Signal Transmission and Reception, and on
Hybrid MR Systems. We are looking forward to excellent
presentations by leaders in their respective research fields,
interesting to both clinical and basic scientists.
It has always been a primary concern to attract clinicians by offering
unique Educational Activities. The educational program
spreads out through the entire week as in the previous Annual Meetings.
The weekend educational program consists of a huge variety in clinical
and technical education with up to nine parallel offerings. Thirteen
full weekend courses, six half-day weekend courses, 15 Clinical
Categoricals, and eight Morning Categoricals will meet the needs of
participants and reflect the comments from previous meetings. Beside
“standard” MRI topics, some new initiatives will be started, like
sessions on Multicenter Trials, Industrial Perspectives,
Socio-economic Issues, and Safety. Last year’s successful
program on “Unsolved Needs” will be continued in a slightly
different format than 2006. Also, the video captures of most lectures
will be continued since the hit-count demonstrates broad interest on
re-visiting the educational sessions via the Internet.
In 2007, more electronic posters will be displayed – since this
is the standard poster format at the ESMRMB Annual Meetings.
Nevertheless, standard posters will be exhibited in a large hall with
sufficient space for discussion rounds.
Also adopted from ESMRMB is the Hot Topic Debate, in which the
critical question: “MR is INCAPABLE for Clinical Molecular Imaging -
Yes or No?” will find its ultimate answer.
As a successor of the Sound and Vision contest as in 2006, we
would like to foster the artistic and humoristic sense of the MR
Community. Announced as “Art ‘n’ Artifacts,” we will promote a
*lighter* variant of a scientific poster exhibition for Berlin. All you
ever wanted to bring closer to an interested audience and, of course,
has at least some inherent connection to MR can be demonstrated as a
traditional poster or as an e-poster. One of the major central foyers
at the ICC will be reserved entirely for this event. Click
here for more information about this program.
The best
contribution(s) will be awarded with a “Magnetic Art Award” during the
Closing Ceremony. Therefore, find the artist in yourself and submit
your most spectacular MR Art ‘n’ Artifacts!
I am hoping that this short outline will increase your interest, and I
am looking forward to meeting you in Berlin, 19-25 May 2007. Let’s have
a record breaking Joint Annual Meeting of the ISMRM and the ESMRMB. |
